A planning support system for airport city development

Many airports around the world are diversifying their land use strategies to integrate non-aeronautical development. These airports embrace the “airport city” concept to develop a wide range of commercial and light industrial land uses to support airport revenues. The consequences of this changing urban form are profound for both airport and municipal planners alike and present numerous challenges with regard to integration of airport and regional planning. While several tools exist for regional planning and airport operational planning, no holistic airport landside and regional planning tool exist. What is required is a planning support system that can integrate the sometimes conflicting stakeholder interests into one common goal for the airport and the surrounding region. This paper presents a planning support system and evaluates its application to a case study involving Brisbane Airport and the South East Queensland region in Australia.

Land use planning and the airport metropolis

Australian airports have emerged as important urban activity centres over the past decade as a result of privatisation. A range of reciprocal airport and regional impacts now pose considerable challenges for both airport operation and the surrounding urban and regional environment. The airport can no longer be managed solely as a specialised transport entity in isolation from the metropolis that it serves. In 2007 a multidisciplinary Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP 0775225) was funded to investigate the changing role of airports in Australia. This thesis is but one component of this collaborative research effort. Here the issues surrounding the policy and practice of airport and regional land use planning are explored, analysed and detailed. This research, for the first time, assembles a distinct progression of the wider social, economic, technological and environmental roles of the airport within the Australian airport literature from 1914 – 2011. It recognises that while the list of airport and regional impacts has grown through time, treatment within practice and the literature has largely remained highly specialised and contained within disciplinary paradigms. The first publication of the thesis (Chapter 2) acknowledges that the changing role of airports demands the establishment of new models of airport planning and development. It argues that practice and research requires a better understanding of the reciprocal impacts of airports and their urban catchments. The second publication (Chapter 3) highlights that there is ad hoc examination and media attention of high profile airport and regional conflict, but little empirical analysis or understanding of the extent to which all privatised Australian airports are intending to develop. The conceptual and methodological significance of this research is the development of a national land use classification system for on-airport development. This paper establishes the extent of on-airport development in Australia, providing insight into the changing land use and economic roles of privatised airports. The third publication (Chapter 4) details new and significant interdependencies for airport and regional development in consideration of the progression of airports as activity centres. Here the model of an ‘airport metropolis’ is offered as an organising device and theoretical contribution for comprehending the complexity and planning of airport and regional development. It delivers a conceptual framework for both research and policy, which acknowledges the reciprocal impacts of economic development, land use, infrastructure and governance ‘interfaces’. In a timely and significant concurrence with this research the Australian Government announced and delivered a National Aviation Policy Review (2008 – 2009). As such the fourth publication (Chapter 5) focuses on the airport and urban planning aspects of the review. This paper also highlights the overall policy intention of facilitating broader airport and regional collaborative processes. This communicative turn in airport policy is significant in light of the communicative theoretical framework of the thesis. The fifth paper of the thesis (Chapter 6) examines three Australian case studies (Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra) to detail the context of airport and regional land use planning and to apply the airport metropolis model as a framework for research. Through the use of Land Use Forums, over 120 airport and regional stakeholders are brought together to detail their perspectives and interactions with airport and regional land use planning. An inductive thematic analysis of the results identifies three significant themes which contribute to the fragmentation of airport and regional and land use planning: 1) inadequate coordination and disjointed decision-making; 2) current legislative and policy frameworks; and 3) competing stakeholder priorities and interests. Building on this new knowledge, Chapter 7 details the perceptions of airport and local, state and territory government stakeholders to land use relationships, processes and outcomes. A series of semi-structured interviews are undertaken in each of the case studies to inform this research. The potential implications for ongoing communicative practice are discussed in conclusion. The following thesis represents an incremental and cumulative research process which delivers new knowledge for the practical understanding and research interpretation of airport and regional land use planning practice and policy. It has developed and applied a robust conceptual framework which delivers significant direction for all stakeholders to better comprehend the relevance of airports in the urban character and design of our cities.

