Evaluating sustainability of urban development and its contribution to a knowledge-base development

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to discuss the components of urban sustainability as to their implications about knowledge-base economy and society Design/methodology/approach – An indexing model which can be used by the local government specifically in Australia is presented to generate sustainable urban development policies. The model consists of sustainable neighbourhood indicators and employs a spatial indexing method to measure the sustainability performance of the urban settings Originality/value – This methodology puts in evidence about the use of indexing methodology in the assessment of sustainable neighbourhood performance Practical implications – This model could be considered as a practical decision aid tool for local government planning agencies for the evaluation of development scenarios Keywords – knowledge-based urban development, sustainable urban development, sustainable transport, sustainability assessment Paper type – Academic Research Paper

Sustainable urban infrastructure management : integration of urban computer modelling

Purpose - This paper seeks to examine the complex relationships between urban planning, infrastructure management, sustainable urban development, and to illustrate why there is an urgent need for local governments to develop a robust planning support system which integrates with advance urban computer modelling tools to facilitate better infrastructure management and improve knowledge sharing between the community, urban planners, engineers and decision makers. Design/methodology/approach - The methods used in this paper includes literature review and practical project case observations. Originality/value - This paper provides an insight of how the Brisbane's planning support system established by Brisbane City Council has significantly improved the effectiveness of urban planning, infrastructure management and community engagement through better knowledge management processes. Practical implications - This paper presents a practical framework for setting up a functional planning support system within local government. The integration of the Brisbane Urban Growth model, Virtual Brisbane and the Brisbane Economic Activity Monitoring (BEAM) database have proven initially successful to provide a dynamic platform to assist elected officials, planners and engineers to understand the limitations of the local environment, its urban systems and the planning implications on a city. With the Brisbane's planning support system, planners and decision makers are able to provide better planning outcomes, policy and infrastructure that adequately address the local needs and achieve sustainable spatial forms.

The development of urban river corridors in Malaysia

Malaysian urban river corridors are facing major physical transformations in the 21st century. The effects of rapid development exacerbated by the competition between two key industry sectors, commercial base and tourism development in conjunction with urbanisation and industrialisation, have posted a high demand for the uses of these spaces. The political scenario and lack on consideration of ecological principles in its design solution have sparked stiff environmental and cultural constraint towards its landscape character as well as the ecological system. Therefore, a holistic approach towards improving the landscape design processes is extremely necessary to protect values of these places. Limited research has been carried out and further has created an urgent need to explore better ways to improve the landscape design processes of Malaysian urban river corridor developments that encompass the needs and aspirations of its multi-ethnic society without making any drastic changes to the landscape character of the rivers. This paper provides a brief introduction to address this significant gap and hence serves to contribute to the literature review.

Spatial Sciences Student Awards Recognition : News from School of Urban Development, QUT

Summary of Spatial Sciences (Surveying) Student Prize Ceremony were recently held at The Old Government House - QUT Cultural Precinct. This short industry article briefly outlines the 15 student award descriptions and some photos of 2011 recipients and thanks industry sponsors.

Water sensitive urban design through the lens of urban metabolism

Stormwater pollution has been recognised as one of the main causes of aquatic ecosystem degradation and poses a significant threat to both the goal of ecological sustainable development as well as human health and wellbeing. In response, water sensitive urban design (WSUD) practices have been put forward as a strategy to mitigate the detrimental impacts of urban stormwater runoff quality and to safeguard ecosystem functions. However, despite studies that support its efficiency in urban stormwater management, the mainstreaming of WSUD remains a significant challenge. This paper proposes that viewing WSUD through the lens of the integrated urban metabolism framework which encourages an interdisciplinary approach and facilitates dialogue through knowledge transfer is a strategy in which the implementation of WSUD can be mainstreamed.

Impact of urban traffic and climate change on water quality from road runoff

Urban traffic and climate change are two phenomena that have the potential to degrade urban water quality by influencing the build-up and wash-off of pollutants, respectively. However, limited knowledge has made it difficult to establish any link between pollutant buildup and wash-off under such dynamic conditions. In order to safeguard urban water quality, adaptive water quality mitigation measures are required. In this research, pollutant build-up and wash-off have been investigated from a dynamic point of view which incorporated the impacts of changed urban traffic as well as changes in the rainfall characteristics induced by climate change. The study has developed a dynamic object classification system and thereby, conceptualised the study of pollutant build-up and wash-off under future changes in urban traffic and rainfall characteristics. This study has also characterised the buildup and wash-off processes of traffic generated heavy metals, volatile, semi-volatile and non-volatile hydrocarbons under dynamic conditions which enables the development of adaptive mitigation measures for water quality. Additionally, predictive frameworks for the build-up and wash-off of some pollutants have also been developed.

