Handbook

This course examines the interrelationships between urbanisation, planning and the sustainable management of environmental systems. It introduces the role of environmental processes in shaping the patterns of the physical environment and the operation of global environmental systems, with a focus on interaction of humans with their environment and the causes of environmental crises. The role of environmental factors and their centrality to complex and typically contested planning issues including population growth, resource extraction, biodiversity, and food and water security is considered. The course reviews principles of ecologically sustainable development and encourages students to consider how issues are framed, how solutions are negotiated and question whether current planning frameworks help or hinder broader sustainability objectives. Students are introduced to key concepts associated with ‘sustainable urbanism’ including low carbon development, green infrastructure, climate change adaptation and mitigation. Analytical and procedural tools for use in strategic and tactical management of the urban environment and non-metropolitan regions impacted by urbanisation are introduced.