Topocide

Name(s): 
Destruction of a sense of place
Destruction of meaningful sites
Nature

Topocide is the deliberate alteration or destruction of a locale through industrial expansion and change, so that its original landscape and character are destroyed. Topocide can be the result of deliberate industrial expansion, as when industries form, then the people's center of life revolves around that industry. New jobs are formed and the environmental and cultural landscape is forever changed.

A related term is Domicide (from Latin domus, meaning home or abode, and caedo, meaning deliberate killing) the destruction of home; the two may be viewed as synonyms or they may be opposed, with topocide referring to destruction from the point of view of the perpetrator(s) and domicide from the perspective of those affected. In a human rights context, domicide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of housing and basic infrastructure, making an area uninhabitable. The concept of domicide originated in the 1970s, but only assumed its present meaning in 2022, after a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing. Historical examples of domicide include the destruction of Dresden at the end of World War II, the Khmer Rouge's destruction in Cambodia, and the destruction of Gaza in the Israel-Hamas War. Experts have argued that international law should be amended to consider domicide a war crime.

Source: Wikipedia

Claim 
Technocrats tend to initiate process resulting in the destruction of a sense of place and of meaningful relationships to place. Their desacralized, rational view of the world reduces places to mere commodities; their planning procedures often take too little or not count of the importance of developing a sense of place. Municipal zoning laws are exclusionary, restricting people's choices in house design, numbers of occupants and the location of family businesses.
Aggravates 
Type 
(F) Fuzzy exceptional problems