Can we meet the challenge of urban sustainability?
Can Australia’s vulnerable urban areas be future-proofed?
Wednesday August 19 and Thursday August 20, 2009
Treasury Theatre, Lower Plaza, 1 Macarthur Street, East Melbourne
Australia has some of the world’s most car-dependent and oil-vulnerable urban areas. Many of them are growing at a rapid rate, but in size, not density, and in fringe areas where there is poor access to public transport. With the climate crisis looming, and peak oil about to re-surface, the potential outcomes will be increased congestion, emissions, and social isolation, as well as inefficient urban forms where the poor will pay the price. Even the basic requirement of urban planning, to integrate transport and land use planning, rarely occurs in practice.
Is there any hope of an urban transformation? What is the ‘solution’? What are the obstacles? Is there a way to generate political commitment to long term sustainability? Can local government play a more effective role? Let’s find out over the two days of this conference as we listen to some of the world’s leading authorities discuss and debate how Australia should act to achieve urban sustainability, where today’s growth must not be achieved at tomorrow’s expense.