Posted in Urban Design

Making a global agenda work locally for healthy, sustainable living in tropical Australia

Life in the tropics is often seen as “living in paradise”, a place where everything grows and flourishes. This picture-postcard environment is not the year-round reality. At certain times of year, intense heat, humidity and the wet season affect liveability, making outdoor activity unattractive and thereby reducing social cohesion.

Urban living can already be pretty insular these days. People move from temperature-controlled houses to temperature-controlled cars to temperature-controlled offices, and vice versa. There’s no need to talk to anyone really. And exercise? It’s something you try to fit in if you can – but you probably don’t.

An ideal city life might be one in which you walk or cycle to work easily, say hi to a neighbour, and pick up some fresh produce for lunch along the way. While it is nice to expect that people will do this for a healthier self and planet, the truth is that daily life choices depend on convenience.

Furthermore, the planning and design (or haphazard evolution) of urban spaces largely dictate the way we live. This in turn affects our health in many ways. It can, for instance, encourage or discourage active lifestyles, social cohesion and access to healthy food choices.

This is where the New Urban Agenda comes into play.

The New Urban Agenda and why it matters

The New Urban Agenda, drafted by UN-Habitat and endorsed in late 2016 by the United Nations General Assembly, aims to help everyone to benefit from urbanisation.

Through Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 (Sustainable cities and communities), the agenda provides a guide for developing safe, inclusive, resilient and sustainable new cities that promote social integration and equity. It can also provide the impetus for conversations about the growth, redesign and redevelopment of existing urban spaces.

Making the New Urban Agenda work locally depends on more than overall regulations, or “importing” southern Australian solutions to the tropics. Even within the Australian tropical region, the climate varies. Cairns experiences a tropical monsoon climate (wet tropics), while Townsville is exposed to a tropical savannah climate (dry tropics).

The way public spaces should be designed must, therefore, also vary within the tropical climate zone. We need to listen to locals, understand their behaviour and preferences, then promote these preferred public space qualities through urban planning and design.

Good design can improve the choices we make. But what is good design? And how do we adapt general guidelines to specific places and cultures?

Urban diaries to understand each city

Urban diaries are premised on the importance of local history, values and knowledge. This approach aims to “distinguish underlying organic relationships between people and cities from indiscriminate prescription imposed upon place”. Urban diaries are a powerful tool for personal observation, raising awareness and creating positive urban change.

In our investigation, participants are invited to shoot and caption photographs of their surroundings, noting what makes their lives healthier, happier and stronger, and what does not. These images will be shared through social media and used to capture ideas and start conversations.

These urban diaries will help clarify how Cairns and Townsville function as tropical cities. At the same time this approach will help bring to light ways of improving local lifestyles by implementing the New Urban Agenda principles in this local context.

Place-based urban planning and design

Climate-responsive planning and design are important to make sure people can incorporate incidental exercise into their everyday routine. People will use public spaces if these are designed in a way that mediates the negative impacts of tropical climates.

What type of spaces and features will encourage people to walk even if the temperature outside is 40℃? We are particularly interested in three overarching questions. These concern how existing urban infrastructure and amenities promote or restrict:

  1. active lifestyles
  2. social inclusion
  3. healthy eating.

These questions will be explored through public participation in the upcoming UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign Urban Thinkers Campus events in Cairns on June 8 and Townsville on June 15. Drawing on urban diaries, these events will provide the fundamental basis for understanding these places through a local lens.

Originally Published by The Conversation, continue reading here.

Locals call for a ‘High Line’ on Sydney’s north shore

Residents of the Sydney suburb of Lavender Bay are pushing for a linear park to be developed along side a historic rail line that would provide a pedestrian link between Lavender Bay and Waverton Station.

Established in 2016, the Sydney Harbour High Line Association describes itself as “a group of like-minded people that sees the importance of building on the amenities to support the huge growth in the number of people living in Sydney in general and the lower north shore in particular.”

According to the Mosman Daily, earlier in April the association met with a State Government committee, where it presented its detailed plans for the publicly held land that lies beside the railway. If the project goes ahead, the park would be operated by North Sydney Council.

Proposed ramp access from Harbourview Crescent. Image: Sydney Harbour High Line

The heritage-listed rail line is not used for a passenger service, but is used by Sydney Trains for driver training. The site is significant due to its connection to artist Brett Whiteley, who famously painted scenes of Sydney Harbour from his home in Lavender Bay, adjacent to the railway tracks, as well as the “secret garden” created by Brett’s former wife Wendy. The Whiteleys’ house and garden were both recently added to the state heritage register.

Local state MP Felicity Wilson, who supports the project, told the Mosman Daily that she had “secured an agreement from Sydney Trains to explore the feasibility of installing a segregated walking track alongside the current active line.” The proposal is inspired by and takes its name from the High Line in New York City, an elevated railway conversion designed by Diller Scofidio and Renfro. This was in turn inspired by the first rail park, the Coulée verte René-Dumontin in Paris, which opened in 1993.

Originally Published by ArchitectureAU, continue reading here.

Urban Runoff and Water Sustainability in Urban Design

The issue of conserving our environment is a complex one. While reducing our material usage, reusing what already exists and recycling other products are all valuable steps towards reducing the impacts of climate change, they cannot be the only strategies adopted in an integrated approach.

Urban runoff and water sustainability in urban design

Photo: article supplied

Sustainability is not just a matter of products. A holistic approach must also encompass how the built environment responds to its context and to its inherent natural processes. This is more important than ever, as extreme weather events become more frequent, placing extra stress on – and accelerating the degradation of – both our natural and built environments.

