Planning at both urban and regional level in Australia exhibits several common features, shaped largely by the same challenges and managed by similar responses.
Urban planning in Australia has a significant role to play in ensuring the future sustainability of Australian cities.
Population and urbanization:
Australia is one of the most highly urbanised societies in the world. Urbanization is occurring not only in the capital cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane etc but also in coastal areas within 2-3 hours of commutable distance from city centre. This has lead to formation of an exurban belt that is facilitated by transport improvements and technological change such as the internet. Such continued population growth in Australian cities is placing increasing pressure on infrastructure, such as public transport and roadways, energy, air and water systems within the urban environment.
Planning challenges: For Planners, the expanding human settlement and land use bring a range of specific challenges, such as housing people, creating employment and providing physical and social infrastructure while minimizing potential land-use conflicts and environmental impacts.
Governance and management:
Urban planning is undertaken at all levels of Government in Australia. However, the Federal Government is playing an increasing part in setting policy as part of an overall response to developing climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. The local government has also been
City of Sydney. (2011). Pyrmont - About the profile areas. Retrieved 24th May, 2016, from http://profile.id.com.au/sydney/about?WebID=240
The Greater Sydney Metropolitan Region (GSMR) is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. Its wide-ranging spatial articulation extends from Wollongong in
Located north of Sydney, in the state of Queensland, the urban population of Brisbane was 1.1 million with a population density of 1200 persons/km2 (Table 3). Given the significant decrease in population, Brisbane was categorised as a low density, medium population city. Similar to Sydney, the large urban sprawl of Greater Brisbane was limited to the inner city and the north, east and south residential areas. Hence, as depicted in Figure 4, outer lying towns including Ipswich were excluded from the study. The corresponding weather stations were ideally located, with two stations residing in central Brisbane and Brisbane Airport. Although weather stations in airports are usually categorised as rural, the growth infrastructure around the area
2. Explain your understanding of the role of planning and zoning. (limit to 500 words or less)
What is the impact of unsustainable practices in the development of new cities like Canberra on Global Systems? (Draw on any experiences from your own background)
Urban consolidation refers to a diverse set of policies intended to make more efficient use of the existing urbanised areas instead of developing non-urbanised land, thus limiting urban sprawl. The recent publication of the Melbourne 2030 plan indicates that Melbourne is adopting an urban consolidated direction for further development. This has raised many debates over whether it is the right plan. There are two sides to this complex argument. People in favorite suggests that urban consolidation offers a range of solutions to pressing urban problems socially and environmentally, for example it reduces car use and provide better access to facilities, whilst the other point of view argues that urban consolidation has its limits in terms of
As children we were asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. I remember giving the rather un-realistic answer of "superstar" at the time. I struggled with finding a path that suited me for awhile; however now that I am older and have a better understanding of the world, I have the answer to what I want to be, and that is an urban planner. According to the American Planning Association (American Planning Association, 2013), "Planning, also called urban planning or city and regional planning, is a dynamic profession that works to improve the welfare of people and their
The 1950s, especially in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, is often described as a time of complacency as it was after the Second World War and people were sure there could be noting worse that could happen and they were slowly adjusting to post-war life. In contrast, the 1960s were a time of great change and activity. These changes include cultural, social, political and economic changes. These changes started in Britain and the United, and they then spread to the rest of the world after some time. Urban planning as a profession has also been affected by the cultural, social, political and economic changes that affected the world in the 1960s and as such it responded in a particular way to these changes.
The Sydney Metro Northwest or North West Rail Link falls under the issue of Land and Water Management. The aim of this Research Action Plan (RAP) is to investigate the implications of the North West Rail Link on the residents of the Hills District by focusing on 3 main aspects: their thoughts on this project, the advantages as well as disadvantages for them.
Perth has one of the fastest-growing urban populations in Australia and it is projected to more than double to 4.3 million people by 2056. If the city continues the same pattern of low-density sprawl, it could spell disaster for this globally important stronghold for nature.
Low density development and urban sprawl, together with automobile dependency are the factors contributing to global warming. Unfortunately, low density development remains the fastest growing land use in Australia. It consists of homes located on large block of lands. This paper has argued that this pattern of development is unsustainable because it requires significant amount of energy to sustain. The low-density design of Australian cities, together with the large-scale infrastructure for managing resources are key drivers to the environmental problems facing Australia and the principal reasons behind Australia’s exceptionally large per capita carbon and ecological footprints ( Rauland and Newman 2011). In order to decarbonise our cities,
The Tragedy of Planning: Losing the Great Australian Dream. Pinnacle Print Group. Thornbury. Retrieved from; https://ipa.org.au/library/MORANPlanning2006.pdf
The ambiguous nature of the term “planning”, as it relates to land use, is historically tied to the practice of zoning. Zoning in the US came about in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to protect the interests of property owners. The practice was found to be constitutionally sound by the Supreme Court decision of Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co.in 1926. Soon after, the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act gave authority to the states to regulate land use. Even so, the practice remains controversial today. The figure below shows the timeline of the evolution of land use planning which has undergone a paradigm shift from being focused to economics to a more holistic one, which now covers economy, environment and socio- economic. Each
New Urbanism, a burgeoning genre of architecture and city planning, is a movement that has come about only in the past decade. This movement is a response to the proliferation of conventional suburban development (CSD), the most popular form of suburban expansion that has taken place since World War II. Wrote Robert Steuteville, "Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, CSD spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even as population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for nearly all human transportation"1. New Urbanism, therefore, represents the converse of this planning ideology. It stresses traditional planning, including multi-purpose zoning,
The garden city movement, a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard, had a significant influence on urban planning. The theory of urban planning has envolved over the past hundred years, some have attempted to emulate theories from the garden city movement, while others have been revised based on Howard’s original ideas. The Garden City concept spawned many ideas of urban planning. Among these ideas, the Garden Suburb, Satellite City, the New Towns Movement and the New Urbanism are all significant theories in the history of urban planning and had their influence to this day. The integration of town and country, the separation of conflicting land uses and modes of travel, and the ideas of growth management are all elements of the Garden City concept that have made made their ways into plans of most major Western cities.