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Urbecon 2007-2008

Urbecon 2007 - 2008

 

OCTOBER 2008  Download PDF

Responding to Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Impacts on Coastal Areas
Environmental scientists expect climate change to bring three major phenomena: sea level rise, more intense storms and variations in ocean acidity...

Learning Regions: How Universities Contribute to Knowledge-Based Economic Development
A knowledge economy is concerned with the opportunities arising from knowledge being diffused throughout the economic process, so it should not be surprising that education and research is a core component...

Auditing Community Infrastructure in Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods
International experience points to the importance of ‘tailored solutions’ in areas of concentrated social disadvantage...

Forecasting industrial land demand
Industrial land demand no longer enjoys much of a relationship with industrial employment. Rather, its demand is driven by logistical requirements of local producers, including their import, export and domestic distribution requirements...

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AUGUST 2008   Download PDF

Building Green: Financial Costs and Benefits
Green buildings, with environmentally sustainable building elements, can deliver benefits to society by saving environmental resources. Although...

Heritage Mechanisms - Approaches and Issues
In recent years, several reports have documented the range of heritage mechanisms used to recognise, protect and encourage the preservation of heritage items in Australia. However...

What is Value Capture?
The rationale for value capture payments has nothing to do with charges for beneficial infrastructure, or with compensating for the unanticipated effects of development...

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APRIL 2008  Download PDF

A Global City is More Than a CBD
Global cities contain diverse precincts and neighbourhoods connected by high quality and dense public transport. Their economies are underpinned by the creativity and constant innovation...

When Will the Echo of the Baby Boom Arrive?
It is clear the retirement of the baby boomers will impact on numerous aspects of the Australian economy and society. The age at which the baby boomers are retiring is an important part of the equation...

A Hard Act to Follow: Aboriginal Corporations and the Transition to CATSI
By June 30th 2009, all federally incorporated entities must make the transition from the now rescinded Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act (1976) to the new Corporations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act (2007); bringing Aboriginal Corporations into line with existing mainstream corporate legislation...

Converting Need to Provision - Principles for Planning and Providing Community Facilities
In providing new community infrastructure it is important to understand the capacities and performance of existing community facilities...

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JANUARY 2008  Download PDF

Building a Stronger National Economy Through Sustainable Cities
Australia’s major cities are vital to the economic health of the nation. Their influence on competitiveness is effected through a multiplicity of functions...

Sustainable Shopping and Retailing: A Supply Chain Approach
In the planning of urban areas a prime responsibility of Government is to ensure that its constituents have access to the goods and services that they need for a satisfying lifestyle. A measure of the quality of a city is in a large part due to how well it goes about this task...

Affordable Housing - Not Just a Housing Issue The main reason for ensuring access to affordable housing is to prevent housing stress: unacceptably low afterhousing-cost household incomes. But there is another downside of not providing affordable housing...

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OCTOBER 2007  Download PDF

Benefits From a Stronger Local Economy on the Urban/Rural Interface
By now, almost everyone agrees on the need for sustainability and for quick and effective action to address climate change. The well publicised Stern Review of the economics of climate change gives a global perspective...

Investing in Regional Infrastructure - Building Competitiveness or Elaborate Pork-Barrelling?
Infrastructure is generally understood to be prone to ‘market failure’, that is, left to its own devices, the market is unlikely to generate an optimal level of investment in this particular asset class...

Regional Economic Development and the Role of Local Government
The general absence of institutionalised levels of regional government in Australia makes it incumbent upon Local Government to adopt a broader view on economic development matters...

Planning Policy for Large Format Retailing
Competitive cities need suburban activity centres with strong place character, supported by mixed use development. Public investment and market-led development should be harnessed to support this end, but...

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JULY 2007  Download PDF

Priority 1: Low Income Renters
Despite current popular commentary about the plight of home buyers, research suggests that most housing stress is concentrated in the low income households in the private rental sector...

Innovative Approaches to Parking Provision
Parking policy is arguably an undervalued topic in urban planning. Managing parking is a key tool for influencing travel demand...

Strong Foundations: Sound Principles in Planning for Economic Development
The objectives of economic development facilitation are essentially the same for any region or locale - encouraging high levels of investment and expenditure capture, a diverse, export-oriented and robust industry base, sustainable and meaningful employment for local residents and a high quality of life. However...

Sydney's CBD and Fringe: Factors Influencing Employment Growth
Sydney is at the ‘beta’ level of global cities; it is asserting a specialist and leading role in the global economy in services like commerce, finance, and business services, where it certainly enjoys a dominant share of jobs in the Australian context. But...

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MARCH 2007 Download PDF

Face it! The Power of F2F Contact in Agglomeration
Geographers and planners have long asserted the potency of face-to-face business interaction in locational behaviour. But, it is only recently that theoretical frameworks to explain this force have begun to crystallise...

User Pays - Still an Appropriate Mechanism?
As home ownership becomes beyond the reach of many Australians the question, 'are infrastructure charges contributing to or detracting from housing affordability?' seems to be endlessly raised...

Office Park or In-Centre? Office Location Drivers in Suburban Sydney
While suburbanisation of Sydney's office employment has been a general phenomenon, not all suburban centres have had employment growth...

Bottle Economics
A range of initiatives have been developed to address the issues associated with packaging wastes. The most widespread attempt to reduce the volume of waste is kerbside recycling. But...

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