Peri-Urban Planning in an Age of Limits

Abstract

<p>Issues such as natural resource depletion, global warming, climate change, globalisation, accelerating population growth, uneven distribution of fresh water supplies, rampant consumerism and rapid urbanisation are part of current public discussion. Rapid urbanisation has resulted in over half the world’s population currently living in urban areas. This is projected to rise to 80 percent by 2030. The scale and extent of urban activities has a significant effect on the environment through landform change, energy usage and waste output (both solid and gaseous). The rate of consumption of global resources currently exceeds the rate of replenishment. This has led to concerns that an Age of Limits has been reached. Expansion of the urban footprint consumes the adjoining non-urban fringe land on which urban populations rely. Non-urban fringe land, referred to here as the peri-urban, is the transitional space between land of relatively high-density populations and homogeneous land use, the ‘urban’, and low population-density, broadacre farmland, the ‘rural’. Peri-urban locations are characterised by fragmented subdivision patterns, differential urban settlement, multi-functional land uses and highly productive agricultural areas. Periurban land provides adjacent urban populations with benefits such as perishable produce and ecosystem services, including natural resources, waste disposal, water catchments, recreation areas and scenic vistas. Contemporary land use allocation has occurred through land use planning. Planning policy currently operates within an economically-driven, urban growth policy framework. Peri-urban land is consumed as if there is an endless supply of this productive, amenity-rich land available. Scientific knowledge and processes enable exploitation of the non-urban resources for economic wealth creation. Classic economic approaches externalise the costs of development of peri-urban land. Legislative remedies to address market failures appear insufficient to redress increasingly complex planning issues. In an impending Age of Limits, this thesis examines the current paradigms underlying land use planning; how these paradigms relate to and affect peri-urban land use; and, finally, the thesis explores the means to appropriately address emerging issues resulting from the current paradigms underpinning peri-urban land use planning. Australia is regarded as an appropriate case study location for this research due to its highly-urbanised population, severely limited supply of arable land, climatic extremes, food production and resource-based economy, and policy focus on economic growth and globalisation. Evaluation of the New South Wales planning system, a metropolitan comparative analysis of Sydney and Melbourne, and an examination of an Australian regional area form the case studies. Oregon’s iconic planning system is utilised as an international case study from which to draw different perspectives. While these case studies provide lessons of local significance the findings also offer transferability to other locations. The research concludes that addressing the limits in existing approaches to peri-urban land use requires a new approach that acknowledges the path dependency inherent in current practices. The conclusion proposes a framework that offers a process to achieve balance in social, economic and environmental considerations in short and long-term peri-urban land use planning.</p>