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…
More people live in cities than ever before. We can’t solve problems of sustainability and health without fixing them.
Bill Hertha
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…
We know where to head next to build more sustainable cities.
Anders Hoff
Over the weekend, local leaders from around the world gathered together in Belo Horizonte, an hour’s flight from Rio de Janeiro at the ICLEI World Congress. The aim was to galvanise their case for a decade…
The price we pay for water should reflect what it costs to deliver. But does it?
Bronwyn Quilliam
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…
Want value for public money? Build bike infrastructure.
Brisbane City Council
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’s…
In the groundhog daze of globalising suburbia, the idea of a new beginning sounds infernally remote.
Melissa Gray
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…
A nice drop: we have the technology to recycle water to drinking quality, but have we the will?
Flickr/chantel beam photography
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…
Excessive siltation in Tasmania’s Tamar River has been directly linked to human-induced changes in the tidal system and will…
Serious, interconnected risks are closing in on the globalised community, from climate change to anarchy. Are we heeding the warnings?
AAP/EPA/Daniel Deme
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…
In Victoria, only 10 out of 463 usable gigalitres of stormwater is used per year.
Chesapeake Bay Program
Over the past decade, Australians living in capital cities have dramatically reduced their consumption of water from centralised reservoir systems. This has been achieved through the installation of water…
Take the offer: sharing cuts waste and builds communities but we have our reasons for not always being comfortable with it.
Flickr/Zervas
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…
Swanston Street in Melbourne is an example of urban design that brings people together.
AAP/Julian Smith
Isolation and loneliness pose an increasing threat to the health of Australians, many of whom are cut off from friends and locals by ill-conceived urban design, a report has warned. Social Cities, produced…
A White Shark feeds on a whale carcass off a Perth metropolitan beach in 2009. This was happening before Homo Sapiens existed.
AAP/Channel10
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 birds…
Bigger houses (on the left) - not smaller lots - are killing the Aussie backyard.
Tony Hall
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…
To make roads flow better, we need traffic lights to be more efficient.
sinkdd
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…
Sir Rod Eddington: unless the rail networks are right, Australia’s cities won’t work properly.
Supplied
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…
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’s…