Urban planning

Analysis and Comment (37)

Qmmqn2vt-1364431824
There’s a bright future for the inner suburbs. It’s just common sense that inner city living is more sustainable. Flickr/Gary Denness

Let’s settle this: inner city living is more sustainable

By Robert Nelson, Monash University

There’s plenty of debate over the future of sustainable urban planning. Is it outer suburban sprawl that’s unsustainable, or is it high-density inner city living that’s at fault? Brendan Gleeson recently…
Cykzx4hr-1363316147
China’s fast-track urbanisation doesn’t have to be unsustainable. Flickr/dcmaster

China’s cities get eco-smart, what can Australia learn?

By Steffen Lehmann, University of South Australia

China is urbanising faster than any other country in history. It now has 120 cities with over one million people and 36 cities with over two million. By 2030 there will be one billion people living in…
Sv8p6ktd-1362031102
Urban expansion is driving people further out, and it’s unsustainable. www.shutterstock.com

The grass isn’t greener in the outer ‘burbs

By Robert Nelson, Monash University

For a long a time real estate close to the palace was socially desirable, and anyone with aspirations didn’t want to know about the rest. Today in Melbourne inner-city people are embarrassed to reveal…
Xjbwvbnm-1361849868
In modern cities, the ratio of “landscape” to “hardscape” is all out of whack. Roger Gordon

Is there room for nature in our cities?

By Peter Fisher, RMIT University and D Trainham, RMIT University

Welcome to the CBD. Take a look at all the glass masonry and asphalt. The streets are canyons. Apart from a tree in the footpath, or a Peregrine Falcon way overhead, there’s little nature to be seen…
Xt2t375p-1353390152
Planning new developments for sustainability should reflect the evidence. Fernando de Sousa

Good intentions not enough: do your sums on urban sustainability

By Hector Malano, University of Melbourne and Brian Davidson, University of Melbourne

It is not surprising that there is plenty of debate about making urban development more sustainable. However, like much of the debate on sustainability in general, there is little or no attempt to define…
8tnq9jmc-1349916107
Urban development in coastal Australia brings people closer to mosquito habitats while often also creating new wetlands. Webb, Medical Entomology

Using urban planning to reduce mosquito-borne disease

By Cameron Webb

There are many ways to prevent mosquito-borne diseases – insecticides to kill mosquitoes, vaccines to prevent infection and healthy doses of insect repellent before heading off for fishing trips. But while…
5tmh2pb7-1350954421
London bike share has proved more successful than schemes in Australia, but focusing on infrastructure could help improve sharing here. cat1788/Flickr

Fixing Australian bike share goes beyond helmet laws

By Elliot Fishman, Queensland University of Technology

Bike share programs in Melbourne and Brisbane were much heralded by the governments that installed them. But they’ve proved far less popular than schemes overseas. Is Australian bike share doomed? Since…
M7wr5d9f-1353389639
Overshadowed by private interests: Barangaroo’s current design essentially privatises the shoreline. AAP/Supplied

Barangaroo: Development interests counter the public interest

By Helen Westerman, The Conversation and Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation

In 2006, Philip Thalis was part of the team which won an international design competition to revitalise Barangaroo. Three years later, the government abandoned their approved plan, opting instead for…
Fb38vj4f-1351143554
Dealing with the law is intimidating, now Queensland wants to make it more expensive as well. Martin Howard

Scales of justice tipping against the community in Queensland

By Kat Grigg and Chris McGrath

The cost of litigation is a barbed wire fence that stops many people using our court system. This fence becomes a towering barrier when people are trying to protect not their private interests, but something…
7kmzxp9p-1347345959
Australian cities spread and spread; if new suburbs are to succeed, they need flexibility. Peter Mares

Tomorrow’s suburbs: building flexible neighbourhoods

By Jane-Frances Kelly, Grattan Institute and Peter Breadon, Grattan Institute

Australian cities are growing fast – and fastest at the fringe. Streets, houses, parks and shops are appearing where recently all was paddocks and cows. A new house is completed in an urban growth area…
Whzzwtvf-1345783337
Suburban development makes new homes for humans, but leaves koalas with nowhere to go. Darryl Jones

Koala Cul-de-sac? Development a dead end for wildlife

By Darryl Jones, Griffith University

It’s obviously feel-good, family-friendly marketing, but the brutal reality is those “Sugar Glider Road”, “Wallaby Close” and “Fairy Wren Circuit” street signs are almost certainly memorials for absent…
Dxmsbqbj-1340681969
It’s a nice place for a house, but where will you put the strawberry farm? Chip_2904/Flickr

Will Sydney or Melbourne have more hungry people in 2036?

