Planning and Urban Form

In the face of global challenges such as urbanization, poverty, and climate change, cities need land policies and tools that can be implemented across boundaries, over long time frames, and under conditions of increasing uncertainty. The Department of Planning and Urban Form addresses major global challenges with its work in the following three programmatic areas:

Land Conservation Programs

The Lincoln Institute’s leadership in the land conservation community began in 1981, when it convened a group of conservation leaders including Kingsbury Browne, who identified the need for a network of land trusts – an idea that led to the formation of the Land Trust Exchange, now known as the Land Trust Alliance. The Alliance has become a driving force in the private land conservation community in the United States; connections to the Lincoln Institute persist through programs such as the Kingsbury Browne Fellowship. The Institute cemented its commitment to land conservation when it:

• convened the 2014 National Workshop on Large Landscape Conservation,
• began restoration work along the Colorado River in the United States and Mexico,
• formed the International Land Conservation Network,
• and mobilized academic institutions in the formation of Academics for Land Protection in New England (ALPINE).

Intermountain West Programs

The Lincoln Institute works to promote smart growth and land conservation in the Intermountain West – a U.S. region characterized by the collision of rapid growth and the increasing effects of climate change: drought, flooding, and wildfire. Through partnerships with organizations such as the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy (CNREP) at the University of Montana, the Institute fosters cross boundary, multi-stakeholder, and multi-issue approaches to land policy and land conservation, such as the Crown of the Continent Roundtable. This work also focuses on capacity-building for practitioners, with such projects as the Practitioners Network for Large Landscape Conservation.