Land use conflict across the airport fence : competing urban policy, planning and priority in Australia

Land use planning within and surrounding privatised Australian capital city airports is a fragmented process as a result of: current legislative and policy frameworks; competing stakeholder priorities and interests; and inadequate coordination and disjointed decision-making. Three Australian case studies are examined to detail the context of airport and regional land use planning. Stakeholder Land Use Forums within each case study have served to inform the procedural dynamics and relationships between airport and regional land use decision-making. This article identifies significant themes and stakeholder perspectives regarding on-airport development and broader urban land use policy and planning. First, it outlines the concept of the “airport city” and examines the model of airport and regional “interfaces.” Then, it details the policy context that differentiates on-airport land use planning from planning within the surrounding region. The article then analyses the results of the Land Use Forums identifying key themes within the shared and reciprocal interfaces of governance, environment, economic development and infrastructure. The article concludes by detailing the implications of this research to broader urban planning and highlights the core issues contributing to the fragmentation of airport and regional land use planning policy.

Sustainable urban development : an integrated framework for urban planning and development

Sustainable development has long been promoted as the best answer to the world’s environmental problems. This term has generated mass appeal as it implies that both the development of the built environment and its associated resource consumption can be achieved without jeopardising the natural environment. In the urban context, sustainability issues have been reflected in the promotion of sustainable urban development, which emphasises the sensible exploitation of scarce natural resources for urbanisation in a manner that allows future generations to repeat the process. This chapter highlights attempts to promote sustainable urban development through an integration of three important considerations: planning, development and the ecosystem. It highlights the fact that spatial planning processes were traditionally driven by economic and social objectives, and rarely involved promoting the sustainability agenda to achieve a sustainable urban future. As a result, rapid urbanisation has created a variety of pressures on the ecosystem upon which we rely. It is believed that the integration of the urban planning and development processes within the limitations of the ecosystem, monitored by a sustainability assessment mechanism, would offer a better approach to maintaining sustainable resource use without compromising urban development.

Analysis of build-up of heavy metals and volatile organics on urban roads in Gold Coast, Australia

Urban water quality can be significantly impaired by the build-up of pollutants such as heavy metals and volatile organics on urban road surfaces due to vehicular traffic. Any control strategy for the mitigation of traffic related build-up of heavy metals and volatile organic pollutants should be based on the knowledge of their build-up processes. In the study discussed in this paper, the outcomes of a detailed experiment investigation into build-up processes of heavy metals and volatile organics are presented. It was found that traffic parameters such as average daily traffic, volume over capacity ratio and surface texture depth had similar strong correlations with the build-up of heavy metals and volatile organics. Multicriteria decision analyses revealed that the 1 - 74 um particulate fraction of total suspended solids (TSS) could be regarded as a surrogate indicator for particulate heavy metals in build-up and this same fraction of total organic carbon could be regarded as a surrogate indicator for particulate volatile organics build-up. In terms of pollutants affinity, TSS was found to be the predominant parameter for particulate heavy metals build-up and total dissolved solids was found to be the predominant parameter for he potential dissolved particulate fraction in heavy metals build-up. It was also found that land use did not play a significant role in the build-up of traffic generated heavy metals and volatile organics.

Collaborative destination branding : planning for tourism development through design in the Waterfall Way, NSW, Australia

This thesis develops, applies and analyses a collaborative design methodology for branding a tourism destination. The area between the Northern Tablelands and the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, was used as a case study for this research. The study applies theoretical concepts of systems thinking and complexity to the real world, and tests the use of design as a social tool to engage multiple stakeholders in planning. In this research I acknowledge that places (and destinations) are socially constructed through people's interactions with their physical and social environments. This study explores a methodology that is explicit about the uncertainties of the destination’s system, and that helps to elicit knowledge and system trends. The collective design process used the creation of brand concepts, elements and strategies as instruments to directly engage stakeholders in the process of reflecting about their places and the issues related to tourism activity in the region. The methods applied included individual conversations and collaborative design sessions to elicit knowledge from local stakeholders. Concept maps were used to register and interpret information released throughout the process. An important aspect of the methodology was to bring together different stakeholder groups and translate the information into a common language that was understandable by all participants. This work helped release significant information as to what kind of tourism activity local stakeholders are prepared to receive and support. It also helped the emergence of a more unified regional identity. The outcomes delivered by the project (brand, communication material and strategies) were of high quality and in line with the desires and expectation of the local hosts. The process also reinforced local sense of pride, belonging and conservation. Furthermore, interaction between participants from different parts of the region triggered some self organising activity around the brand they created together. A major contribution of the present work is the articulation of an inclusive methodology to facilitate the involvement of locals into the decision-making process related to tourism planning. Of particular significance is the focus on the social construction of meaning in and through design, showing that design exercises can have significant social impact – not only on the final product, but also on the realities of the people involved in the creative process.

