The importance of designing sustainable cities for the future: UTS academics
EXPERT OBSERVERS
In this age of climate change and rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, cities must be able to withstand extreme weather events such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall and offer more sustainable ways of living. With fossil fuels increasingly out of favour, answers are urgently needed from urban designers and planners about how to build more environmentally friendly cities.
Most of Australia’s population now lives in a capital city, but whether those cities can adapt to climate change and limited resources will depend largely on the technical and creative skills brought to the challenge by the next generation of experts in urban planning and urban design.
Australia’s major cities are home to almost three-quarters of all Australian residents and our population was expanding at a rate of about 2 to 3 per cent a year before COVID-19 stalled that growth. The Australian population is predicted to reach between 28.3 and 29.3 million people by 2027. Sydney and Melbourne already have populations exceeding 5 million people2.
For Australian cities and towns to continue to grow in a sustainable way, many of the key decisions required to successfully cater for climate change need to be made right now, and this is creating greater demand for urban designers and planners, who can bring world’s best practice to their jobs.
Cities are engines of economic growth, but their expansion both puts pressure on the natural environment and exposes city dwellers to the sharp edge of global warming.
Urban planners and designers are needed to promote better design and sustainable planning practices by addressing the challenges raised by climate change and limited resources: how can we achieve the same economic benefit while doing better by the natural environment and urban residents in creating more sustainable cities and buildings?
Climate change impacts cities significantly and in different ways. A warming climate brings with it more extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and floods, cyclones, and storm surges associated with rising sea levels. Despite the warning signs, greenfield development on city fringes is continuing, taking over agricultural lands and putting food security at greater risk, while diminishing bushland and other green areas that are fundamental for stabilising temperatures in inland locations. Such housing developments also reduce the protective tree canopy and increase hard surfaces, pushing up temperatures and negatively affecting both people’s health and the locale’s biodiversity. All of this impacts a city’s sustainability and the built environment, including infrastructure such as roads, bridges and transport.
Nature has a way of reminding us that our actions matter. The 2019-20 bushfires, this year’s floods in New South Wales and coastal erosion on the Northern Beaches of Sydney were extreme examples. The expanding urban edge is increasing the exposure to bushfire risk. Rising sea levels increase the risks of land erosion and storm surges for housing located on coastlines. Increased building on river flood plains, which diminishes the ability of land to absorb runoff, exposes residents to more extreme flooding. All these factors spell increasing rates of property damage resulting from climate volatility, with attendant rises in insurance premiums to provide for a more risk-prone future.
To rise to this challenge, we need to rethink urban development to mitigate the impact of climate volatility on the people who make cities their home. Furthermore, we need to reconsider the contribution that cities themselves make to GHG emissions. The conventional approach of single-purpose neighbourhoods, where residents are dependent on their cars for travelling for work, shopping and recreation, simply exacerbates the problem.
Population growth poses its own challenges. The traditional response has been to increase densities, as this helps to prevent even more urban sprawl. But density needs to be done right: some of the key principles to be considered are access to nature, careful design regulation, mixed use neighbourhoods with lots of ways of getting around, and population concentrations proportionate to the level of infrastructure in place.
Designing and developing more sustainable buildings and communities demands an integrated approach that aims for a balance between preserving and enhancing our natural environment and resources, promoting more equitable and connected communities, and supporting long-term economic growth, or at least stability. But cities are highly complex systems, driven by competing interests, where growth is regulated by multiple agencies at various levels of government. This makes it difficult to establish neutral forums in which issues can be resolved and optimum outcomes found on the basis of objective discussion.
The challenges urban centres face are multifaceted and will require an integrated approach to planning and design strategies in order to minimise risks to urban communities. Postgraduate study helps planners and designers gain skills to design neighbourhoods and regulate development to withstand floods, heat and other climate phenomena. Postgraduate study can also teach process skills, or how to better engage community residents in complex decisions involving housing construction and the environment such as building in coastal zones and how local and state governments can collaborate more effectively.
Postgraduate degrees should aim not only to equip planners and designers with a range of skillsets, but also to educate them about the value and importance of working with other disciplines, stakeholders, and voices. Tertiary education provides professionals with the knowledge and skills to see the big picture.
University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has recently launched the UTS Online Master of Urban Planning and Master of Urban Design. The novel course structure means that, by combining recognition of prior learning from one degree with just five additional subjects from the other, candidates will be able to graduate with two master’s degrees.
Gabriela Quintana Vigiola
Gabriela Quintana Vigiola is an academic and consultant in the urban design and planning sectors and the Course Director of the UTS Online Master of Urban Planning and Master of Urban Design.
Heather MacDonald
Professor Heather MacDonald is an academic in planning and Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at UTS.