Health status and use of health services among recently arrived men with refugee backgrounds: A comparative analysis of urban and regional settlement in South-east Queensland

Approximately one-third of refugee and humanitarian entrants to Australia are adult men. Many of these men and their families settle in regional areas. Little is known about the health status of refugee men and the use of health services, and whether or not there are differences between those living in urban and regional areas. This paper reports on the cross-sectional differences in health status and use of health services among a group of 233 recently arrived refugee men living in urban and regional areas of South-east Queensland. Overall, participants reported good levels of subjective health status, moderate to good levels of well-being, and low prevalence of mental illness. Men living in urban areas were more likely to have a longstanding illness and report poorer health status than those settled in regional areas. In contrast, men living in regional areas reported poorer levels of well-being in the environment domain and were more likely to visit hospital emergency departments. Targeted health promotion programs will ensure that refugee men remain healthy and develop their full potential as members of the Australian community. Programs that facilitate refugees’ access to primary health care in regional areas may promote more appropriate use of hospital emergency departments by these communities.

Sections of the city : architecturalising the tools of urban morphology

The study of urban morphology has become an expanding field of research within the architectural discipline, providing theories to be used as tools in the understanding and design of urban landscapes from the past, the present and into the future. Drawing upon contemporary architectural design theory, this investigation reveals what a sectional analysis of an urban landscape can add to the existing research methods within this field. This paper conducts an enquiry into the use of the section as a tool for urban morphological analysis. Following the methodology of the British school of urban morphology, sections through the urban fabric of the case study city of Brisbane are compared. The results are categorised to depict changes in scale, components and utilisation throughout various timeframes. The key findings illustrate how the section, when read in conjunction with the plan can be used to interpret changes to urban form and the relationship that this has to the quality of the urban environment in the contemporary city.

The use of CCTV to police public spaces : a case of big brother or big friend?

This paper considers the role of CCTV (closed circuit television) in the surveillance, policing and control of public space in urban and rural locations, specifically in relation to the use of public space by young people. The use of CCTV technology in public spaces is now an established and largely uncontested feature of everyday life in a number of countries and the assertion that they are essentially there for the protection of law abiding and consuming citizens has broadly gone unchallenged. With little or no debate in the U.K. to critique the claims made by the burgeoning security industry that CCTV protects people in the form of a ‘Big Friend’, the state at both central and local levels has endorsed the installation of CCTV apparatus across the nation. Some areas assert in their promotional material that the centre of the shopping and leisure zone is fully surveilled by cameras in order to reassure visitors that their personal safety is a matter of civic concern, with even small towns and villages expending monies on sophisticated and expensive to maintain camera systems. It is within a context of monitoring, recording and control procedures that young people’s use of public space is constructed as a threat to social order, in need of surveillance and exclusion which forms a major and contemporary feature in shaping thinking about urban and rural working class young people in the U.K. As Loader (1996) notes, young people’s claims on public space rarely gain legitimacy if ‘colliding’ with those of local residents, and Davis (1990) describes the increasing ‘militarization and destruction of public space’, while Jacobs (1965) asserts that full participation in the ‘daily life of urban streets’ is essential to the development of young people and beneficial for all who live in an area. This paper challenges the uncritical acceptance of widespread use of CCTV and identifies its oppressive and malevolent potential in forming a ‘surveillance gaze’ over young people (adapting Foucault’s ‘clinical gaze’c. 1973) which can jeopardise mental health and well being in coping with the ‘metropolis’, after Simmel, (1964).

