Environment And Planning

Winner of the Planning Institute of Australia's 2015 Cutting Edge Research and Teaching Award! Australians from all walks of life have begun to realise the nation’s cities cannot sustain profligate growth indefinitely. Dwindling water supplies, failing food bowls, increased energy costs, more severe bushfires, severe storms, flooding, coastal erosion, rising transport expenses, housing shortages and environmental pollution are now daily news headlines. Australia’s cities may have reached their ecological limits: a new model for planning the places we live is needed. Understanding the natural cycles of the city is just as important to planning our cities as knowledge of local ordinances, indeed much more so. A profound knowledge of environmental processes is critical for successful planning in today’s world. Environmental planners take as their guiding principle the concept of designing with nature, approaching cities as living organisms that consume water, energy and raw materials, and produce waste. This metabolic view of cities means we can find new solutions to old problems, and steer our cities towards a more sustainable form of planning. Written specifically for students and professionals working in city planning in Australia, this ground-breaking new book enables Australian planners, architects and developers to get a better understanding of the fundamental principles of environmental planning for cities, showing how land, water, air, energy, wildlife and people shape our built environments, and how in turn environmental processes must be better understood if we are to make informed decisions about developing cities that are more sustainable. The book’s coverage is comprehensive: from an overview of the concepts and theories of environmental planning, through analysis of governance systems and urban environmental processes to agendas and policies for the future, all the key topics are covered in depth, with recommendations for supporting reading and an unrivalled selection of additional materials. Ideal for students, essential for professionals, Australian Environmental Planning is vital reading for more sustainable cities in a more sustainable world.

Since the first publication of this landmark textbook in 2004, it has received high praise for its clear, comprehensive, and practical approach. The second edition continues to offer a unique framework for teaching and learning interdisciplinary environmental planning, incorporating the latest thinking, newest research findings, and numerous, updated case studies into the solid foundation of the first edition. This new edition highlights emerging topics such as sustainable communities, climate change, and international efforts toward sustainability. It has been reorganized based on feedback from instructors, and contains a new chapter entitled "Land Use, Energy, Air Quality and Climate Change." Throughout, boxes have been added on such topics as federal laws, state and local environmental programs, and critical problems and responses. With this thoroughly revised second edition, Environmental Land Use Planning and Management maintains its preeminence as the leading textbook in its field.

Originally published in 1997, Urban Environmental Planning provides a groundbreaking overview of innovative methods and techniques for measuring and managing the environmental effects of urban land uses on other urban activities. Fully revised and updated, this second edition brings together a team of leading environmental planners and policy makers from the US, UK, Europe and SE Asia to address the central questions confronting sustainable urban development. Typical questions include: How can you measure and manage the negative environmental effects of intrusive urban activities such as manufacturing and transport on sensitive land uses including residential and recreational areas? Can a balance be found between reducing these effects through means such as separating conflicting land uses? While other sources identify the need for effective programmes to improve urban environmental quality, this volume describes and assesses analytical methods and implementing programmes practised by leading communities around the world.

Published in 1998, this work focuses on the practical issues and policies relating to planning and managing both built and natural environments. It addresses the needs to pursue a greater degree of integration between the subject matter and the international frameworks of environmental planning.

With the environment, climate change, and global warming taking center stage in the national debate, the issues seem insurmountable and certainly unsolvable at the local level. Written by Chris Maser, international consultant on forest ecology, sustainable forestry practices, and sustainable development, Social-Environmental Planning: The Design Interface Between Everyforest and Everycity focuses on community based solutions, emphasizing how the heavy lifting of sustainability will always be done inside existing cities and communities. Based on the author’s forty years of experience, the book covers the sustainability of the planet and its population when dealing with climate change. The book provides an in-depth understanding of the commonalities of pattern between Everyforest and Everycity. Maser suggests that before changes can be made, society must adapt to the circumstances of global climate change as they already are, and then determine what we can do to stabilize global climate as effectively and quickly as possible. He explores the reciprocal interface between communities and the landscape and how, when this interface is recognized and understood, it can create solutions that work. With this comprehension, people can adapt to the present and begin determining what they can do now to leave the planet a little better for each generation.

This study explains how, confronting ever-greater environmental pressures, we can plan for and achieve a sustainable environment. The book focuses on urban development, as population and resources and often the most severe environmental problems are concentrated in cities. It looks at the nature of environmental planning and at the main areas where changes have to be made: in energy policy, waste disposal and pollution control, construction, transport and infrastructure. The book concludes with chapters on planning a sustainable city and on how to bring the necessary changes and institutional arrangements about.

Originally published in 1975, this was an entirely new approach to the study of environmental planning and problems. Planning had hitherto been generally described as a technical exercise, involving the solving of biological and economic problems. In Environmental Planning: A Political and Philosophical Analysis it is seen as an ideological activity and the development of planning in Britain and the nature of contemporary environment problems are analysed in terms of social and political theory. The book discusses the nature of ‘planning’, its relationship to ‘politics’ and examines the groups and ideas which had been instrumental in its development. It tries to determine how important the environment is to people and how decisions affecting planning are made. In particular it looks at the theories and assumptions behind environmental policy, suggests alternatives and describes the role played by ‘participation’ and pressure groups in influencing planning in Britain at the time.