Ecological and Economical Urban Planning Initiatives in Australia - Term Paper Example

Ecological and Economical Urban Planning Initiatives in Australia Student’s Name Professor’s Name Institution’s Name Course Date Table of Contents 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………3 2. The push for Urban Planning……………………………………………………..4 2.1 Environmentalism and City Spatial Planning……………………………….4 2.2 Changes in Climate…………………………………………………………..5 2.3 Water Shortage………………………………………………………………5 2.4 Environmental Degradation…………………………………………………6 3. Economic Factors…………………………………………………………………6 3.1 Increases in Unemployment Level……………………………………….….6 3.2 Inflation………………………………………………………………….…..7 4. Challenges Faced by Government and Commonwealth Policies…………….…...7 4.1 Rampant Variation of Climatic Conditions………………………….……..8 4.2 Emissions of Harmful Gases and Pollution………………………………...9 4.3 Waste Disposal…………………………………………………………….10 4.4 Inflation and Unemployment………………………………………………10 5. Sustainability ……………………………………………………………………11 6. Recommendation…………………………………………………………….......11 7. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………12 8. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..12 Economic and Ecological Urban Planning Initiatives in Australia 1. Introduction Australia is a country which has great proportion of urban societies. Its economic development which is impacted by rapid population increase and the immense urbanization growth led to the introduction of advanced urban planning in the Country (Crabtree 2005). Because of this demand the country has decided to use a dynamic strategy to help in the management and reorganization of urban centers. The countries in the entire region are group of commonwealth states which are expected to adopt the dynamic approach in planning their urbanization. They therefore decided to use the custom based policies and regulations to govern urbanization planning of the countries which are located in various provinces. All the provinces have developed their own laws which are used to support the implementation process of those policies made specifically to control urbanization planning (Australia Futures Task Force 2007). These development policies which are being applied currently had been designed in the colonial era with the intention to check the dynamic nature of western development agenda which is expected to use spatial design and urbanization. Cohesive method is used nowadays with the aim of integrating the urban planning and the policies which were made to ensure that the implementation process is accomplished successfully. It is therefore with the problems which are being faced because of urbanization and other challenges caused by those who are implementing the policies; the Government has decided to prop in to help solve the problems in due course. It is designed to start with the major problems which affect the urban planning then follow soot with the planning process. It is done well by all the countries when all the commonwealth legislations are complied with to ensure that the problems are solved in accordance with the law. 2. The push for Urban Planning The urban planning has been there for a long time and it has been influenced by many factors which could not be solved without taking proper action? Among the factors are the population increases in the country and immigration problem which call for the current urban planning. Other factors which has also greatly influenced urban planning at a great deal are those that affect the society, economic growth and ecology (Australia Futures Task Force 2007).It is also seen that social awareness and the sustainability demand also forced the Government to amend the policies which are used to implement the urban policies in the region. At the same time, there has been an urge to readjust future urban planning so that it can accommodate the rising population in the region. The economic status and the changes in the microeconomics in the region have also led to the enhancement of the current policies to solve the problems which have been there and to fulfill the current development plans in the region successfully (Marsh and Sheldon 2012). It is found that the ecological and economic factors also significantly increase the intention of urban planning and therefore they become the main theme of the discussion of this document. 2.1 Environmentalism and City Spatial Planning Urban Planning is designed to resemble spatial step and therefore it is made to special to be cyclical double channel connection that exist between the study of the home of an organism and the so called spatial urban planning .This makes it to face very many challenges in the related policies which is aimed to be there for a long time without moving on with the current development (Marsh and Sheldon 2012). It is very difficult to manage the external forces which are influenced by ecology and therefore this can only be done when the earlier urban planning policies are amended to fit the dynamic economy which demands great changes .This changes which are instituted in the past policies are able to provide sustainability which is able to accommodate the changes in the ecology. The great attentions of ecology which are the bond of contention in urbanization are categorized as economic ecology and they are found to be easily controlled by the adoption of policies which focus on the future development .The ecological factors which significantly affect urban planning are discussed below in the following topics. 