2. Built Environment
It includes everything that is built – building,
sewers, telephone cables, roads,
parks……..
It is a human intervention in the natural
physical world.
It is a place with different characteristics
and identities are created
Means to keep them functional and
interdependences are established.
4. Planning and Cities
Anti-urban position ?
Increased urbanisation alienates people
from nature which lends to “the adoption of
environmentally unsustainable habits”
(McMichael 1993).
Present day:
◦ Very large cities are generally seen as
inherently unsustainable.
5. Economic & Other concerns
Unbalanced settlement pattern can undermine
the overall efficiency of the national economy
Land rental/ property market, land costs, labour
costs, infrastructure extension/ maintenance,
stress, noise, air pollution, etc.;
Increased traffic congestion, journey time;
Reduced vehicle fuel efficiency, more noise,
more concentrated air pollution;
Poverty – city size may exacerbate the problem
(magnitude and concentration)
6. Environmental concerns
Environmental degradation is generally thought
to increase with city size.
Larger cities are more dependent on external
ecosystems because:
◦ consumption rates per capita rises (e.g. water)
◦ internal capacity for food and energy
production is reduced due to rising land
values (conversion of agricultural land at
periphery and reduction in urban agriculture)
◦ environmental resilience thresholds crossed
by over-concentration of pollution.
8. Social concerns
Crime rates (real/ perceived)
Loss of community, sense of personal and
locational identity
Locational disadvantage - accessibility
9. Large Size Cities: Positive
Features
“Without cities there could have been no real
civilisation” (Bairoch 1988 in H&H)
Size provides critical mass to support various
levels of functional specialisation in:
◦ health care, education, social and cultural
facilities, retailing, etc.
Large cities provide a combination of various
dynamics and vibrancy that can lead to :
◦ innovation (knowledge economy?)
◦ cultural initiatives
10. Towards Sustainable Development
Historically, there has been a strong
environmental dimension to planning policy
◦ Reaction to the outcomes of environmental
degradation in 18th cent. Factory Towns
◦ Birth of the Town Planning Profession - Planners
awarded powers to control and regulate
development
Current debate on City size/ form is framed in
environmental, economic and social terms.
15. Development and Environment
Facts:
Economic development is needed to satisfy
human needs.
Economic development activities may be
harmful to the environment.
Concern for vulnerability of environment
We may not be able to meet our needs or not
be able to maintain a minimum acceptable
quality of life.
World Conservation Strategy (IUCN 1980).
16. What’s need to think?
In planning terms,
To conserve nature/ land
To conserve energy, especially from non-
renewable resources
To minimise waste, manage waste
Main areas – urban form; transport network
Urban form- urban consolidation, urban
compaction
Growth boundaries? Greenfield/ brownfield
development ratio?
17. Impact of Urban Form
Housing affordability
◦ land supply and building/construction
Social Justice
◦ access to services and facilities
Environmental Sustainability
◦ energy and resource use
Economic Efficiency
◦ resource allocation, effects on production and
distribution
18. Evaluating Urban Form: Criteria
Social Justice - equity, equality, access,
participation, impact on disadvantaged
groups.
Environmental Sustainability - use of
resources and natural capital, waste
disposal and pollution, risk, uncertainty and
reversibility of actions.
Liveability - variety, diversity, choice,
robustness and flexibility, quality of life.
Economic values - efficiency, balance of
public and private sector roles, housing
affordability.
19. Sustainability for Planners
Planning involves
◦ decision-making, generating options,
consensus building, establishing
regulations and controls
All aspects of Planning should be
guided by SD
◦ Local Agenda 21, Rio Earth Summit 1992
22. Key findings in
Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council
(ASBEC) Report
Urban centres will become more transport-intensive
and less transport efficient
Transport is forecast to be slower
Transport outcomes are likely to deteriorate
Transport GHG emissions are projected to rise in
the studied urban centres
Transport GHG emissions from within urban
Australia are projected to rise substantially
The need for mobility costs time and harms the
environment
23. If you look at the transport..
Why do we travel?
How can we make it more efficient?
26. Road supply
(length of road per
person)
CBD parking spots
per 1000 persons
% of work trips
on public transport
Perth: 10.7m pp
Melbourne: 7.7m pp
Sydney: 6.2m pp
Australian avg: 8.3m pp
USA avg: 6.9m pp
European avg: 2.4m pp
Perth: 631
Australian avg: 489
USA avg: 468
European avg: 238
Perth: 9.7%
Melbourne: 15.9%
Sydney: 25%
Australian avg: 14.5%
USA avg: 9%
European avg: 39%
Our dependence on the motor car
This high level of car dependency costs us
environmentally, socially and economically
Source: Alannah MacTiernan
27. Environmental Concerns
Green house gases
◦ Ozone Depletion
◦ Global Warming
water vapour, CO2, methane, nitrous oxides
Major contributors
◦ automobile dependence
exhaust fumes – CO2, nitrogen oxide
◦ solid waste disposal
landfill sites - methane
Also:
◦ noise pollution
traffic, road construction
◦ water pollution
impervious surface (road) increases stormwater runoff
carries pollutants (tyre rubber, oil drips, etc.) from
roads into natural streams
28. Automobile dependence and
sustainability
Planning needs to consider the basic relationship
between:
◦ Transport - Accessibility - Environment
Accessibility to Transport
◦ Need to relate housing and employment to public
transport infrastructure
Planning Strategy/ Current approach
◦ Urban consolidation / Urban compaction
urban growth boundaries – no green field
development, or
prioritise in-fill development/ brown field sites
over greenfield
◦ Public transport network
29. Some SD initiatives in WA:
Network City
Network City:
◦ Activity Centres
◦ Activity Corridors
◦ Transport Corridors
40% - 60% Greenfield + Infill projects
targets
Investments in Public Transport
infrastructure + TravelSmart;
Promoting TODs
Liveable Neighbourhoods
30. MAJOR ELEMENTS
•Activity centres:
• a range of activities
encouraged at these
locations
•Activity corridors:
• they provide
connections between
activity centres with a
variety of land uses that
support public transport
•Transport corridors:
• routes for higher speed
through traffic
32. A precinct plan is
being prepared to
integrate the rly
station and the
surrounding area
(South Perth /
Melville)
•to develop the
precinct as
activity centre in
the context of
Network City
•to promote TOD
(transit oriented
development)
principles.
