Transport,Housing and Urban Form: The Life Cycle Energy Consumption and Emissions of City Centre Apartments Compared with Suburban Dwellings

Buildings in cities and the activities carried out therein use a significant proportion of a nation's energy consumption and produce substantial quantities of greenhouse gases in the process. Residential buildings are a large contributor, partially as a result of the transport and housing activities of households. In this study, life cycle analysis is used to calculate the total transport and housing energy and emissions from a sample of 41 households in apartment buildings in the city centre of Adelaide, Australia and compare them with suburban households. The purpose of this is to determine whether the urban density option of higher rise dwellings offers a lower environmental impact than conventional housing. The analysis includes delivered energy and greenhouse gas emissions generated by motorised travel and activities within the dwellings, and the energy and emissions embodied in household motor vehicles and the apartment buildings. The total delivered energy consumption of apartment households was found to be lower than suburban households due mainly to higher car usage, particularly in the outer suburbs. However, the analysis of total greenhouse gas emissions provided a somewhat different comparison especially when they were considered on a per capita basis. The total per capita emissions for apartment households varied considerably but, on average, exceeded those of both the inner and outer suburban households. This resulted from lower occupancy rates and higher emissions arising from higher dwelling operational and embodied energy consumption. Overall, it cannot be assumed that centralised, higher density living will deliver per capita emission reductions for residents, once the combined per capita life cycle emissions from housing and transport have been accounted for. A more vigorous educational, promotional and regulatory approach is required to achieve greater operational and embodied energy efficiency in apartment buildings to fully realise the emissions-reducing potential of such buildings in centralised locations.

     

Housing for Rural Migrant Workers: Consumption Characteristics and Supply Policy

Based on the housing consumption characteristics of rural migrant workers, we estimate and explain the trend of marginal housing consumption of rural migrant workers and the impact of income uncertainty on housing consumption, analyse the reasons why there is a structural imbalance in the housing supply for migrant workers and give policy recommendations for improving the housing supply situation. We argue that rural migrant workers are more conservative in housing consumption than urban and rural residents due to income uncertainty. The effect of income increase on housing consumption is far less than that on other consumption. These characteristics have to be taken into account in the formation of housing supply plans for rural migrant workers.

     

Neighbourhood Provision of Food and Alcohol Retailing and Social Deprivation in Urban New Zealand

Recent research has considered whether a range of social and physical characteristics of residential neighbourhoods are important in explaining social and spatial inequalities in health. One strand of this research has investigated the role of neighbourhood access to retail provision of healthy and affordable food. In this national study we used Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to examine the association between food retail (supermarkets, convenience stores and fast food outlets) and licensed alcohol outlet locations, and an area measure of deprivation for urban neighbourhoods across New Zealand. We found that contrary to the international evidence, for all outlet types, access to a range of retail options tended to be better in more deprived neighbourhoods. The implications of this socio-spatial distribution of food and alcohol retailing in reducing health inequalities are discussed.

     

Social Disadvantage and Planning in the Sydney Context

The rubric of ‘new’ commons signals the re-assessment of old dilemmas about resource management and collaborative action in new social, spatial and technological settings. Urban commons feature in the expanding register of new commons, but there has been little analysis of the meaning and application of the concept. This article explores the urban commons in an Australian context, focusing on the provision of social infrastructure. While noting criticism of the concept's imprecision and ideological valency, the article argues that the urban commons offers new perspectives on public resources, urban governance and sustainability.

     

Decision-makers,Expert Witnesses and Advocates: The Roles of Planners in Merits Appeals

Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory, faces urban planning challenges consistent with those reported in ‘resource peripheries’ around the world. The city has recently experienced strong population growth associated with resources and construction projects, and an increase in public sector workers sent to address the challenges faced by remote (particularly Indigenous) populations. The Northern Territory Government is determined to foster further growth, and promotes ‘major projects’ in urban development as the key. Analysis of the public debates about two recent major projects (the Waterfront Development and the Lyons residential development) reveal a planning process consistent with the clientelism observed by Rayner and Howlett (2009) in resource peripheries in Canada. The risks of clientelism are both the marginalisation of important internal publics and the institutionalisation of ‘temporariness’ as the driver of growth. Shifting to a more consultative planning process might help stimulate internal development, but could also put at risk the relationships that the Northern Territory Government has established with external investors.

     

Urban Form and Housing Density,Australian Cities and European Models: Copenhagen and Stockholm Reconsidered

Stockholm and Copenhagen have been widely regarded in English-speaking countries as exemplifying aspects of the compact city—from well planned, mixed use, higher density, transit-oriented development to sociable urban spaces. So how is it that the development of these two cities has also been located in the garden city tradition? This article tackles this question in the context of the implications European cities are often thought to have for low-density Australian cities. Comparisons of the urban form of Stockholm and Brisbane and of higher density housing in Copenhagen and Brisbane emphasise that the ‘Scandinavian model’ is as much about the role of open space in shaping urban form and in housing design as our current preoccupation with density.