2.2 Changes in Climate The unexpected variation in climate in the entire region of Australia is regarded as one of the most important factor the drive the country to take active participation in urban planning. It is therefore very essential for the Australian continent to implement good planning initiative that accept changes in the climatic conditions since the country is very prone to the climatic changes .It is evident that most of the urban centers are highly affected by the changes in the climate because of modern spatial planning. This makes the urban areas in the whole region to be more alert in detecting and more concerned about even the small variation in the climate. The variation in climate which impacts spatial planning in the region is rainfall which influence flood, soil erosion in around the coastal regions and also the rise in the level of the sea because of the effect of the global warming (Marsh and Sheldon 2012). The alteration of temperature, marine life and other living organisms also promoted the development of urban policies which is to be controlled with the commonwealth legislations and policies. 2.3 Water Shortage The shortage of water in the urban centers due to rapid increase in population influenced great control on spatial initiatives since it is a natural resource which is very important. The Government has to develop strong policies to regulate the use of water in the urban areas since it is a natural resource which people must use in their daily lives. These initiatives which have been adopted by the Government must be able to keep the water requirement in a sustainable level required by the urban areas in the commonwealth countries in the region. The initiative which the Government is to adopt is to ensure that the water requirement is met in both the current and future. This urban planning came because there was high level of water pollution and inadequate water supply which could not meet the demands of the rising population. 2.4 Environmental Degradation The urbanization growth has caused the alteration of the landscape since there is increased rate of deforestation; pollution and destruction of the surface of the land .Forests are being cleared to provide room for developing urban areas and also to provide charcoal for fuel to satisfy the growing population .The surface of the land has also been destroyed by miners in search of minerals to feed the growing population. This is to meet the hard economic times of the country which is influenced by the said population increase .This affected the lives of both the plants and wildlife. The effect of deforestation increases the aridity of the region and therefore the needs of urban planning came in to control and manage the rising population from continuing with the activities that affect the landscape of the region. 3. Economic Factors There are also some economic factors which led to the introduction of urban planning in the commonwealth counties in Australia (Marsh and Sheldon 2012). The increased population and the need to increase the living standard led to very many factors which affect the economy of the countries in Australia 3.1 Increases in Unemployment Level The rapid growth in population has influence the increase in the level of unemployment in the region. This therefore forced the Government in the region to develop urban planning which can help them solve the problem of unemployment. The majority of people living in the region have no jobs and this led to the decrease in their living standards. This increased in the unemployment level negatively affect the income of the peoples which eventually lowers the GDP of the countries in the region hence economic meltdown. The policies and procedures have to be made to increase the employment level to improve the per capita income of the people. 3.2 Inflation The great increase in population and urbanization also caused inflation in the commonwealth countries in the region (Bambrick and Capon 2011). The limited companies which are in the region opted at selling their products at very high prices, since there is ready market for their commodities .This aggregate increase in the commodity prices in the region forced the Government to institute urban planning policies and legislation to govern the prices of the commodities which the domestic companies are enjoying due to rise in the population 4. Challenges Faced by Government and Commonwealth Policies There are very many challenges which are being faced by the Government and commonwealth policies in relation to the urban planning policies .These challenges has made these stakeholders not to achieve their goal as contained in the urban planning policies and legislation. 4.1 Rampant Variation of Climatic Conditions The unexpected variation of climate which results into unfavorable temperature increase and the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere have been found to be influenced by the activities of mankind are lead to the development of urban planning policies in the Country. The policies which have been made failed to fully address the issues of macro level initiatives. This is encountered when the responses are seen to take a lot of time to be realized when the procedures instituted by the commonwealth Government took a different direction of Kyoto protocol. There is only compliance of their policies in urban areas but they are not being practiced in the local areas which are mostly dominated by few enlightened people. 4.2 Emissions of Harmful Gases and Pollution The release of harmful gases into the atmosphere and pollution are the main cause of environmental damage. The gases which are released into the atmosphere originate from industries which are developed to feed the rising population. The steps which has been instituted to reduce these problems by the commonwealth Government does not contain any plan to promote any kind of commerce in carbon scheme but is only made to reduce it. They also fail to consider the future benefit of trading in carbon which is released as one of the gases into the atmosphere. The challenge which is encountered by the Government in connection to this will be of great importance since it can promote participation in carbon trade schemes which can also be a source of income to others in the future. 