ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the obstacles to achieving a truly sustainable 'environmental planning', and evaluates some alternative ways of 'thinking' and 'doing' planning. Positive development (PD) creates net improvements in ecological, social and economic conditions, by using and supporting biogeochemical systems and increasing ecological carrying capacity for their instrumental values and for their intrinsic value of nature. The chapter argues that urban development can be converted into ecologically sustainable solutions. Environmental planning and urban design can drive systems change from negative to positive, within and beyond urban boundaries. Ecosystem services are the free services that nature provides, such as clean energy, food, water, air, soil, biodiversity. Ecological waste (EW) analysis was devised to address misleading claims from waste management and resource extraction industries. Resource transfer (RT) analysis could determine and map the distributive impacts of resource allocation patterns over time, helping people visualise the effects of development on resource accessibility, ecosystem resilience and human health.
