Australian Urban Planning and Policy - Essay Example

USTRАLIАN URBАN РLАNNING АND РОLIСY Name Institution Instructor Date Introduction The governments at local level are faced with several challenges in the course of sea level rise for the future. The acceleration of rise in sea level may be experienced which may result in the coastal margins being eroded. This would be a threat to property and land. High level of sea rise would lower the effectiveness of the buffer that is offered from the beach, thereby resulting into waves of higher energy that are near to the dune system. The seas that are rising are likely to bring an increase to the coastal flooding incidence, either through its action as a barrier in the higher seaward which restricts the flood water from escaping or through causing an increase of the storm surge height. Since the increase in the sea level is a confident scientific prediction of change in climate, it has been subjected to various research studies with regard to its possible influences on issues to do with coastal management (Subramanian, 2012). The influences experienced from the rise in greenhouse gases has subjected to assessment by the organizational panel of experts concerned with changes in climate. This panel of experts has been able to find out that the warmth in the world is increasing and that the processes that are made by man through technology usage are causing an increase to the extent effects observed from the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. A report publication was made following the second assessment that made a statement regarding the existence of balance between the evidence and the observations that were made. Nonetheless, it is useful to focus on various projections regarding the science of global change and the uncertainties that are affecting it. The uncertainties included here include the ones that result from the lack of complete scientific knowledge as well as the uncertainties associated with inherent estimations regarding the anticipated emissions from greenhouse gas. The scenarios of emissions are dependent upon the assumptions concerning the worldwide economic growth in the future as well as the changes in technology (Harvey, 2006). The major reasons that are given for the establishment of appropriate and adequate urban planning by the local government is that the availability of time frame that would yield noticeable results and impacts especially with regard to the changes in climate would be take place and be experienced in the next thirty years. The individuals in charge of planning are expected to carefully consider the effects of climatic change as a way of minimizing the impacts to come in future regarding the new infrastructure. This requires a regular monitoring and evaluating actions for the purposes of ensuring that the projections of the sea levels are adequately reviewed. The emphasis in this case is directed towards the outcomes of the urban planning in Australia (Krishnamurthy, 2008). Negatives impacts and challenges to urban planning in Australia One of the identifiable major challenges that are faced by the regional and urban planning in Australia is the issue of rise in the sea levels and the manner in which this is impacting the gold cost in Australia. The cost is a very important interface that exists between the environment of the marine and the adjacent terrestrial catchments. The management and planning that is required in addressing this particular challenge is a seemingly complex. Several issues that are involved in this complexity include the economic and social dimensions, ecological considerations, issues to with land jurisdictions as well as the international law on the marine environment. Furthermore there is not the existence of a one instrument from the international scene that is in a position to deal with the environment around the coastal region (Ramanathan, 2010). Impacts for shoreline household, infrastructure and other facilities The issues, problems and challenges that are experienced at the gold coast region have had several impacts where the shore line households have been largely affected with regard to their normal day to day activities. Due to the rising levels of the sea, some of the shoreline households have been rendered homeless and others have has to relocated to other places. There has also been loss of property by the shoreline households. The infrastructure as well as other important facilities at the shoreline has been negatively impacted with majority of them rendered useless. The Gold coast region in Australia is a city in the coastal resort whose environmental planning and management had been evolving through various regional policy interventions especially on the natural shoreline. Cities that are located in areas adjacent to the gold coast region have in the past relied on the perceptions of environments with high quality aspects and which in turn are able to rely on the continual monitoring and evaluation process (Dijk, 2006). The changes in the climatic conditions are holding specific challenging issues for the resort cities at the coastal regions. Recent international as well as local experiences have indicate that in the course of changing climatic conditions, the rise in sea level is a real and posing a lot of threats to the current sustainability for coastal regions. The ruse in sea lever at the Gold cost in Australia is believed to be having significant impacts upon the adjacent coastal areas coastal areas. This also goes a long way in influencing and causing impacts on the operations of the Australian urban planning. Some of these impacts include the increase in the number of areas that are subjected to permanent inundation from tides and also rise in the level of intensity of extreme and regular events witnessed from the occurrence of floods (Macário, 2011). Current and future challenges The challenges and problems associated with the impacts of sea level rise at the gold coast region in Australia in connection with the urban and regional planning are also believed to be capable of posing future challenges. This is expected to be the case especially if both the state and the territory governments do not take serious considerations of the available regional and urban planning policy options available to them. The