This study examines the drivers of peri-urban agricultural land loss in Greater Western Sydney (GWS), one of the fastest growing peri-urban regions in Australia, and on the particular contribution of government planning policy and resultant tensions between state and local government decision making.

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...

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 –...

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.

This paper critically examines the response of current strategies to the notion of sustainability and multi-functionality and the role of peri-urban land, with particular focus on agricultural production. This paper offers an analysis of Australian metropolitan planning and comments on the treatment of peri-urban land...

Using a case study of Melbourne’s peri-urban region, this paper explores the capacity for regional growth under different spatial scenarios.

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.

This paper reports on carbon mitigation actions by Queensland local councils, including four periurban cities (Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay, Redland), five major regional cities (Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Cairns, Townsville, Toowoomba), and two emerging regional cities (Mackay, Gladstone).

This paper examines the effects of city boundaries expanding into non-urban hinterland and its consequences for urban populations.

This paper explores the nature of industry and enterprise change in the context of Melbourne’s broad city region and surrounding landscapes. It seeks to determine the implications for agriculture of change in peri-urban land use, industry structures and landscapes.

This paper addresses the following research question: why should land use planning address biosecurity issues in peri-urban landscapes and how might this task be approached?

This paper will explore the process of modelling growth and change across the outer peri-urban region and for specific localities and communities. It will introduce scenarios for change based on trends, planning policy options and future costs and preferences, and the results of spatial (GIS)...

Using two case studies of recent and rapid peri-urbanisation (namely South East Queensland and greater Melbourne, the fastest growing metropolitan regions in Australia), this paper considers if this process can lead to resilient landscapes capable of withstanding future potential environmental and socio economic shocks and...

As population change places pressure on expanding regional and metropolitan urban boundaries, so the threat of bushfire at the rural/urban interface increases. This paper presents a range of 2D and 3D 1:40 and full scale modelling investigations.

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...

Population growth in the peri-urban areas to the north of Melbourne has been significant over the past two decades. This paper uses research establishing the patterns and level of new housing development in these areas to explore processes of planning, housing development and increased community...

This paper compares the settlements in Zurich's Weinland region with those on Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula, focussing in particular on population density and journey-to-work mode shares.

Through an examination of urban and urban deferred rezonings to the Metropolitan Region Scheme, this research paper is concerned with the process of urban expansion as experienced in Perth, Western Australia between 1970 and 2005.

The lack of integrated planning threatens the future of Australian peri-urban areas at a time when their values are becoming increasingly important for Australian cities and regional areas.

Using examples from the peri-urban region around Adelaide, where a number of traditional planning themes coincide with emerging natural resource management concerns, this paper poses some questions about the fundamental nature and limits of this relationship.

Land use on the periphery of urban centres is of critical importance in the sustainability of healthy cities, food security, and natural resource management. The paper argues that it is essential to recognise the “public good” of open space and agriculture in the urban and...

The paper reviews the approach advocated in the Melbourne strategic plan, 'Melbourne 2030', to planning for outer urban development in Melbourne. It analyses governance and current policy, and places the Melbourne 2030 objective of increased outer urban densities in the context of best international practice...

This paper can be characterised as a symptomatic reading of the idea of ‘peri-urban’ and an exploration of the often difficult-to-define transformations it names.

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...

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.