By Jonathan Sobels, University of South Australia

The Victorian Planning Minister, Matthew Guy, recently announced an urban expansion for Melbourne: 5,958 hectares of new suburbs and transport corridors. But he didn’t mention the implicit costs of changing…
S33zhy7v-1340259936
More people live in cities than ever before. We can’t solve problems of sustainability and health without fixing them. Bill Hertha

Rio+20: Human health, wellbeing and survival depend on the future of cities

By Anthony Capon, University of Canberra

The secretary-general of the United Nations’ (first) Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Maurice Strong, famously declared that if our planet is to remain a hospitable and sustainable home for the human species…
Vqd87htn-1340057559
The price we pay for water should reflect what it costs to deliver. But does it? Bronwyn Quilliam

Manipulating water prices: why your bill is going up

By Lin Crase, La Trobe University and Nicholas Pawsey, La Trobe University

The revelation that water users in Melbourne have been over-charged to the tune of $300 million highlights deficiencies in the mechanics of setting water prices in that state. Unfortunately, the flaws…
Vb4mrcqp-1339132001
Want value for public money? Build bike infrastructure. Brisbane City Council

Cutting cycling funding is economic non-sense

By Jan Garrard, Deakin University

In the current climate of economic uncertainty and fiscal restraint, governments are quick to reassure us that they are making every effort to “do more with less”. Providing mobility for citizens in Australia…
Vktjpvw5-1338421999
In the groundhog daze of globalising suburbia, the idea of a new beginning sounds infernally remote. Melissa Gray

Not beyond imagining: songlines for a new world

By Brendan Gleeson, University of Melbourne

WHAT IS AUSTRALIA FOR? Australia is no longer small, remote or isolated. It’s time to ask What Is Australia For?, and to acknowledge the wealth of resources we have beyond mining. Over the next two weeks…
7ds9z28q-1337842421
A nice drop: we have the technology to recycle water to drinking quality, but have we the will? Flickr/chantel beam photography

Recycled drinking water: what Australians need to know

By Prasanthi Hagare, University of Technology, Sydney

Our conventional water supply system that continually captures and delivers water is under great strain because of an increase in population, rapid urbanisation, and drastic changes in climate and rainfall…
Xzypqqh4-1335850657
Serious, interconnected risks are closing in on the globalised community, from climate change to anarchy. Are we heeding the warnings? AAP/EPA/Daniel Deme

Highway to dystopia: time to wise up to the looming risks

By John Crawford

In that world of peripheral vision, essential for business, social and political leaders, it is surprising that the World Economic Forum’s report, Global Risks 2012 has not received greater publicity or…
Q5v6ymqd-1334712948
Take the offer: sharing cuts waste and builds communities but we have our reasons for not always being comfortable with it. Flickr/Zervas

Sharing: if it’s so good, why don’t we do more of it?

By Millie Rooney, University of Tasmania

Sharing is a good thing right? We are told it is good for the environment by cutting waste and needless consumption; we encourage it in our children for their moral growth; we see it used in advertising…
T2rcw5pr-1324339310
A White Shark feeds on a whale carcass off a Perth metropolitan beach in 2009. This was happening before Homo Sapiens existed. AAP/Channel10

Sharks in the city: Getting to know the neighbours

By Christopher Neff

The vast majority of Australians live in coastal cities. This means most of us have sharks as neighbours. Living alongside sharks in metropolitan cities in Australia requires urban resilience. Unlike…
Sfd7vvgt-1323648955
Bigger houses (on the left) – not smaller lots – are killing the Aussie backyard. Tony Hall

What has happened to the great Aussie backyard?

