ABSTRACT
Planners face many problems and issues that are best dealt with at a regional scale, such as air quality, water quality, habitat protection, transportation planning, urban sprawl (land use and growth management), economic development and social equity. Stephen Wheeler (2000), a professor of planning in the United States, argues that sustainable development requires planning at the regional scale. However, regional planning is easier said than done. Planning powers and authority are usually fragmented among competing local governments and agencies with different missions (see chapter 5), which can frustrate planning at a regional scale. But regional planning exercises in Australia show how useful this scale of planning can be to achieving environmental planning objectives. A key question though, is ‘how do we define the boundaries of a region?’.