4.3 Waste Disposal The management of waste come as a result of urbanization and population increase. The plans which have been in most urban areas by Commonwealth Government took mixed initiatives in regard to the policies which they have made to control waste disposal in the region (Bambrick and Capon 2011). The policies were established to be used in the whole country but the implementation was only done locally making the waste disposal management to be very poor in the entire region. The fact that there are no proper rules and regulations to help in the management of waste disposal, it still causes some health and environmental problems which has challenged the Government to control effectively. 4.4 Inflation and Unemployment There are also challenges which exist in unemployment and inflation which the urban planning is facing. The policies which the commonwealth government has made only focus on the methods of controlling inflation and job creation but they have found it very difficult to create job opportunities at the same rate with the growth of the population of the region (Bambrick and Capon 2011). The rules and regulations which they have made were not well implemented since the implementation stakeholders breach those rules to attain their personal gains. This makes it to be very hard for the Government to have full implementation and this cause the country to still face the problem of inflation and unemployment. 5. Sustainability It is very important to sustain the spatial urban planning in Australia since the effect of population increase is very adverse and therefore the mechanism to reduce its effect must be put in place (Bambrick and Capon 2011). This spatial planning will ensure that all the urban projects are done in accordance with the law for a long time with very minimal effect on the environment and economy of the whole nation. The relationship between these factors and urban planning can provide positive effect when managed well by the Government to provide some economic activities which are helpful to the citizen of the country (Bambrick and Capon 2011). The Government therefore has the opportunity to provide relevant legislation for urban development that can generate suitable results for the problems which are encountered because of urbanization in the region. Good policies and laws are capable of ensuring that there is proper waste disposal, reduced emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere and availability of job opportunities in the country by encouraging recycling of waste products to generate new things. 6. Recommendations In the assessment of the policies and legislation which has been used to mitigate these problems of ecological and economical factors, the Government still has some very important techniques to handle these problems better. These approaches are capable to provide accurate measures which can protect and enhance sustainability on the economic and ecological factors which calls for the introduction of urban planning in Australia. There are still very many important approaches which can be used to improve the policies and initiatives which have been adopted by the commonwealth Government (Gurran and Norman 2011). They are suppose to use both micro and macro level mechanism which seems to be very advantageous than others to reinforce the policies which has been used earlier. The use of the combined approach is capable of providing quantifiable outcomes in the shortest time possible and is also sustainable because of the micro orientation of the initiatives used for urban planning. The Government is also to institute some technical strategies which can ensure that there is regular monitoring of the policies which have been used to implement the current urban policies so that they are followed to the latter. The database where such policies are kept should also be updated so that they reflect current information which is necessary for micro level policies. 7. Conclusion The Government of Australia is in the process of developing accurate and sustainable policies which are aimed at managing and planning for better ecological and economical factors which affect the entire country currently. These policies are directed towards minimizing the adverse effect of urbanization on the economy and ecology which makes the rapid growing population to suffer the consequences of unplanned urbanization. They develop these policies to absorb the adverse changes in the current economy and environment which resulted into the demand of urban planning of the nation (Williams and West 2000). It is therefore upon the Government to improve on their policies and initiatives so that they can provide sustainable measures that can enhance the quality of urban planning. It is in deed necessityfor the country to implement the holistic approach which is capable of capturing the entire economical and ecological initiatives of the country to ease the control of urban development projects. 8. Bibliography Australia Futures Task Force, 2007, Challenges and Directions for Australia’s Urban and Regional Future, Report for Task Force formed by the Australian Research Bambrick, J and Capon,G 2011, Climate change and health in the urban environment: adaptation Opportunities in Australian cities, Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health. Crabtree, L., 2005, Sustainable Housing Development in Urban Australia: exploring obstacles to and opportunities for ecocity efforts, Australian Geographer. Gurran, N and Norman, B.2011, Planning for climate change adaptation in Coastal Australia: State of practice, Report No. 4 for the National Sea Change Taskforce Marsh, N and Sheldon, F 2012, Guidance on ecological responses and hydrological modeling for low-flow water planning, National Water commission , Waterlines Report Series Williams, J and West, C 2000, Environmental weeds in Australia and New Zealand: issues and approaches to management, Austral Ecology. Read More