Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemUrban planning for honeybees: The gap between science and policy( 2021)Honeybees are important to our cities because they provide essential ecosystem services and contribute significantly to our food production systems. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that they are in decline, particularly within urban settings, and that they can differ on a subspecies level in their resilience to urbanisation. The ability to successfully plan for the conservation of urban honeybees depends on urban policy and strategies that meaningfully engage with the science. However, literature demonstrates that some urban planning policies and strategies tend to fail to consider the best science. Accordingly, the aim of this thesis is to determine if the City of Melbourne’s (CoM) current policies and strategies for urban bee conservation consider the differences between honeybee subspecies in their resilience to urbanisation. Documents relevant to the CoM’s urban bee conservation planning were examined using a list of guiding questions and a coding system influenced by similar studies. It was found that not only do the CoM’s current policies and strategies for urban bee conservation fail to consider the discrepancies between honeybee subspecies in their resilience to urbanisation, they also fail to engage with the science on a meaningful or specific level. This is an important finding as it suggests that Melbourne is not effectively planning for the conservation of honeybees and is exposed to the adverse environmental, social and economic impacts of a declining urban honeybee population.