Sustainable urban development : an integrated framework for urban planning and development

Sustainable development has long been promoted as the best answer to the world’s environmental problems. This term has generated mass appeal as it implies that both the development of the built environment and its associated resource consumption can be achieved without jeopardising the natural environment. In the urban context, sustainability issues have been reflected in the promotion of sustainable urban development, which emphasises the sensible exploitation of scarce natural resources for urbanisation in a manner that allows future generations to repeat the process. This chapter highlights attempts to promote sustainable urban development through an integration of three important considerations: planning, development and the ecosystem. It highlights the fact that spatial planning processes were traditionally driven by economic and social objectives, and rarely involved promoting the sustainability agenda to achieve a sustainable urban future. As a result, rapid urbanisation has created a variety of pressures on the ecosystem upon which we rely. It is believed that the integration of the urban planning and development processes within the limitations of the ecosystem, monitored by a sustainability assessment mechanism, would offer a better approach to maintaining sustainable resource use without compromising urban development.

Developing a sustainability impact assessment framework for local urban planning

In order to meet the land use and infrastructure needs of the community with the additional challenges posed by climate change and a global recession, it is essential that Queensland local governments test their proposed integrated land use and infrastructure plans to ensure the maximum achievement of triple-bottom line sus-tainability goals. Extensive regulatory impact assessment systems are in place at the Australian and state government levels to substantiate and test policy and legislative proposals, however no such requirement has been extended to the local government level. This paper contends that with the devolution of responsibility to local government and growing impacts of local government planning and development assessment activities, impact assessment of regulatory planning instruments is appropriate and overdue. This is particularly so in the Queensland context where local governments manage metropolitan and regional scale responsibilities and their planning schemes under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 integrate land use and infrastructure planning to direct development rights, the spatial allocation of land, and infrastructure investment. It is critical that urban planners have access to fit-for-purpose impact assessment frameworks which support this challenging task and address the important relationship between local planning and sustainable urban development. This paper uses two examples of sustainability impact assessment and a case study from the Queensland local urban planning context to build an argument and potential starting point for impact assessment in local planning processes.

Residential Differentiation, Housing Policy and Urban Planning in the Transformation from State Socialism to a Market Economy: The Case of Tallinn

The thesis examines urban issues arising from the transformation from state socialism to a market economy. The main topics are residential differentiation, i.e., uneven spatial distribution of social groups across urban residential areas, and the effects of housing policy and town planning on urban development. The case study is development in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, in the context of development of Central and Eastern European cities under and after socialism. The main body of the thesis consists of four separately published refereed articles. The research question that brings the articles together is how the residential (socio-spatial) pattern of cities developed during the state socialist period and how and why that pattern has changed since the transformation to a market economy began. The first article reviews the literature on residential differentiation in Budapest, Prague, Tallinn and Warsaw under state socialism from the viewpoint of the role of housing policy in the processes of residential differentiation at various stages of the socialist era. The paper shows how the socialist housing provision system produced socio-occupational residential differentiation directly and indirectly and it describes how the residential patterns of these cities developed. The second article is critical of oversimplified accounts of rapid reorganisation of the overall socio-spatial pattern of post-socialist cities and of claims that residential mobility has had a straightforward role in it. The Tallinn case study, consisting of an analysis of the distribution of socio-economic groups across eight city districts and over four housing types in 1999 as well as examining the role of residential mobility in differentiation during the 1990s, provides contrasting evidence. The third article analyses the role and effects of housing policies in Tallinn s residential differentiation. The focus is on contemporary post-privatisation housing-policy measures and their effects. The article shows that the Estonian housing policies do not even aim to reduce, prevent or slow down the harmful effects of the considerable income disparities that are manifest in housing inequality and residential differentiation. The fourth article examines the development of Tallinn s urban planning system 1991-2004 from the viewpoint of what means it has provided the city with to intervene in urban development and how the city has used these tools. The paper finds that despite some recent progress in planning, its role in guiding where and how the city actually developed has so far been limited. Tallinn s urban development is rather initiated and driven by private agents seeking profit from their investment in land. The thesis includes original empirical research in the three articles that analyse development since socialism. The second article employs quantitative data and methods, primarily index calculation, whereas the third and the fourth ones draw from a survey of policy documents combined with interviews with key informants. Keywords: residential differentiation, housing policy, urban planning, post-socialist transformation, Estonia, Tallinn