scenarios that are experienced at the rise in the sea levels at the Gold coast region are the outcomes of failure in adequate regional planning or failure of the appropriate implementation procedures and processes. In the scenarios that are not planned, the adaptation is founded on the basis of the manner in which the effects of rise in sea level at the Gold coast region would be experienced in the lives of visitor and residents of Gold coast region and the kind of responses of residents and territory governments might be. In urban and regional planning scenarios, the planners and regional managers make considerations of the measures that could be taken in a proactive strategy of adaptation employed in the event that the sea level rise takes place in future and poses future challenges to be dealt with (Rai and Bagga, 2006). It is believed that in future the rise in sea levels at the Gold coast region could result in extreme floods which have the potential of causing serious losses if systematic implementation of the urban planning policies is not adopted. Without efforts that are not concerted in providing additional Prevention measures, the area in the beach would become narrow and erosion process result in covering sand dune. These short-term urban and regional planning and management strategies would not be adequate in future to cope with the rise in sea level but the situation is capable of indicating the occurrence with an increase in regularity under a response for the ad hoc. This situation makes suggestions which explain that if storm successively occurs in areas of close proximity, there is little likelihood that remedial efforts could be performed between storms ensuring prevention of the breached policies, and also significant flooding in the marine would doubtless ensue in the future (Krishnamurthy, 2008). The major estimation tools in the future urban and regional changes required in estimating level of rise in sea level are climatic models. These models have got several approximations and interactions, most of which are not properly understood. Nevertheless, better tools are available for the for the climatic change prediction with regard to the future impact to the Gold coast region, and their techniques at making representation of the climate system continues to be enhanced. A comprehensive description of several regional planning and management issues has currently involved climatic modeling is used in the estimation of the response of the mean surface temperature of the Earth’s global to changes that take place in greenhouse gases and which is otherwise referred to as climate sensitivity. Currently, there is a range of estimation with regard to this feature; this range makes representation of important source of future changes in the sea levels that are uncertain (Kenchington, Stocker and Wood, 2012). Urban and regional Planning Strategies and roles of government levels The planning strategies are important considerations in the urban and regional planning and management in order to cope with the challenges that are brought about by the high sea rising levels at the Gold coast. The federal as well as the territory are having got their planning strategies which are affected in the form of policy making. The policies made are then implemented through urban and regional management. With regard to the challenges that are experienced in regional and urban planning in Australia concerning the impacts of the rise in the sea level especially at the gold coast, The government can be able to offer its contributions in solving the problems and containing the situation by taking the available planning and policy options. It is important for the government to contribute to the formulation and coming up with the relevant and useful plans and policies but it is more important for the same government to be considerably responsible in ensuring the formulate plans and policy options are actually implemented to the latter. The coastal zone in Australia harbors most of the population in the nation as well a larger number of social and economic activities. The availability of formulation of sound management regional planning and implementation policies in this region is very significant initiative in the development of the ecological system and the entire environment (Agthe, Billings and Buras, 2003). The constitution in Australia has left the management and planning of regional and urban issues to the territory governments and the Australian state. For this reason the urban and regional planning at the coastal regions is dominated by the territory and state governments. The constitutional provision on offshore settlement combined together with the other pieces of legislations that are affecting planning and policy making in urban areas provide the territory and state governments with significant responsibilities over the policy making as well as the implementation through monitoring and evaluation strategies (Freire and Yuen, 2004). The other urban planning and regional management policy options available for both the state and territory governments in Australia are concerned with the implementation of integrated coast zonal management. This arises from the fact that the federal government in Australia has a got a distinct role to play in addressing these challenges. Anticipated outcomes of policy options It is anticipated that the outcomes associated with policy options that are available to the government in dealing with the challenges facing the regional and urban planning and management affairs and which is as a result of the rise in the sea levels at the Gold coast region will involve several considerations with regard to planning. Such options involve the undertaking by the government concerning the mapping of the coastal vulnerability in the entire coastal region of Australia. This is expected to allow for the exposure of the of the vulnerability mapping to the level of sea rise that is predicted and understood through the use of consistent data. Vulnerability mapping process will bring about the construction of both state and local government capacities for adaptation, since the options for adaptation are expected to be apparent. It will also allow for the reduction that is associated with maladaptive policies in planning that encourage the development