In June this year Helen Meikle, Research Fellow and Hisham Elkadi, Head of School, Architecture and Building from Deakin University presented the following paper at the 5th Making Cities Liveable Conference.
The role of ecology in a sustainable future is prominent in the media, academic writing and political decisions; as such environmental pressures, as well as economic, social and political, increasingly influence planning for the future. This paper looks at how this translates into the process for planning future cities – highlighting gaps in knowledge and issues of implementation. It draws on interdisciplinary sources to explore three main elements of the debate: What is urban ecology and why is it important to sustainable cities?; What gaps are there in the ecological knowledge of planners and policy makers and why are there gaps?; and How can urban ecology be integrated into the planning of future sustainable cities?.
The paper does not aim to provide a definitive answer to the problem; rather it addresses the first two areas and identifies potential directions for the third. It takes Australia, as national, Victoria, as regional and Geelong, as local, points of reference.
You can download the full paper in the Peer Reviewed Book of Proceedings from the conference website http://healthycities.com.au
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