Australian local governments and the early national broadband network roll-out: an online survey

A recent decision by the Australian Federal Government to reassess the scale of the National Broadband Network (NBN) will leave the country with a patchwork of different levels of access to the infrastructure. This intensifies the need to investigate and evaluate the implications of telecommunication at the local level. The paper opens a discussion on the different approaches taken by local government authorities towards the NBN in the early roll-out localities. Building upon the international literature, it analyses the empirical data collected from the Australian local governments involved with the early NBN roll-out using an online survey. The findings reveal an interesting diversity in the approaches taken at the local level, and show how decision-making at higher levels of government can impact local outcomes

Evidence for localization and urbanization economies in urban scaling

We study the scaling of (i) numbers of workers and aggregate incomes by occupational categories against city size, and (ii) total incomes against numbers of workers in different occupations, across the functional metropolitan areas of Australia and the US. The number of workers and aggregate incomes in specific high income knowledge economy related occupations and industries show increasing returns to scale by city size, showing that localization economies within particular industries account for superlinear effects. However, when total urban area incomes and/or Gross Domestic Products are regressed using a generalised Cobb-Douglas function against the number of workers in different occupations as labour inputs, constant returns to scale in productivity against city size are observed. This implies that the urbanization economies at the whole city level show linear scaling or constant returns to scale. Furthermore, industrial and occupational organisations, not population size, largely explain the observed productivity variable. The results show that some very specific industries and occupations contribute to the observed overall superlinearity. The findings suggest that it is not just size but also that it is the diversity of specific intra-city organization of economic and social activity and physical infrastructure that should be used to understand urban scaling behaviors.Comment: 17 pages, 3 table

Brisbane's digital strategy: an economic strategy for the digital age?

A growing number of cities around the world have now realised the need to use digital technology to capitalise on the rapidly growing digitally driven economy. In mid-2013 Brisbane, Australia released its ‘Digital Strategy’ document to strengthen its economy through improved productivity for local businesses. The article is based on a combination of policy analysis and empirical data gathered through interviewing a sample of stakeholders involved in the strategy development process. It aims to understand how Brisbane intends on using the potentials of the digital economy. The results raise questions around the role defined for the digital economy in the future and shed light on the ‘smart city’ concept as a plausible digital-enabled direction for cities and regions with reference to the third wave of economic development, and the Triple (Quadruple) Helix of knowledge development. The lessons learned here may be applicable to any city interested in playing a proactive and productive role in the new economy

Telecommunications and transportation infrastructure: inter- and intra-sectoral borders — perspectives from Australia and the US

A growing body of literature suggests that the segregation of infrastructure and urban/regional planning is at the root of contemporary problems facing many of the world's metropolitan areas. More recently, the introduction of new telecommunication infrastructure highlights the invisible borders that exist within critical infrastructure that provide advantages to some areas such as transportation and disadvantages to others. This paper attempts to understand the nature of inter-sectoral and intra-sectoral borders across infrastructure in Australia and the US. It examines the sometimes contradicting market-led vs. government-led models adopted in the two countries to deliver broadband communications and transportation. The findings identify similarities and differences between the two countries, and reiterate that in order to achieve social equity, and enhance the provision of infrastructure to non-profitable areas, government intervention is required. The paper concludes with a call for performance-based policies that go beyond traditional borders in an effort to better address the contemporary wicked planning problems

Impediments to teleworking in live/ work communities: local planning regulations and tax policies

It was hoped that increased teleworking would reduce traffic congestion leading to lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions, other air pollutants, storm water runoff and noise. However, despite recent technological advancements in telecommunication, telework adoption rates are still lower than initially projected and thus the purported benefits are also lower. The literature suggests that this is related to organisational and institutional barriers. This article examines two institutional issues that appear to be hindering telework at the local scale—land-use planning regulations and tax policies. These were two of the main issues identified through interviews with residents of two live/work communities, one in Australia and the other in the USA. Findings suggest that if policy-makers want to increase teleworking rates, attention should be focused on removing barriers created by local land-use planning regulations and tax policies. With the resurgent interest in telework as a result of the National Broadband Network, this article provides some timely advice to help decision-makers add value to this multi-billion dollar investment

The impact of urban form on disaster resiliency: a case study of Brisbane and Ipswich, Australia

Purpose - This paper examines the impact of urban form on disaster resiliency. The literature shows a complex relationship between urban form factors such as density and diversity and disaster recovery. The empirical analysis in this paper tests the impact of land use mix, population density, building type and diversity on the reconstruction progress in three, six and nine months after the 2010 flood in Brisbane and Ipswich as proxies of disaster resilience. Considerable debate exists on whether urban form factors are the causal incentive or are they mediating other non-urban form causal factors such as income level. In view of this, the effects of a series of established non-urban form factors such as income and tenure, already known as effective factors on disaster resilience, are controlled in the analysis

Spatial planning and high-speed broadband: Australia's National Broadband network and metropolitan planning

The Australian government is constructing a National Broadband Network (NBN), which at an estimated cost of $43 billion will be Australia's largest ever infrastructure project. The NBN, if its full benefits are to be realized, raises a number of important, but largely unexplored, questions for planning. This paper investigates the implications of the NBN for Australian metropolitan planning focusing on the question of how these plans will exploit the NBN to improve urban outcomes. The paper examines the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane metropolitan areas and analyses the strategies shaping the future of these regions during the rollout and implementation of the NBN. This comparative analysis reveals similarities across these three metropolitan areas in their weak stance towards the NBN. Some key findings include: (1) a segregation of infrastructure planning and metropolitan planning; (2) a lack of consistency between different policies within each metropolitan area and (3) policy gaps regarding the role of telecommunications at the metropolitan level. Considering the number of governments worldwide that are making large investments in high-speed broadband, this paper addresses policy issues that will impact upon metropolitan planning well beyond the borders of Australia

Teaching Planning Studios: An Online Assessment Task to Enhance the First Year Experience

Planning studios, through learning by doing, introduce students to relevant practical skills. The problem is that not all students, especially in the first-year, spend the required time on task, so they fall behind and fail to catch up. The article is based on the Community of Inquiry framework and proposes an online assessment to ensure that teaching, social, and cognitive elements are present when there is no face-to-face contact between the teaching team and students. The article follows a planning cohort across their first two studios that adopted the online assessment, and it provides an opportunity to evaluate the impact on the first-year experience.Griffith Sciences, Griffith School of EnvironmentNo Full Tex