The role of biodiversity in creating green, healthy cities and towns

Goodenia macmillanii (cultivated, labelled), Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Australia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The growth of cities and towns is one of the most serious ecological problems currently facing Australia and the world.

The increase in the number of people living in cities and towns, coupled with the magnitude and intensity of human activities has resulted in significant impacts to local, regional and global environments. Understanding the impact that urbanisation has on the ecology of cities will help to identify measures that can be taken to minimise the detrimental effects to ecological patterns and processes.

There is a growing body of literature that reports on the positive contribution that can be made by incorporating plants and animals into the fabric of the urban environment.  The shift in focus towards developing more sustainable, healthy cities provides an excellent opportunity to explicitly incorporate biodiversity elements into the planning, design and construction of urban environments. By enhancing the biodiversity element in our urban environments, we can not only achieve better outcomes for plants and animals in these areas, but we can also harness opportunities for increasing the mental and physical health of the people living in cities and towns.

The synergies present in the various elements of sustainable design, including water sensitive urban design, energy efficient buildings and practices, and community health and well-being initiatives, mean that the best design practices do not necessarily require trade-offs between them. With thoughtful and innovative designs we can address all of these goals simultaneously and to achieve healthier cities with greater efficiency.

Dr Amy Hahs  (GIS Ecologist, Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne will speak at the: 5th Australian Healthy Cities: Making Cities Liveable Conference 2012 The Mercure Hotel and Conference Centre, Geelong, Victoria – 6th to the 8th of June – 2012 Secretariat Tele: (61 7) 5502 2068: http://healthycities.com.au

The Full Program – Blog – Twitter – Linkedin details available on the website

Related articles

• Darling quarter: A case study of Sydney’s urban renewal (healthycities.wordpress.com)
• Putting the horse before the cart” A case study of the development of a public policy framework in local government – Public Health (healthycities.wordpress.com)
• Sea Changes: the role of public art and the expression of creativity, identity and sense of place in a healthy city (healthycities.wordpress.com)

Housing Regulation – the unexpected consequences in Australia

Current affairs programs repeatedly present shows that look into defects in new and repaired housing. Many of us empathise as we have expereinced what we think are defective building work and its consequnces on the victims in terms of their wealth, their health and their families. We are surprised that with all the protections that have been introduced to ensure that when our homes and homeunits are built they are built free of defects and free of risks to our health.

What most of us are not aware of the regulation and approved insurance systems that have been developed are flawed and in many cases weighted towards the interests of the builder and the home building insurer. These changes are supported by unofficial policies of government departments with the responsibility to protect the consumer from poor industry practices.

The published policies “guide” the consumer to a accept dimensional and qualitative tolerances that are less than that recommended in Australian Standards and have been shown to provide interpretations of building regulations inconsistent with their legal meaning. Similar issues exist in the Australian Standards where for example AS2870 permits cracking in buildings due to foundation failure of up to 5mm.

Sections of the legal profession and the experts who provide expert reports to the courts and tribunals are aware of this bias and take full advantage in the interests of their building clients. As a result of both the weighting of the regulations and the skill of many advocates operating in the field the decisions of the courts and tribunals are often tainted with the bias towards the industry. Who amongst us is aware of this bias and its causes if it has not affected us? Who has found the advice that they have been given that there is little that can be done logical, fair or acceptable? Who amongst us has found themselves living in a house or apartment where there are leaks, there is mould in the ceilings, cracks in plaster and the walls……………?

This paper analyses the development of the bias and, by use of example will show the how and why present day regulation has developed a bias in favour of industry and how this bias can impact detrementally on the community both as individuals and the broader community.

Mr Peter Sarlos, Architect, Chartered Surveyor (Building), Lawyer, Australian Institute of Architects; Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors will speak at the: 5th Australian Healthy Cities: Making Cities Liveable Conference 2012 The Mercure Hotel and Conference Centre, Geelong, Victoria – 6th to the 8th of June – 2012 Secretariat Tele: (61 7) 5502 2068: http://healthycities.com.au

The Full Program – Blog – Twitter – Linkedin details available on the website

Darling quarter: A case study of Sydney’s urban renewal

As our cities grow larger, denser and more complex there is an increased demand for quality public space. Designers must work hard to reinvigorate existing places, create new networks, stimulate social activation through place making initiatives and achieve excellence in sustainable design. A successful outcome is measured as much on the activation of the public realm as the architecture which surrounds it.

This paper presents Darling Quarter as a case study for urban renewal that highlights the importance of place making and community activation in city fringe developments.

Darling Quarter is a major 1.5hectare place making project that has transformed the public domain of Darling Harbour, one of Australia’s most visited destinations. The new A$500million precinct integrates two large (total 57,000m2 NLA) campus-styled 6 Star Green Star (world leadership) commercial buildings within a public domain that comprises new city pedestrian connections a retail terrace, generous grassed community areas, a 300 seat children’s theatre and an innovative playground as its centre piece. The spectacular world-class 4,000sqm playground is one of the largest illuminated playgrounds in the country and a regional attractor to the city. The playground is one of Australia’s largest play areas that integrates interactive water play in an urban landscaped environment.

