ABSTRACT
Urban areas are productive regions, in terms of their scientific, social and economic output. But cities are not separate from, or outside of, nature. The urban metabolism of cities depends on biophysical systems, and as previous chapters have emphasised, cities need to be designed and renewed to protect the integrity of these systems. Urban development is forecast to increase in the foreseeable future (chapter 1), raising questions about the kind of urban change that is desirable and necessary, and the preferred patterns of these changes. Which development patterns will allow our cities to become more flexible, sustainable, resilient and adaptive? These questions are integral to discussions about the potentialities for Australian environmental planning, in fields such as ‘green urbanism’, ‘zero waste’ and ‘optimal ecological connections’.