     

Theory and Practice in Metropolitan Strategy: Situating Recent Australian Planning

Over the last several years, metropolitan strategies have been produced for the five mainland state capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The distinctive characteristics of Australian urban planning mean that they can be shown to reflect an Australian paradigm of planning. However, this paradigm is rewritten in different ways in each strategy reflecting the particular institutional circumstances and political culture of each state. In doing so there is some strong reaffirmation of this paradigm, but also indications of a more relational and transactive manner of planning adding further process to product. Here there is some resonance with recent developments in planning theory and to some extent in practice—largely in Europe.

     

Balancing Economic Development and the Preservation of Agricultural Land: An Evaluation of Shanghai's Municipal Land Use Plan

The megacity of Shanghai faces enormous planning challenges, particularly controlling rapid urban growth and preserving some of the world's most fertile agricultural land. Almost two-thirds of Shanghai's territory is classified as agricultural land. Maintaining this high ratio of agricultural land to total land area and, at the same time, accommodating a large and rapidly increasing urban population represents an immense and complex planning challenge. Shanghai has recently adopted a Municipal Land Use Plan to address some of these planning challenges. This article provides a review, analysis and critique of Shanghai's Municipal Land Use Plan. From a review of the relevant literature, this article develops a framework to evaluate Shanghai's plan. This framework provides a qualitative assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the SMLUP's overall goal of preserving arable land and fostering urban-economic development.

     

Letter from London

There has been growing interest internationally in the development of comprehensive estimates of the costs of urban transport, fuelled by concerns over global warming, peak oil, road congestion, tolls and public transport subsidies. This article examines the internal and external costs of major modes in Sydney. In terms of total costs, trains are the cheapest, followed by buses, with cars the most expensive. However, the ‘out-of-pocket costs’ paid by motorists at the time of making a trip are less than one-sixth of total costs. This suggests rational individual travel choices do not add up to rational travel patterns for the city, and that we are paying heavily as a society for the convenience of cars. Governments need to give higher priority for public transport (particularly rail which has the lowest overall costs of any mode) and to change pricing for urban travel, if we are to develop more sustainable cities.

     

Floor Space per Person and Housing Development: An Urban Growth Approach to Estimate Housing Supply in Hong Kong

This article estimates an empirical model of new housing supply in Hong Kong based on the urban growth approach. The article introduces a new factor, space usage per person (SPP), to this model reflecting the quality of housing, the demand and supply aspects of the housing market, along with prices and other standard variables. SPP may also be used as a human settlement development indicator. Empirical results provide strong evidence that the introduced new factor exerts a strong positive influence on new housing supply, and that even a marginal change in the space usage pattern would have a great impact on housing supply. This suggests that non-price measures too should receive priority when estimating future housing development needs. Empirical estimates also suggest that a 10 per cent rise in real house prices leads to a 0.6 per cent increase in new housing starts and twofold rise in real house prices would increase the entire housing stock by 6 per cent.

     

Responses to Retailing Change in Canberra

Retailing is a major activity in urban areas. Where it is located is a major influence on traffic flows and the ease and level of access the population has to goods and services. Relying solely on the market to determine retail provision is likely to result in a misallocation of resources. Given the dynamism of the industry, and the uncertainty in predicting the future, the challenge for planning frameworks has been how to best respond to the needs of an increasingly affluent and mobile population while considering the social and environmental consequences of development. This article explores, with particular reference to Canberra, how retail planning policy has evolved to respond to these changes. How communities respond to such changes will depend on the relative weighting they give to accessibility, efficiency, equity, sustainability and amenity criteria. The aim should be the development of a retail system that provides for competition, choice, accommodates new retail formats while meeting the needs of the less mobile and the need to reduce overall travel.

     

Space and Place: Social Exclusion in Australia's Suburban Heartlands

As a prolonged period of Australian prosperity ends, attention has now begun to turn to the likely impacts of a severe economic downturn. The pain of recession is unlikely to be evenly distributed across the population or across space. Not that the previous economic good fortune was evenly spread across society. It is, therefore, expected that a new layer of socio-economic stress will be laid over existing patterns of social and spatial disparity. In this context, questions of deprivation and social exclusion are an important ongoing concern. Deprivation and social exclusion are operative at a number of levels of society. Neo-liberal thought and policy has been directed at the level of the individual. However, space and place are also important, as spatially concentrated disadvantage has structural consequences for both individual fortunes and the broader social fabric. This article considers the spatial distribution of disadvantage across our major metropolitan regions and considers potential approaches to address social exclusion in our suburban heartlands.

     

Beyond The City-State – Metropolitan Canberra

Industrial organisation has received considerable attention over time in both political and scholarly arenas focusing on industry generally and on specific economic sectors like media, telecommunications, food retailing and air transport. Real estate development is a large industry and major shaper of the built environment whose structure has implications for the form and structure of cities, for sustainability and for power relations with industry regulators. Yet, there has been remarkably little interest in, and little is known about, the industry's structure, and little exists of a quantitative nature to describe that structure. Drawing on evidence, existing literature and case study material, this article investigates the nature of the development industry structure and suggests that it is not necessarily competitive and, in some instances, can be highly oligopolistic. It discusses factors, including industry regulation (planning), that may shape structure. This discussion further suggests that the industry is not competitive and that it is likely to concentrate further.

