Landscape continuity has become a prominent concept in environmental and land use planning over the past forty years in Ontario and elsewhere. It is a core concept of the field of landscape ecology. However, it is also a concept which is regularly debated in land use planning processes, where individuals with opposing views and preferences invoke landscape continuity as an overt planning goal for which they strive. The concept is enshrined in regional policy and planning for two prominent Ontario landscapes, the Niagara Escarpment and the Oak Ridges Moraine, where the concept is a key concern prompting landscape planning disputes. This research considers the ways in which landscape continuity is socially constructed at three discursive scales: through published research, provincial land use planning provisions, and case studies of disputes at the Milton Quarry and in the town of Richmond Hill. The research finds that landscape continuity is to a large degree interpreted as a function of late capitalism and ecological modernization. Moreover, it is socially mediated in varying ways by object-oriented interpretations, concepts of "smart growth", perceptions of social order, aesthetics and intuition, and as a strategic means of combating the tide of industrial development and environmental despoliation on particular landscapes.
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