By Tony Hall, Griffith University

Welcome to Safe as Houses, a series delving into a topic close to the heart of many Australians – property. This is not a series on where the market might be heading. Instead we aim to explore how we view…
Pzcpdv4t-1324008777
To make roads flow better, we need traffic lights to be more efficient. sinkdd

Going places: why better traffic lights make better sense

By Jan De Gier, University of Melbourne and Tim Garoni, Monash University

If you’ve ever been caught in a traffic jam – and who hasn’t? – you’ll know Australia’s urban road networks are fast approaching full capacity. With the holiday season not far away, traffic jams and road…
B485082a671669a1-1323129886-1323135210
Sir Rod Eddington: unless the rail networks are right, Australia’s cities won’t work properly. Supplied

Sir Rod Eddington: ‘The infrastructure challenges are real’

By Peter Newman, Curtin University

Welcome to In Conversation; an ongoing series in which leading academics interview prominent public figures. In today’s instalment, Dr Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University, sits…
Highrise_eugene
Is Australia going down the East Asian high-rise route? eugene

The carbon devil in the detail on urban density

By Jago Dodson, Griffith University

How dense could we be? Very, if you follow much of the commentary in Australian debates about the way we should plan our cities. High-rise residential developments have been springing up in all Australia…
Gold_coast_dazza17-1319600685
South-east Queensland now has a 200km long city. dazza17-DJ

Colliding cities: have our cities slipped their metro moorings?

By Wendy Steele, Griffith University

Despite the emphasis in Australia on the “compact city” foreshadowed in every major strategic metropolitan plan such as the South East Queensland Regional Plan; there is a growing trend towards “colliding…
Mikael_colville-andersen
Sydney has a lot to learn when it comes to cycling culture. Mikael Colville Andersen

Why Sydney’s cycling culture needs an overseas influence

By Emma Barnes, University of Technology, Sydney and Nicole Gardner, University of Technology, Sydney

CYCLING IN AUSTRALIA: There are many reasons cycling should be actively encouraged in our cities: increasing fuel prices, obesity levels and environmental concerns, just to name a few. Yet in comparison…
Joe_castro_aap
In a changing climate, urban water planning needs to be more flexible. Joe Castro/AAP

Water we waiting for? The unfinished business of water reform

By Philip Wallis, Monash University

The National Water Commission released its Third Biennial Assessment of the 2004 National Water Initiative (NWI) in September. The NWI is an agreement between all state and territory governments and federal…
Woonerf_la_citta_vita
How do you improve road safety? Simple: make it riskier. La Citta Vita

Sharing streets: is the answer to get naked?

By Lee Stickells

In August, Liberal MP Peter Phelps delivered a passionate rant in the NSW Upper House in which he called traffic lights a “Bolshevist menace”. He argued that traffic lights are on par with state repression…
Alice5-1306388341
Alice Springs' many faces: the intervention, tourism, grog – and a housing crisis.

How Alice tackles its housing crisis now will shape its future

By Tarsha Finney, University of Technology, Sydney

Each year for the last three years, I’ve taken a group of architecture students to Alice Springs for a 10-day urban design workshop. I first found myself in this city during Desert Mob – the annual sale…
Lagos_crowds_for_lahoud
Choked: Lagos crumbles under the weight of its population. AAP/Pius Utomi Ekpei

Urban trauma: Why we need to rethink our cities

By Adrian Lahoud, University of Technology, Sydney

We are entering an era of massive population transfer – a rural exodus of unprecedented proportions. In Asia and Africa farmers and peasants are being lured to mega-cities. This brings myriad benefits…
Aapone-20030721000010433754-paddington-original
Building away from our cities could ease congestion in urban areas. AAP

Escape from Sydney: planning the way out of congestion

By Nicole Gurran

Bashing planning has become a national sport, and in NSW, we’re the best at it. Stuck in traffic? Blame the planners. Housing stress? Planners are too slow and too stingy with land release. In the perception…

Research and News (1)

Research Briefs (9)

City shadows reveal its energy flow

FEYCT – Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology

By calculating the amount of solar radiation reaching streets and buildings, researchers could help optimise the way energy…

Participants (169)