Rejuvenating lost and disused space within Fortitude Valley : a study into the effectiveness of urban greenery in subtropical public space

An issue gaining prominence in our urban environments in the notion of lost space, the undesirable urban areas that are in need of redesign, commonly caused by a focus on development as individual architectural entities, without a greater view of the urban environment as a holistic entity. Within the context of South East Queensland, the suburb of Fortitude Valley has been earmarked for development as an extension of the current CBD. With lost and disused spaces already existing throughout the suburb due to rapid growth and mismatched developments, recent planning regimes have proposed rejuvenation in the form of proposals that echo typologies from other Australian regions, such as the laneway typology from Melbourne. Opportunities exist in these spaces for design approaches that relate specifically to the individual and unique subtropical character of the area. This research explores the relationship between innovative approaches towards urban greenery as a means to rejuvenate lost and disused public space, and its suitability within a subtropical climate, specifically focused within the suburb of Fortitude Valley. A trend gaining prominence is the notion of biophilic cities; cities that integrate urban greenery as a means to provide vibrant public spaces, and meet the growing aesthetic, social, cultural and economic needs of our cities. Through analysis of case studies showcasing greenery in an inventive way, observations of public using subtropical public space, and a discussion of the current policy frameworks at place within Fortitude Valley, innovative uses of urban greenery is proposed as viable placemaking technique in subtropical urban environments.

Hybrid place : blurring the edge between the digital and physical layers of urban environments

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the edge condition between the digital layers and the physical layers of the city and how tangible expressions of the interrelationships between them to create and define new experiences of place, creating hybrid place. To date there has been discussion and investigation into understanding the importance of place, similarly into defining hybrid space. This paper explores principles of place and space to question how they can be applied into defining and proposing the notion of hybrid place in urban environments. The integration of media spaces into architecture provide infrastructure for the development of hybrid place. The physical boundaries of urban spaces become blurred through the integration of media such as computer technologies connecting the physical environment with the digital. Literature and case studies that reflect the current trends of use of technology by people in space and place within urban environments are examined.

Environmental sustainability of urban road transport : an integrated analysis for life cycle emission impact

Despite of significant contributions of urban road transport to global economy and society, it is one of the largest sources of local and global emission impact. In order to address the environmental concerns of urban road transport it is imperative to achieve a holistic understanding of contributory factors causing emissions which requires a complete look onto its whole life cycle. Previous studies were mainly based on segmental views which mostly studied environmental impacts of individual transport modes and very few considered impacts other than operational phase. This study develops an integrated life cycle inventory model for urban road transport emissions from a holistic modal perspective. Singapore case was used to demonstrate the model. Results show that total life cycle greenhouse gas emission from Singapore’s road transport sector is 7.8 million tons per year. The total amount of criteria air pollutants are also estimated in this study.

Respiratory illness during winter : a cohort study of urban children from temperate Australia

Objective: To examine the epidemiology and burden of respiratory illness during winter in urban children from temperate Australia. Methods: We conducted a cohort study of healthy Melbourne children, aged from 12 to 71 months. Parents kept a daily respiratory symptom diary and recorded resource use when an influenza-like illness (ILI) occurred. Results: One-hundred and eighteen children had 137 ILI episodes over 12 weeks for a rate of 0.53 ILI episodes per child-month (95% CI 0.44-0.61). Risk factors for ILI included younger age, fewer people residing in the household, structured exposure to other children outside the home, and a higher household income. Episodes had a mean duration of 10.4 days with 64 visits to a general practitioner (46.7 GP visits per 100 episodes), 27 antibiotic courses prescribed (19.7 antibiotic courses per 100 episodes), and three overnight hospitalizations (2.2 admissions per 100 episodes). Parents reported an average of 11.7 h excess time spent caring for a child per episode. Conclusions: Respiratory illnesses are a common and largely neglected cause of illness in Australian children. Pathogen-specific data are required to better assess the likely impact of available and developing vaccines and other treatment options.

Urban acupuncture: Hybrid social and technological practices for hyperlocal placemaking

This paper considers an emerging planning practice that uses networked connections to interact with urban places and re-create enlivened cities. The paper presents “urban acupuncture” as a new planning approach that broadens communication and strategically targets interventions across the city. Defined as an approach, which, through the use of digital social networks and interactions, involves citizens and planners in place activations in order to stimulate and reinvigorate place, thus creating meaningful relationships between citizens and their urban settings. This paper uses the UR[BNE] Brisbane Festival 2012 as a qualitative case study of urban acupuncture, best defined as a hyper-localized healing treatment through place activation to enliven and recreate cities. It examines the challenges faced and opportunities embraced by a network of urban professionals. Their aim was to activate the underused urban spaces of central Brisbane through the festival's activities and events. The findings identify the key elements required to design public spaces using socially and technologically networked interactions.