Canning
Bridge
train
station
precinct
33. Regional Planning and
Sustainability
Regional Planning takes on SD approach
◦ SSS: State Sustainability Strategy
◦ EIA Requirements
Triple Bottom Line Reporting
◦ Must consider plans/ policies w.r.t. economic,
social and environmental performance (costs
and benefits)
◦ Triple? – Quadruple ?– add one …
◦ governance, democracy/ public participation,
culture, ethical commitment, spirituality
34. Governance example:
Corporate Sustainability Reporting
WA is promoting ‘corporate sustainability reporting’
(voluntary) initiatives by large corporations
CSR - Corporate social responsibility reporting
◦ a tool used to communicate information about the
company to shareholders, customers, investors
◦ expanding statutory financial reporting - to include
report on social and environmental performance
◦ taken up by BHP, WMC, etc.
36. Quartier Vauban, Germany
Restricted car use and ownership
To date, 40 percent of households
have chosen to live car-free.
Those with cars park in garages at the
edge of town
Tramway on main street
Streets are shared spaces primarily
designed for people, not cars.
37. Parking Policy
Ban parking on private property.
Cars only allowed in to drop off
“grannies and groceries”.
On-street parking is only allowed on
the main street
38. The new parking law
Residents opting to live car-free sign a
declaration and join the Car-free Life
Club.
Membership fee is used to purchase a
parcel of reserve land used for sports
field or community garden etc. - but
that could be converted to parking
◦ If a member later wishes to buy a car,
s/he can pay for it and ask the Club to
build a garage.
39. Livable Streets design
Traffic Calming concepts in the
Vauban include ‘shared space’ and
very slow speed limits.
30 km/h Zone on all streets
Play Streets
Narrow street pavements.
Bicycle Street – one-way streets for
cars.
Pedestrian-only paths
40. Liveable Neighbourhoods
A set of principles to create:
a built environment
◦ diversity of land use and population,
◦ scales – pedestrian, automobile and mass transit…
◦ public realm
a fine-grained mixed use town
◦ neighbourhood centres
◦ higher density housing ….
a highly-interconnected street network,
◦ traffic management for safety and comfort
◦ inter-modal transport - pedestrians, cyclists and transit-users
sustainable growth management
◦ applied at the regional, as well as local scale
41. Liveable Neighbourhoods promotes
neighbourhood design:
◦ that favours pedestrians and cyclists
◦ that provides interconnected streets for
better public transport accessibility
◦ that caters to various modes of transport
in a balanced way
rather than catering disproportionately to the
mobility needs of car users.
Liveable Neighbourhoods
42. Transport Integration
Concept of pedsheds - walkable
catchment defined by the 400m radius
Shared street space - managed traffic
friction
43. Transport infrastructure provision
A major shift in the approach
Traditional view:
◦ catering to the demand for traffic generated by
development
Current view:
◦ managing (and reducing) the demand for travel to
access facilities.
Realisation:
◦ the ‘predict and provide’ approach has not worked for
50 years
◦ resulted in increased dominance of the private car.
44. Proposal by Australian Sustainable Built
Environment Council
Reduce the car dependency
Reducing the need for mobility
Compact cities – i.e. Rejection of a single function cities –
residential cities
Altering the morphology of cities – increasing urban
density is only one part of the solution, with employment
density, access to lower-emitting transport modes and
alternative urban forms, such as ‘corridor cities’, providing
answers
Urban lifestyle issues: need to take a broader view of
sustainability, urban lifestyles and liveability. While
households in inner city areas consume less transport energy,
they also consume more of other services that raise GHG
emissions than households in suburban and rural areas
45. Built environment
Six interrelated components
Products, interiors, structures, landscapes,
cities and regions.
The large components are buildings and
infrastructure. It includes interior spaces
such as paint, carpet, furniture, and lighting
fixtures which create a space and ambience
for human activity.
46. Interesting Statistics
We spent 85% of our time indoors
Large material required to construct, operate, and
maintain a building has important consequences for
engineers.
Buildings generally uses approximately;
◦ one-third of the total energy,
◦ two-thirds of electricity,
◦ one-eighth of the water and
◦ transform land that provides valuable ecological services.
◦ In US 2-3% land is utilised for built environment but that
has affected the ecosystem in 60% of land.
Buildings account for 40% of global raw material
use.
Buildings should be one of the focal points if we
want sustainability gains.