Urban planning issues related to the development of rail freight

Este trabalho é o relatório de estágio profissional realizado numa companhia francesa de arquitetura, especializado no planeamento urbano, que se-­‐chama AREP. O trabalho desenvolvido teve como objectivo identificar os problemas dos transportes de mercadorias e de logística nas áreas urbanas e da intervenção do planeamento urbano para a mitigação daqueles problemas. Os transportes urbanos de mercadorias são uma prioridade para a definição de políticas num mundo cada vez mais urbanizado. As áreas urbanas necessitam cada vez mais da entrega e recolha de grandes quantidades de mercadorias, resultando na procura de com custos externos elevados e a degradação da qualidade de vida dos residentes. Em 2012, a OECD estimava que as atividades ligadas ao transporte de mercadorias iriam crescer entre 50% e 130% entre 2010 e 2050 nos países da daquela organização. Nos países que não fazem parte da OECD estimava que as atividades iriam crescer entre 250% e 550% durante o mesmo período. Com os problemas já existentes e com o crescimento que está previsto, é importante encontrar soluções que limitem os custos externos e que se encontrem alternativas mais sustentáveis. Tradicionalmente, os formuladores de políticas urbanas tendem a ver os transportes de mercadorias nas áreas urbanas como um problema, em vez de os considerar como um componente essencial do desenvolvimento urbano. Em consequência disso, as políticas implementadas foram desenvolvidas no sentido da restrição na atividade de distribuição de mercadorias. Ao mesmo tempo, os operadores de transporte têm continuado a desenvolver a sua função adequando-­‐se às condições impostas com maiores níveis de eficiência. No entanto, este sucesso tem tido muitos custos externos negativos para a economia, a sociedade e o ambiente. Por isso, os transportes urbanos de mercadorias encontram-­‐se numa tensão constante entre uma logística eficiente e um desenvolvimento urbano sustentável. Hoje, os decisores políticos começam a alterar a perspectiva sobre a intervenção sobre a circulação de transportes de mercadorias, atendendo à sua importância para a economia urbana e, simultaneamente, à necessidade de reduzir os impactes negativos associados ao transporte de mercadorias. Um dos desafios principais é o de compatibilizar as atividades logísticas e os transportes de mercadorias e a preservação das áreas urbanas, minimizando os impactes, garantindo uma boa qualidade de vida para os residentes. Trata-­‐se de um assunto complexo pelos diferentes atores com interesses muitas das vezes conflituantes. A conciliação dos interesses constitui um dos problemas, nomeadamente nas soluções de curto prazo. O espaço disponível para os transportes e as atividades de comércio e serviços emáreas urbanas é limitado. Existe uma grande concorrência sobre o uso do solo urbano entre os diferentes atores.. A necessidade de espaço, conduz a que o sector da logística saía das cidades e se instale nas suas periferias. Esta tendência chama-­‐se ‘logistic sprawl’ e tem vários efeitos negativos, por exemplo, o facto de os veículos terem de percorrer maiores distâncias para os seus clientes nas áreas urbanas. Ao mesmo tempo, os residentes, como consumidores, exigem ter uma grande variedade de produtos disponíveis, esquecendo que para isso há a necessidade de os transportar para e dentro da cidade. Quando as políticas de transportes de passageiros em áreas urbanas se tem vindo a concentrar na alteração modal, do transporte em automóvel para os transportes públicos, ou para a utilização da bicicleta ou a marcha a pé, as políticas de transportes de mercadorias devem igualmente potenciar a utilização de transportes alternativos mais sustentáveis do que o transporte em veículos de mercadorias com motores de combustão interna. Hoje em dia, 75% de todos os transportes de mercadorias por via terrestre a distâncias médias ou longas (mais de 50km), são realizados por via rodoviária. A distâncias mais reduzidas (last mile) essa percentagem é de quase 100%. Estes valores não são compatíveis com um desenvolvimento sustentável. O esforço desenvolvido no sentido da promoção dos modos mais sustentáveis, como a ferrovia e a utilização das vias navegáveis, têm encontrado a oposição das empresas de transporte de mercadorias pois a rodovia é mais flexível (entrega porta-­‐a-­‐porta), com reduzidos custos de utilização de infraestrutura e com custos-­‐fixos mais baixos. Uma cooperação integrada e holística entre os diferentes níveis de governação do território é fundamental, sendo desejável uma maior cooperação entre o sector público e privado. As medidas a implementar têm que ter em conta os problemas a curto e longo prazo. Uma grande variedade de medidas (de regulação, de gestão da infraestrutura, de gestão e ordenamento do território, de promoção e de informação, etc.) têm que ser implementadas e coordenadas em conjunto com o sector privado. As medidas isoladas não resolverão os problemas de transporte de mercadorias na cidade, por isso, o desafio é o de implementar um pacote de medidas diferentes que contribua para uma distribuição das mercadorias mais sustentável, tornando as cidades mais habitáveis. Neste relatório, são discutidas e analisadas as diferentes medidas que podem ser implementadas pelos distintos níveis de governança, incluindo a apresentação de alguns case-­‐studies.

