Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemRethinking the Inflexible City: what can Australian planning learn from successful implementation of ‘temporary uses’ across the world?( 2013)Temporary uses have been identified as a low-cost, participatory, and economically beneficial method of managing urban change. As planning practice increasingly deploys temporary use, good outcomes require an understanding of how the two interact. Using the case study methodology, this thesis examines the ways in which formal planning practice can encourage, support, complicate and hinder informal temporary urbanism. The thesis does this by analysing the experiences of four agencies facilitating the implementation of temporary uses worldwide, examining their interaction with the planning system, and identifying common constructive and obstructive policy mechanisms. Temporary use projects can be initiated without high levels of support from formal planning; however, having to comply with the formal planning process is a significant hurdle. Traditional planning does not make provisions for short-term urbanism, imposing costly and time-consuming processes incommensurate with the short duration and low cost of the temporary use. Applications for change of use, requirements for building safety triggered by the planning process, and the perceived arbitrariness of the decision-making process are the biggest hurdles that formal planning imposes on temporary use. Temporary uses are best supported through dedicated processes, staff, and relaxed regulations. The findings confirm that temporary uses are a successful method for finding opportunity in situations of uncertainty and crisis. Formal planning practice can strategically deploy temporary projects to achieve long-term planning objectives. These findings should spark more debate about, research on, and experimentation with temporary uses.
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ItemInheriting sustainability: World Heritage listing, the design of tourism development and the resilience of social-ecological complex adaptive systems in small oceanic islands: a comparative case study of Lord Howe Island (Australia) and Fernando de Noronha (Brazil)( 2014)Tourism development and sustainability are pressing issues to small oceanic islands featuring important and scarce natural heritage assets; these islands normally present small geographical areas with clearly defined boundaries, typically limited economic development alternatives combined with environmental systems and resources that are fragile and difficult to restore, once modified. Nevertheless, however paramount and highly interdependent the conservation of natural heritage and the obtaining of economic and social benefits through tourism might be, they do not seem to be subject of easy control; tourism development sustainability is dependent on the behaviour of many different agents, with not always complementary but rather, quite often, competing interests. From a Social-Ecological Complex Adaptive System – SECAS perspective, this research sought to understand how different forms of interpersonal and inter-organisational relationships of cooperation and competition influence the sustainability of Tourism Development - TD in small oceanic islands. Additionally, it sought to identify strategies that could influence these drivers and inhibitors within different social economic contexts, the influence of World Heritage Listing – WHL investigated as one possible global strategy for Localised Conservation – LC. Structured as a qualitative multiple case study, this research took place in two small oceanic island tourist destinations: Lord Howe Island – LHI in Australia and the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago – FDN in Brazil. With relatively similar geographical, tourist, regulatory and environmental characteristics, these sites presented the researcher with cases that have experienced the effects of WHL in different time spans and under different circumstances. They are also microcosms of the distinct social and economic contexts deriving from the different development models of the countries they are part. Aiming to contribute to the body of knowledge on the dynamics of sustainability transitions within tourism development in tourist destinations, this research: provided an overview on the evolution of the multiple concept of sustainability and proposed a working definition; carried a discussion on tourism development in the context of sustainability and developed an associated explanatory model and working definition; developed and applied a conceptual working model for researching the dynamics beneath the resilience of SECASs; bridged different areas of knowledge and applied Grounded Theory – GT methods to the research of SECASs; developed a transdisciplinary approach to research on Sustainability; concluded that Local Empowerment, Local Social Cohesion, Attachment to Place and Local Identity are fundamental to the resilience of Local SECASs and therefore to the sustainability of TD; and concluded that, when analysed from a SECAS approach, LC can both increase and decrease the resilience of global and local social-ecological systems.