     

Community Safety Indicators: Are We Measuring What Counts?

Recent reviews of crime prevention practice conclude that the local level of governance is most effective at coordinating various key actors and implementing workable policy. However, the question of how to evaluate effectiveness of these efforts is notoriously difficult to answer. Domestic violence, in particular, is largely under-reported to police, generational in nature, highly politicised, and contingent on external social and economic variables. This article will use the State of Victoria, Australia, as a case study to examine how attempts to develop demonstrated progress measures on safer streets, homes and workplaces have foundered because of lack of gender analysis, political interference and the inability to translate the current language of good governance into meaningful measures for locally based community safety efforts.

     

Contrasts in Reform: How the Cain and Burke Years Shaped Public Transport in Melbourne and Perth

Melbourne's public transport system, despite its extensive train and tram lines, is facing major challenges. From a point of near-extinction in the late 1970s, Perth's historically smaller public transport system is arguably now better placed to deal with growing environmental and economic pressures. The election of reformist governments in Victoria and WA in the early 1980s provided critical opportunities for public transport in both cities. This article documents the striking differences in the behaviour of the politicians, bureaucrats and civic action groups engaged in contention over transport policy in the two cities during this period. These differences had a significant influence on the performance of public transport in Melbourne and Perth today, and point to changes that will be required to improve transport policy outcomes in Melbourne

     

Energy performance sensitivity of a net-zero energy home to design and use specifications

The purpose of this report is to test the sensitivity of the energy performance of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)'s Net Zero Energy Residential Test Facility (NZERTF) design to variation in the assumed specifications of occupant behaviour and building design characteristics using whole building energy simulations. The analysis includes a total of 128 EnergyPlus (E+) simulations (DOE 2013 Department of Energy (DOE), Building Technologies Program. 2013. EnergyPlus energy simulation software version 8.0.0. http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/. [Google Scholar]) considering two levels for each of the seven factors that could impact the energy performance of the NZERTF: building design, air leakage, occupant behaviour, weather, building orientation, and heating and cooling setpoint temperatures. The results for each combination of the seven factors are analysed to determine the magnitude and significance of changing these factors, and the interaction effects between the factors. There is particular focus on the building design results to determine if the energy performance of the NZERTF is more or less stable than that of typical residential construction in Maryland.     

How National Planning Might Enrich Metropolitan Planning in Australia

The Intergenerational Report recently released by the Commonwealth Government contains some of the elements of a national long-range plan. Because the Report comes from the Treasury it lacks some important themes such as the impact of the envisaged population growth on natural resources. However, it is linked with the major cities which it recognises as the major drivers and arenas in the changes it foreshadows. This link is cemented in the recent COAG agreement to produce new metropolitan strategies by the beginning of 2012, using an agreed and enriched planning process. The opportunities in this new situation are canvassed.

     

On Peanuts and Monkeys: Private Sector Involvement in Australian Building Control

In response to issues arising from municipal led regulatory enforcement, governments in Australia have reformed their regimes of building regulation and control since the 1990s. Private certifiers have been introduced as an addition to local government building control. Based on a series of interviews with 56 insiders this article addresses the implications of privatisation of Australian building control by discussing its intended and unintended impacts. The article concludes by drawing a number of case-specific lessons and more general lessons on privatisation of regulatory enforcement that move well beyond the field of building control.

     

Changing Demographics and Housing Space Demand: The Case of Seoul Metropolitan Region in Korea

The aim of this paper is to estimate the future medium and large housing needs of low-income renter households of Seoul Metropolitan Region (SMR), and to recommend housing policy responses to these needs. Using demographic methods, this study first projects the total housing needs of SMR, then decomposes them into the needs for different housing sizes by tenure and household expense using the household–housing size matrix. Between 2005 and 2015, approximately 360 000 medium and large rental housing units are needed. We argue that the Korean government should prioritise rental housing policy, and diminish the polarisation in housing conditions between the better off and the worse off.

     

Transforming Australia's Social Housing: Pointers from the British Stock Transfer Experience

The expanding provision of affordable housing by non-profit community housing organisations, coupled with possibilities of substantial stock transfer from State Housing Authorities, suggest Australia's social housing sector may be entering a transformative phase. Based on a review of restructuring in Britain, where over the last 25 years, traditionally owned and managed ‘council housing’ has been reduced from over 90 per cent to less than 30 per cent of overall social housing stock, this article considers possible policy implications for Australia. In particular, it analyses British experience which could inform Australian decisions on organisational size, institutional vehicles and governance structures within the context of the future programme of stock transfers envisaged by many commentators on the Australian housing scene.