The precinct is activated by over 6,500 workers in the new commercial buildings and the millions of families and tourists, who come to the playground, children’s theatre, picnic on the community green or dine at the bustling retail terrace. The development has tailored the community offerings to ensure the precinct is well activated around the clock.

This project prompted a shift in thinking about the importance of public domain in the re-vitalisation of the western edge of the Sydney CBD. Darling Quarter has set a new benchmark for both Sydney’s public domain and commercial architecture. The project exemplifies design excellence, leading sustainable design initiatives to create an inclusive, free, public space activated by the community day and night.

Rod McCoy (NSW)
Executive Project Manager, Lend Lease

5th Healthy Cities: Making Cities Liveable Conference 2012
The Mercure Hotel and Conference Centre,  Geelong, Victoria – 6^th to the 8^th of June – 2012
URL: www.healthycities.com.au

Putting the horse before the cart” A case study of the development of a public policy framework in local government – Public Health

In public health there has been an increasing shift in opinion that strategies for improving quality of life and community well being need to be focused outside of the health arena. Local Government is ideally placed to make a difference in the lives of its communities.

Health promotion goes beyond healthy lifestyles to wellbeing and The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) defines it as the process of “…enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realise aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment”.

Health is a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living and is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Local Government is an important link in the chain of the social determinants of health and is in a position to make a significant impact on the well being of its communities.

In this case study the organisational and political support for this policy framework are high and this research demonstrates that involving staff and elected members in the policy development process, can have an immediate impact on participant’s perceptions of quality of life and community well being. This involvement has also given participants an opportunity to gain further insights and an improved understanding that community well being should not be driven by departments of health and that Local Government is in fact a key player in keeping people healthy.

The development of this policy has fostered strong relationships between senior staff and the elected body of this council and the developed framework has the potential to further influence both organisational culture and the decision-making process.

Ms Barbara Erichsdotter (SA)
Consultant, Health Research International

5th Healthy Cities: Making Cities Liveable Conference 2012
The Mercure Hotel and Conference Centre,  Geelong, Victoria – 6^th to the 8^th of June – 2012
URL: www.healthycities.com.au

Sea Changes: the role of public art and the expression of creativity, identity and sense of place in a healthy city

Beth Jackson the Public Art Curator with Brecknock Consulting will explore the role of public art within urban renewal projects and its capacity to achieve the expression of a sense of place, local identity and creative community.

Beth will question and consider the inter-relationship between health and creativity and between a sense of wellbeing and a sense of place, for both individuals and communities.

Her paper will provide a case study of the curation and delivery of a public art program as part of the Redcliffe Seaside Village Rejuvenation project in South East Queensland from 2010-2011. While typical of many coastal renewal projects, the Redcliffe site has rich and complex layers of significance, including historical significance for European and Indigenous peoples, environmental significance for its relationship to Moreton Bay, and social significance for a growing contemporary and diverse community.

The project has delivered an attractive and unique destination experience for locals and visitors alike with the public art program playing a key role. While the major improvement works to streetscaping and landscaping comprised this outcome, it is the shift in social perception which achieves the real sea change and sense of urban renewal. Public art can not only value-add to the public space asset and amenity but can catalyse these perceptual shifts, evoking cultural significance.

The case study will detail what is involved in public art curation and in the creative and site-specific interpretation of place by artists. The paper will argue that the creative and tangible expression of place stories, symbols and artistic icons helps to build social and creative capital, regional identity, and a distinctive sense of place which in turn lead to community wellbeing and a healthy city. Beth will aim to draw implications from the study for notions of sustainability, sustainable development, and the provision of public space.

Beth Jackson, Public Art Curator, Brecknock Consulting

The 5th Healthy Cities: Working Together to Achieve Liveable Cities Conference
The Mercure Hotel and Conference Centre, Geelong, Victoria – 6th to the 8th of June – 2012

The conference will be a platform for Government and Industry sector professionals to discuss causes, effects and solutions that relate to population health, sustainability, natural resource management, transport, climate change, urban design and more.

Good planning plus affordable housing equals a liveable city

Carolyn Whitzman, Billie Giles-Corti
Appeared in The National Times – March 16, 2012
Opinion

We have to tackle the liveability challenges in all parts of Melbourne.

FOR the 80 per cent of us who are urban Australians, we live in confusing times. Our capital cities with their high-quality parks and public open space, good schools, relative community safety and rich options for cultural life rate highly against international counterparts for liveability.

On the other hand, Australian cities have unsustainable per capita environmental footprints compared with other developed cities around the world. We are more car dependent, our cities sprawl over a larger proportion of prime agricultural land, and we have higher rates of obesity than most countries in the world.