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ItemCitizen kid: children’s independent mobility and active citizenship( 2014)This research addresses the question of children’s active citizenship in relation to their independent mobility and aims to provide practical advice and tools for urban planning practitioners for involving children in decisions about the city. The nexus between ‘independent mobility’, ‘active/social citizenship’ and ‘urban planning’ involves a perplexing paradox about children’s rights, participation and their position as citizens. On the one hand, a rhetorical shift towards ‘children’s rights’ has emerged (as expressed in Australia being a signatory to the 1989 UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and in national child-centric policy and programming such as ‘Child Friendly Cities’). On the other hand, evidence reveals the rapid decline in independent mobility for children and in their freedoms to use the city in ways that suit childhood need. This is, reinforced by mainstream planning practice that, in general, ignores or excludes children from participating in decisions about (and even use of) the public realm in our cities. In responding to this paradox, increasing research interest has been applied to children’s independent mobility, the rapid decline in how freely children are able to engage independently with the city and the benefits that this disappearing independence has for children’s development, health and wellbeing. Concurrently, another research interest has emerged around the contested and often exclusionary nature of the city and in ways in which understandings of social citizenship and participation in urban planning decision-making can be expanded better to include the traditionally excluded, including children. This PhD research links these two research interests by examining the relationship between children’s independent mobility and social connectedness to the city and children’s active citizenship and their rights to the city. A goal of the research is to support urban planning in responding robustly to children’s social wellbeing as well as their rights to the city as citizens. The PhD partners with and contributes to the findings of a larger national study funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (CATCH - Children Active Travel Connectedness and Health – DP 1094495) examining how factors in the built, social and policy environments influence the independent mobility and active travel of children aged 10 to 13 across a range of urban environments in four Australian cities. The research addresses two core research questions: 1. Is there a relationship between independent mobility and children’s citizenship and belonging in the city, particularly as understood by children themselves? 2. How can urban planning practitioners capture children’s independent experiences of the city in robust ways that will respect child citizens’ contributions, build their role as citizens and aid in responsive planning and development? The research takes a critical/social constructivist approach, employing mixed methods (including survey analysis, visual analysis and a community-based participatory action research extension project) to address the research questions and contribute to the findings of CATCH and the PhD.
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ItemThe places we keep: the heritage studies of Victoria and outcomes for urban planners( 2012)The incentive for this thesis that resulted from an investigation into the history of my heritage house, developed from my professional interest in the planning controls on heritage places. This was further motivated by my desire to reinvent my career as an urban planner and to use my professional experience in management, marketing and information technology. As a result, the aim of this thesis was to investigate the relationship between the development of the heritage studies of Victoria and the outcome of those documents on planning decisions made by urban planners. The methods used included a simulated experience that established a methodology for the thesis. In addition, interviews were conducted with experts in the field that provided a context for understanding the influencing factors of when, where, by whom, with what, why and how the studies were conducted. These interviews also contributed to the understanding of how the historical research had been undertaken and used to establish the significance of places and how this translated into outcomes for urban planners. Case studies in the form of Tribunal determinations have been used to illustrate key outcomes for urban planners. A large amount of information including that relating to the historical background of the studies plus a collection of indicative content from over 400 heritage studies was traversed. In order to make sense of this volume of material an original framework was developed, the Heritage Studies Framework (HSF). This provided a means of organising and navigating the content of the studies and established a basis for interpreting outcomes. The conclusion of the thesis is that this framework can be shown to establish a clear link between the phases of development of the studies and the use of the studies by urban planners in making their planning decisions. Recommendations for solutions to some of the issues raised throughout the thesis are made including how planners can be involved in future studies.
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ItemKnowing the social: the place for social impacts in the planning law decision-making process in Victoria, Australia( 2010)There are many new areas of town planning and one of the most dynamic, changing and controversial types of planning is what may be broadly termed ‘social town planning’. The past decade and a half has seen the increased need for the inclusion of social planning in urban planning decision-making. In Victoria, Australia, the case study for the current project, urban planning is based on the control of land use and development. The consideration of social impacts within the Victorian planning system is still, generally, not a well understood area of planning practice. This is not unexpected given the long lasting tension in the use of social evidence in legal cases, and, in turn, in planning law decisions. The present project tests the idea that this situation could be improved by understanding how planning law decision-makers gain, and then utilize knowledge on social impacts in land use and development planning issues. Curiosity surrounding these two dimensions forms the foundation of this study. The project explores the way tools such as social impact assessment, plans, maps, expert witnesses, social factual data, planning legislation and related policy and regulatory instruments (all human and non-human actors) are utilized in planning law decision-making activity. Information on the role of the elements of social planning was assembled from a sample of social impact assessment, planning law judgments and interviews with a group of Victorian (State and local) planning law decision-makers. The research found that there appears to be an increase in the use of social evidence in planning judgments in Victoria from 1997-2009 and, over this period in the state of Victoria, more sophisticated social evidence tools have been used in planning judgments. The results show that there is scope to improve the use and weight of social evidence in planning cases. The study also outlines important implications for planning theory, planning history and, planning law and practice.