ABSTRACT
The first two chapters in this book aim to establish a framework for adopting a resource management approach to planning the countryside. It is clearly necessary at the outset to define our terms of reference, and so this chapter focusses specifically on different approaches to defining the term ‘rural’, and to isolating the main components of ‘the rural system’. Whilst many of the examples quoted refer to the United Kingdom, the framework is intended to be international in orientation, so that examples – particularly from the United States and Europe – are included in subsequent chapters.