Australia has long been known for its capricious weather and extreme climate conditions, ranging from flash floods to extreme droughts in a seemingly narrow space of time. These extreme weather events have been exacerbated as a result of climate change, and have presented significant problems to the natural environment.

When heavy rainfall is paired with the rapid growth of our urban environments, one of the issues that results is urban runoff. Rain travels from roofs to gardens, footpaths, roads and carparks before landing in our stormwater network. On its way into the ocean, stormwater inevitably collects a number of contaminants which, in their final resting place, end up upsetting the delicate nutrient balance of our natural water table.

The harmful chemicals and substances that find their way into our stormwater system comes from any number of places. For instance, nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilisers, heavy metals such as zinc and lead from our roads, in addition to your standard-issue garbage and detritus. A city such as Sydney sheds 500 billion litres of stormwater into the ocean per annum – the equivalent of the water within Sydney Harbour – which has significant consequences for the water networks that sustain our natural ecosystems. Not to mention our drinking supply.

In order to tackle this issue, Australia’s federal, state and territory governments have sought to adopt Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) practices. Some of these include increasing natural water infiltration, promoting organic alternatives to fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, and slowing the discharge of stormwater runoff. Increasing the length of time that stormwater takes to reach natural waterways allows for a longer filtration process, to remove the harmful pollutants and foreign bodies picked up in the initial stages of its development.

This article was originally published by Architecture and Design.

Click here to read the entire article.

How to include physical activity related health benefits in the economics of urban planning

Belen Zapata-Diomedi, Lennert Veerman.

Attributes of the built environment, such as street connectivity, diversity of land uses and transportation infrastructure can positively influence physical activity of urban populations, which results in health and economic benefits. However, decisions within the built environment are usually made without a full consideration of health outcomes. While health effects related to road trauma and exposure to poor air quality are included in the appraisal process in the transport sector, physical activity is not assessed on a routine basis. This incomplete picture may result in a bias towards built environments that are not supportive of physical activity.

In Australia, the population is estimated to further concentrate in capital cities, increasing from 16 million in 2017 to 27 million in 2053 [1]. This presents infrastructure and housing challenges, but also opportunities to create liveable places where people can be active and healthy. The research community can greatly contribute to a healthy expansion of Australian cities by providing evidence of the likely health benefits of built environments that facilitate physical activity. Hence, based on recent Australian literature, we estimated the impact on walking and cycling of changes in features of the built environment: density, diversity of land use, availability of destinations, distance to transit, design, and neighbourhood walkability.

Economic values were found to be greatest for increasing availability of destinations within the neighbourhood, which are associated with health-related benefits worth an average $14.65 per adult annually (range $0.41 to $42.51), depending on the type of destination. The economic value of increasing neighbourhood walkability was found to be worth an average $1.62 per adult annually (range $0.11 to $15.73). Most of the value was derived from gains in quality and duration of life. These results are based on study a study commissioned by the Centre of Population Health of the New South Wales Ministry of health (http://preventioncentre.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/1604_Urban-form-evidence-review_final1.pdf). They are expressed on a per person basis and in dollar values, and could serve as reference values in cost benefit analysis of built environment interventions.

 

  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Capital cities: past, present and future. 2014 [cited 2017 28 February]; Available from: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/featurearticlesbyCatalogue/AC53A071B4B231A6CA257CAE000ECCE5?OpenDocument#PARALINK3.

 

Transformative Urban Development Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Marc Bartsch BTRP M.L.Arch RPIA RLA

Since the delivery of the presentation ‘Public Transport Revolution: The Making of Place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’ in Brisbane in 2015, work on the Riyadh Metro has continued at a rapid pace, and by early 2017 most of the required tunnelling is complete. At the surface, throughout the city there are numerous access shafts and structures which will provide for station access.

Marc Bartsch

The disruption to the already chaotic traffic of testosterone fuelled Riyadh (remember only men can drive, badly) is not really evident. A few advertisements in the city newspapers was the sum of the public consultation, and word of mouth provided the rest, so that the traffic funnels its way around the extensive barriers and obstacles.

The fate of pedestrians, which are a significant proportion of the over 6,000 deaths on the road per annum in Saudi (one every hour), continues to remain less important. Pedestrian crossings across the station sites are limited to a sign, and the priority is maintained for vehicles which for someone on foot requires breath-taking accuracy and fitness to achieve a crossing.  When the reconstructed roads and “public” domain along the metro route are completed based on the German precision of the Albert Speer and Partners design guidelines (more akin to a design manual which forms part of the design and construct process), the opportunities for pedestrians will improve dramatically.

The new metro will truly recalibrate the footprint for urban development with a hierarchy of centres now focussed on a public transport, rather than based on the floor space of a free-standing retail box set within a sea of car-parking. It will also facilitate shared use of a transport mode in a society with strictly gender segregated shopping and entertainment areas, and transport modes (the new metro will have family only carriages however). There are many critics of the social and political structure of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, however as a country transformed by the discovery and exploitation of oil, the commitment to the delivery of public transport has provided the opportunity for a new agenda in city design.

The current LA style arrangement of regularly choked freeways will be given some relief, and recast the city as a place more accessible for those who don’t own a car or who can’t drive. Ironically the ban on women being able to drive (enforced car-pooling) while acknowledged by the west as undemocratic and sexist ,has probably saved Riyadh from complete extinction by traffic congestion. The advent of twenty first century public transportation accessible to all, and which does not come to a standstill after prayer, gives the city a fresh and welcome start.

Marc was Senior Planner and Advisor to the Metropolitan Planning and Urban Design Department, of the Arriyadh Development Authority, KSA in 2014 and involved in the team responsible for a number of Transit Orientated Development planning projects to accompany the $25 billion metro which is currently under construction.