Health and wellbeing, liveability and environmental sustainability are all closely linked. All three imperatives call for good-quality affordable housing. But a constant supply of housing alone is not enough for our cities to be healthy, liveable and sustainable.

Read more

Designing Healthy Cities PBS Television Series Preview

Healthy Cities Conference to examine “Creating Regional Cities – harnessing social capital”

In 2007 Jeffrey Bridge wrote the following article… how much progress we have made?

Over the past decade, environmental sustainability has emerged as a prominent theme in the community development literature. In fact, the concept has become a standard feature of most economic and social development plans. Most models of sustainable community development stress the importance of widespread participation in the decision-making process.

Unfortunately, community studies document numerous barriers to broad involvement and the high level of activeness envisioned by proponents of sustainable community development. In searching for ways to overcome these barriers, scholars and policymakers have embraced the idea that we can enhance efforts to create more sustainable communities by increasing the local stock of social capital. We examine this line of reasoning in light of what we view as the most important conceptual issues surrounding the relationship between social capital and sustainable community development.

We conclude that before social capital is endorsed as a central component of public policy, much work remains to be done in terms of developing a more precise definition of the concept, situating it within extant theories of community, constructing better measures of social capital, documenting the activities and networks most important in building social capital, and gaining a better understanding of the forms of social capital that are most important in developing sustainable communities.

You can download the full paper here http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-682X.2001.tb01127.x/pdf

The 5th Healthy Cities: Working Together to Achieve Liveable Cities Conference

June 6-8 2012 Geeelog, Victoria, Australia

Sustainable Cities for All

Many models of social sustainability have been proposed in the previous few decades, with the majority of these recognising a co-dependent interaction between three basic elements. These are generally recognised as community/social, environmental and economic. The interaction of these elements impacts on issues of equity, diversity, interconnectedness and acceptance; and there is widespread recognition that healthy communities are communities that accept and foster these ideals.

Of course addressing social sustainability in a meaningful way extends far beyond that of the built environment and requires a strong commitment from government, policy-makers and the greater community itself and has far greater public health connotations. However, it is important for us, as professionals within the property and construction sector, to be mindful of these models and ideas. People residing in urban environments spend up to 90% of their time contained by the built environment; so our influence and contribution to this environment, and consequently the effect on our interactions with and within it, is very significant.

read the full story here
Healthy Cities Conference 2012 – June 6-8 Geelong
The 5th Healthy Cities: Working Together to Achieve Liveable Cities Conference will be a platform for Government and Industry sector professionals to discuss causes, effects and solutions that relate to population health, sustainability, natural resource management, transport, climate change, urban design and more.

Related articles

• Health and Productivity Benefits From Different Urban Transport and Related Land Use Options in Australia. (healthycities.wordpress.com)
• Achieving healthy urban transport systems by 2030: the role of walking and cycling (healthycities.wordpress.com)
• Responsible Urban Design (dirt.asla.org)

HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY BENEFITS FROM DIFFERENT URBAN TRANSPORT AND RELATED LAND USE OPTIONS IN AUSTRALIA.

The relationship between public health, built urban forms and transportation options in Australia is increasingly becoming a focus of research.

The presenation will provide a review discussing possible health indicators to be used in assessing future land use and transportation scenarios under differing climate change situations.

Urban form characteristics, such as density levels and mixed land uses are identified. These characteristics can be measured to determine the health impacts related to the transport choices they provide. The health benefits, and subsequent economic benefits particularly from health-related productivity, of walkable, transit orientated urban forms are well established and are measurable. Important health indicators include vehicle miles travelled, access to public transport, access to green areas, transportation related pollution levels, transportation related noise levels, density and mixed land use.

A comparison between a high walkability urban environment and a low walkability urban environment identifies various infrastructure, transportation greenhouse gas emissions and health costs. From this it is determined that infrastructure and transport costs dominate.

Greenhouse gas emission costs are small unless the social costs are considered, and then they become substantial but still lower than the infrastructure and transport costs. They are cumulative however and will become more important in future. The health costs are very small if considered to be those related to sickness however health-related productivity gains that are associated with highly walkable urban areas are substantial. Increased productivity considerably outweighs the savings of increased physical activity and reduced health cost reductions from active travel alone. Furthermore these productivity gains are additive to the other costs and together all of these costs provide a powerful economic rationale for developing urban forms geared towards active travel.

Dr Anne Matan, Dr Roman Trubka, Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute WA

The 5th Healthy Cities: Working Together to Achieve Liveable Cities Conference – June 6th to 8th – Geelong, Victoria

Related articles

• Project Calgary: How walkable is your neighbourhood? (calgaryherald.com)
• WHO Finds Significant Health & Climate Benefits associated with Transit & Active Transportation (healthyandsustainable.wordpress.com)