Greater Amman: metropolitan growth and scenarios for sustainable urban development

This paper reviews the development of Greater Amman, Jordan noting that the vast urban expansion that has occurred over the last fifty years has led to the desertification of rare fertile lands, following the fragmented and scattered territorial expansion of the city. The future scenario for planning in Greater Amman is analyzed in respect of proposals outlined in the Metropolitan Growth Plan of 2008, which assumes a rapid population growth from 2,200,000 persons in 2006, to approximately 6,500,000 by 2025. The concentration of more than 39 per cent of the national population of Jordan in Greater Amman threatens the transformation of former distinct settlement pattern into a distinctive continuous urban zone, aggravating problems of infrastructural provision, water needs, agricultural lands, and leaving unresolved problems of land inflation, poor urban standards and housing shortages. In conclusion, the environmental implications of the Amman Metropolitan Growth Plan are analysed, and it is suggested that an alternative approach is needed, based on clear principles of sustainable urban development.

Acoustic Design in Urban Development : analysis of urban soundscapes and acoustic ecology research in New York City

The world is urbanizing rapidly with more than half of the global population now living in cities. Improving urban environments for the well-being of the increasing number of urban citizens is becoming one of the most important challenges of the 21st century. Even though it is common that city planners have visions of a ’good urban milieu’, those visions are concerning visual aesthetics or practical matters. The qualitative perspective of sound, such as sonic diversity and acoustic ecology are neglected aspects in architectural design. Urban planners and politicians are therefore largely unaware of the importance of sounds for the intrinsic quality of a place. Whenever environmental acoustics is on the agenda, the topic is noise abatement or noise legislation – a quantitative attenuation of sounds. Some architects may involve acoustical aspects in their work but sound design or acoustic design has yet to develop to a distinct discipline and be incorporated in urban planning.My aim was to investigate to what extent the urban soundscape is likely to improve if modern architectural techniques merge with principles of acoustics. This is an important, yet unexplored, research area. My study explores and analyses the acoustical aspects in urban development and includes interviews with practitioners in the field of urban acoustics, situated in New York City. My conclusion is that to achieve a better understanding of the human living conditions in mega-cities, there is a need to include sonic components into the holistic sense of urban development.

The dying town syndrome : a survey of urban development in the Western District of Victoria,1890-1930

The experience of urban settlement in the Western District of Victoria suggests that the pattern of growth and decline in small towns is tied to the pattern of land use. This, in turn, is determined by the economic and technological factors which influence farm management and practices. At times, these factors have encouraged urban development and small towns have flourished. For the most part, however, these forces have not been conducive to sustaining long-term growth and prosperity and small towns, have been trapped in a cycle of growth and decline.

Impact of a fragmented regulatory environment on sustainable urban development design management

The building project development approval proces is increasingly complex and farught with conflict due to the rise of the sustainable urban development movement and inclusive decision making.  Coupled with this, government decision-making decentralisation has resulted in a fragmented and over-regulated compliance sytem.  Problems arising from the process include wated resources, excessive time delays, increased holding and litigation costs, inadequate planning coorindation, high lelves of advocacy costs and a divisive a politicised approval prcess.

A conceptual multi-criteria mechanism for stakeholder participation in urban development

Australia is one of the world’s most urbanised nations, with 74.92% of the population living in 17 major cities of 100,000 people or more. To improve the productivity, liveability and sustainability of Australia’s cities, there is an increasing emphasis in urban management policies on democratic stakeholder participation. In order to obtain a full picture of stakeholders’ concerns efficiently, and manage antagonism, prejudice and conflicts between stakeholders effectively, it is important for participatory decision-making in urban development to be able to select and integrate stakeholder analysis and engagement methods. This paper investigates the characteristics of stakeholder participation approaches in urban development, and proposes criteria for approach selection and integration. The outcome is a multi-criteria mechanism for selecting and integrating approaches to stakeholder participation. This could enable effective, efficient and democratic participation in decision-making process of urban development. Meanwhile, the capacity of Australian state, territory and local governments can be largely enhanced to understand and unpack the complex challenges of urban-ecological conditions, and generate a compromise solution that best represents the preferences of stakeholders.

Stakeholder analysis in urban development : the application of stakeholder circle methodology and social network analysis

The increasing research interest on stakeholder analysis in urban planning reflects a growing recognition that stakeholders can and should influence the decision-making. This paper concentrates on exploring the techniques for analysing stakeholders, especially the application of the Stakeholder Circle tool and Social Network Analysis. An urban renewal project and an infrastructure project in Australia are presented as case studies to verify the use of these two techniques. The stakeholders are identified and prioritized from two different points of view, namely, the attribute evaluations in the Stakeholder Circle tool, and the relationship network analysis. The paper ends with a discussion on the strengths and limitations of the techniques for stakeholder analysis. No method for stakeholder identification and prioritization is perfect. The selection of the approaches is an art with extensive considerations of ‘when, what, and how’ to choose methods to achieve the project objectives. Each method has its own strengths and limitations. Combining several methods when necessary is the best way to analyse stakeholders.

Home based business in suburban peripheral regions and government policy: a case study of Casey, Melbourne, Australia

Home based businesses (HBB) are increasingly becoming an alternative to salaried employment. This research explores the potential for HBB to contribute significantly to the economic development of peripheral metropolitan centres. Without economic development, these centres remain dormitory suburbs with unresolved associated social and ecological issues. By mapping the diversity and limitations of HBB in the City of Casey, an outer suburban peripheral area of Melbourne, Australia, this study aims to evaluate what exists and the response by governments at all levels to further business development. This study finds that the role of government is restricted to broad initial start-ups, with no programs or support for the type of innovative HBB that need to be husbanded and encouraged to grow outside of the narrow confines of their home base.