Appeal to the Universities for the development of Teaching and Research in the areas of Urban Planning in the CPLP countries

Work document prepared at the Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias in its role as Consulting Observer attributed by the Council of Ministers of the CPLP gathered in Bissau for the 11th General Meeting on 16. and 17. July, 2006.

"Ever-growing Amman", Jordan: Urban expansion, social polarisation and contemporary urban planning issues

Amman the primate capital city of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan currently has a population in excess of 2 million, but in 1924 it consisted of little more than a collection of dwellings and some 2000-3000 inhabitants. The present paper sets out to document and explain the phenomenal expansion of "ever-growing Amman". The physical geography of the urban region and the early growth of the city are considered at the outset and this leads directly to consideration of the highly polarised social structuring that characterises contemporary Amman. In doing this, original data derived from the recent Greater Amman Municipality's Geographical Information System are presented. In this respect, the essential modernity of the city is exemplified. The employment and industrial bases of the city and a range of pressing contemporary issues are then considered, including transport and congestion, the provision of urban water under conditions of water stress and privatisation, and urban and regional development planning for the city. The paper concludes by emphasizing the growing regional and international geopolitical salience of the city of Amman at the start of the 21st century. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new urban planning code's impact on walking: The residential environments project

Objectives. We examined whether people moving into a housing development designed according to a state government livable neighborhoods subdivision code engage in more walking than do people who move to other types of developments.

Methods. In a natural experiment of 1813 people building homes in 73 new housing developments in Perth, Western Australia, we surveyed participants before and then 12 and 36 months after moving. We measured self-reported walking using the Neighborhood Physical Activity Questionnaire and collected perceptions of the environment and self-selection factors. We calculated objective measures of the built environment using a Geographic Information System.

Results. After relocation, participants in livable versus conventional developments had greater street connectivity, residential density, land use mix, and access to destinations and more positive perceptions of their neighborhood (all P < .05). However, there were no significant differences in walking over time by type of development (P > .05).

Conclusions. Implementation of the Livable Neighborhoods Guidelines produced more supportive environments; however, the level of intervention was insufficient to encourage more walking. Evaluations of new urban planning policies need to incorporate longer term follow-up to allow time for new neighborhoods to develop.