intensity in high-risk areas. Low cost at land usage with no regrets will bring about responses for planning adaptation that enhance or maintain adaptation options in a more readily identifiable manner. The government policy concerning the mapping for Coastal vulnerability mapping is expected to be systematically included into local strategies in urban and regional planning and management through zone boundaries, hazard overlays as well as policies through a participative palming and management in the development process that exceeds the requirement for public notification. It is also important for the government to do scheduling with regard regulations for development which would provide the board in charge of cost protection with the powers and authorities to adequately and appropriately manage the hazards in the coastal region in which the rise in sea level is included. This would bring about a consistent state that will offer a wide range of application to the policies associated with the rise in the sea level and also to allow for the provision of a way in which the local council can function and operate (Subramanian, 2012). The provision of the benchmarks associated with the rise in the sea level should be reviewed in order to allow for the consideration of prediction of sea level rise. There also needs to be a monitoring and evaluation process which should be continual (Macário, 2011). Risks of not acting The risks that are associated with or would result from not acting on the available policy creation and implementation by the state and the territory governments in Australia have grave concerns. They are severe and it would be advisable to stay away from even contemplating having or experiencing them. However it is of considerable significance to strategize on the methods and techniques of carrying out appropriate risk assessment exercise. This is an exercise that needs to be taken into consideration in the course of regional and urban planning and management activities that are aimed at the challenges and issues facing the Gold coast and other coastal regions in Australia (Brown, Tompkins and Adger, 2002). The recommended approach would be the performance of a risk assessment exercise, on the basis of the estimated probability of different levels of sea level rise. Risk assessment exercise is aimed at producing meaningful results under circumstances of high uncertainty. While the evidence from science for future rise in sea level at the Gold coast appears to be convincing, the future estimation of rise in sea level are not entirely adequate for regional and urban planning and management purposes (Yigitcanlar, 2010). The estimation range is wide; partly due to the fact that there are available uncertainties associated with the scientific knowledge presently on this matter, and partly due to the fact that differences in estimation of greenhouse gas emissions in future are experienced. Regional and urban planners and mangers would ideally make use of a projection of a specific level of sea rise to be related to certain given probability. It is not useful for Regional and urban planners and mangers if the vast range of predicted level of sea rise is subjected to the assumption that it is equally probable. In any case, this cannot be the situation, since the range results from combining component ranges of uncertainty, and therefore the extremes involved in this ranges are supposed to be less probable as compared to the estimates at the central level (Ramanathan, 2010). These several cases are created with the use of a variety of postulated future social and world economic conditions to get to the selection of “storylines”. When the various storylines were created, it was stated explicitly that no uncertainties could be attached to them; in other words, statements could not be made with the regard to the probability of conditions for the future world actually making resemblance of the storylines. Conclusion In conclusion, it is clear that for urban coastal areas that are highly developed, regional and urban planning and management measures should incorporate security options such as the beach nourishment and sea walls. This should be encouraged to combat the rise in sea level for the times in the future. Nonetheless, as the rise in the level of the sea continues to be of concern the available combating options are likely to become increasingly expensive. Difficult choices may be experienced will have to be considered whether security continues for particular regional areas, or whether adaptation and retreat is instead employed. The current adoption of regional and urban coastal planning schemes in some Australian States is expected to bring about a change in territory as well as federal government planning responses to challenges caused as a result of sea level rise. For Regional and urban planners and mangers, this brings about a difficult condition, as the future climatic projection by the end of the 21st century. The issue of assigning possibilities to the global warming condition in future is currently the subject of lively discussions. Nevertheless, in the near future, this will not be a significant concern, as the projections in the rise of sea level are not strongly influenced by differences in emissions scenarios. As described earlier, the major source of uncertainties in the near future is because of uncertainty concerning the scientific knowledge regarding the rise in sea level, not the greenhouse gases emissions in the future. . References AGTHE, D. E., BILLINGS, R. B., & BURAS, N. (2003). Managing urban water supply. Dordrecht, Kluwer. BROWN, K. M., TOMPKINS, E. L., & ADGER, W. N. (2002). Making waves. London, England, Earthscan. DIJK, M. P. V. (2006). Managing cities in developing countries: the theory and practice of urban management. Cheltenham [u.a.], Elgar. FREIRE, M., & YUEN, B. K. P. (2004). Enhancing urban management in East Asia. Aldershot, Ashgate. HARVEY, N. (2006). Global change and integrated coastal management the Asia-Pacific region. Dordrecht, Springer. KENCHINGTON, R. A., STOCKER, L., & WOOD, D. (2012). Sustainable coastal management and climate adaptation lessons from regional approaches in Australia. Collingwood, Vic, CSIRO Publishing. KRISHNAMURTHY, R. R. (2008). 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