Social-ecological systems are breaking down at local, regional, and global scales, and sustainability seems an increasingly distant aspiration. Social harmony and economic systems are connected to ecological systems and climate, in multiple complex ways, at many scales.

The importance of periurban agriculture for a healthy city and the advantages of retaining agriculture are being increasingly recognised in rhetoric, but not in planning strategies, although the urbanisation of agriculturally productive land is of concern around many cities.

Since the mid 1980s the character of residential development on Sydney’s urban fringe has become increasingly socially and economically differentiated from older more established outer ring suburbs.

This paper explores the history, archaeology and environment of Old Castlereagh and the Penrith Lakes Scheme on the banks of the Nepean River in Sydney's west.

This paper explores the major issues arising in Sydney’s rural-urban fringe, particularly from the perspective of Sydney’s fringe from the outside looking in rather from the inside looking out.

This paper posits important lessons to be learned about how to deal with the crisis of urban sprawl in Australia through current planning and design work occurring in the Netherlands and United States where the debate about urban development is focussed on how to achieve...

in 2010 the Growth Area Infrastructure Contribution (GAIC) fund was introduced to partially offset (up to 15%) the cost of new ‘essential state-funded’ infrastructure in growth areas on Melbourne’s fringe. This paper examines the GAIC fund and within this, its use for public transport –...

Illustrating the trend to increasing vulnerability, this paper examines two case studies, South Eastern Australia and California USA, examines the potential effectiveness of land use planning as a means of reducing bushfire risk and argues the need for anticipatory planning to prevent an expansion of...

The trend towards larger, detached, energy intensive dwellings in poorly serviced, low-density, urban fringe locations, leaves governments, households and communities vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The planning and design of new outer urban areas, and the retrofitting of existing ones, affects the extent...

Master-planned estates (MPEs) on edges of cities are a major source of new housing in Australia. Concerns about limited local services and amenities and negative impacts on resident health have contributed to changes in design of some MPEs.