Draft south west district plan: co-creating a Greater Sydney

This draft District Plan sets out aspirations and proposals for Greater Sydney’s South West District, which includes the local government areas of Camden, Campbelltown, Fairfield, Liverpool and Wollondilly. It has been developed by the Greater Sydney Commission. This draft District Plan is on formal public exhibition until the end of March 2017, and will be finalised towards the end of 2017 to allow as many people as possible to provide input. This draft District Plan proposes a 20-year vision for the South West District, which includes the local government areas of Camden, Campbelltown, Fairfield, Liverpool and Wollondilly. It has been developed by the Greater Sydney Commission in consultation with State agencies and the community, with technical input from councils. The South West District will transform over the next 20 years. It was one of the first districts to be settled in the early colony and is now one of Greater Sydney’s fastest growing districts. The investment in the Western Sydney Airport will be driven by the Australian and NSW Governments with local government through the Western Sydney City Deal. With the Airport’s associated transport infrastructure and the growing employment hubs in Campbelltown- Macarthur and Liverpool, more of the District’s people will be able to work closer to where they live and reduce the time they spend commuting. Our work on this draft District Plan builds on the District’s characteristics, while drawing on a robust body of technical material that looks into Greater Sydney’s changing demographics, economy, housing, open spaces and many other characteristics. It also incorporates feedback garnered through our #GreaterSydney engagement during 2016. &nbsp

Draft south district plan: co-creating a Greater Sydney

This draft District Plan sets out aspirations and proposals for Greater Sydney’s South District, which includes the local government areas of Canterbury-Bankstown, Georges River and Sutherland. It has been developed by the Greater Sydney Commission. This draft District Plan is on formal public exhibition until the end of March 2017, and will be finalised towards the end of 2017 to allow as many people as possible to provide input. This draft District Plan proposes a 20-year vision for the South District, which includes the local government areas of Canterbury-Bankstown, Georges River and Sutherland. It has been developed by the Greater Sydney Commission in consultation with State agencies and the community with technical input from councils. The South District draws in some of Greater Sydney’s most famous beaches, Australia’s first National Park, three rail lines and planned investment in better public transport, a diverse mix of multicultural communities, and strong connections to major places of employment such as Sydney City, Sydney Airport, Port Botany and Liverpool. Our work on this draft District Plan builds on the District’s characteristics, while drawing on a robust body of technical material that looks into Greater Sydney’s changing demographics, economy, housing, open spaces and many other characteristics. It also incorporates feedback garnered through our #GreaterSydney engagement

Geodesign:A Tale of Three Cities

In this paper we discuss the application of the Steinitz (A framework for geodesign: changing geography by design. ESRI, Redlands, CA, 2012) Geodesign Framework in the context of three cities including (i) South East Sydney, (ii) the emerging Western City of Sydney and (iii) Canberra. In all three of these case studies we have used the Geodesign Hub platform to develop a series of future city scenarios. A common theme with each of these cities is they are all experiencing population growth. Another common theme is that each city required integrated land use transport planning given new transformational infrastructure including light rail, mass transit and in the case of the Western City of Sydney a new airport being built. The research conducted is reflective and based on case studies in the context of studio work undertaken by three different Geodesign classes run across two universities. The research reflects on the strengths and opportunities of the Geodesign Framework in supporting the planning and design of future cities in the context of (i) data and technology, (ii) process, and (iii) outputs. Future work will examine the pedagogical experiences of students in working with Geodesign methods and software as we train the next generation of city planners and designers.</p

Urban Energy Masterplanning: Approaches, Strategies, and Methods for the Energy Transition in Cities

Many cities across the world have the ambition of becoming carbon neutral, but exact figures of progress toward that goal are limited. Regarding Europe’s not overly ambitious 2020 carbon emission targets, many countries still have a long way to go (see Fig. 1), with cities as the prime objects for improvement. It is fair to say that the energy transition is lagging behind, for which several reasons can be given. One assumption, based on experience with projects with various European cities, is that cities—their administrations and other stakeholders—generally have insufficient understanding of how to gain and maintain control over the complex process of the energy transition with its multiple actors and diverse objectives and responsibilities. Another suggested reason is the lack of appropriate approaches, strategies, and methods to guide the energy transition in formulating clear targets and intermediate steps of mainly technical and spatial interventions. These, however are currently under development, and are being tested in cities across the continent—such as in Gothenburg, London, Rotterdam, Cologne, and Genova within the EU project Celsius (www.celsiuscity.eu), and in Amsterdam and Grenoble, for the EU project City-zen (www.cityzen-smartcity.eu)—with promising results so far. The main research question underlying this chapter is: How can cities be supported in their energy transition toward carbon neutrality? We will describe the development of approaches, strategies, and methods for the urban energy transition, their background and theoretical basis, and present urban case studies where they were applied. Finally, an outlook will be given for methodological developments in the near future