Configuring low carbon cities: an exploration of the role of spatial parameters in monocentric and polycentric examples in China

Chief Investigators: A/Prof S. Han; A/Prof R.J. Green; A/Prof N.P. Low; Prof K.B. O'Connor; Dr M. Wang
Funded by: Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project grant (2010-2013)

The “low carbon city” concept for urban development is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most research in this area has emphasized technological innovations. This project, however, will examine the contribution that urban spatial restructuring can make to reducing GHG emissions by assessing the impacts of urban spatial parameters in two Chinese cities. The findings will help in managing climate change by 1) addressing a conceptual flaw in the low carbon city concept; 2) propose an alternative approach to GHG emission control and 3) be tested in the context of a rapidly growing economy that is experiencing dramatic increases in carbon emissions. The aim is that this procedural simulation model will be used to inform planning and design actions aimed at realising low carbon urban development.

Evidence-based landscape design principles for hospital-park systems: The Royal Children’s Hospital Redevelopment in Royal Park, Melbourne, Australia

Chief Investigators: A/Prof. Ray Green and Dr. Louisa Flander (Faculty of Medicine)
Funded by: Victorian Department of Human Services and The Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital (2006)

Positive relationships between good health and contact with nature have been hypothesized, and some research supports this proposition. This evidence was used to develop a set of landscape design principles for guiding the redevelopment of The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne, Australia. This is the largest tertiary pediatric hospital in the Southern Hemisphere, sited at the edge of Melbourne’s oldest and largest urban park - Royal Park. The new $900 million (AUD) hospital is currenlty being redeveloped on a site that is more integrated with the park than the existing structures.The project entailed first conducting a literature review documenting evidence of health benefits associated with contact with nature in heath care facililities and subsequently developing a framework for integrating the landscape of the re-development of the hospital and its site within Melbourne's Royal Park. To help maximize the potential health benefits of the hospital and its park setting a set of design principles, based on a comprehensive review of the landscape design and health research literature dealing with the health benefits of contact with nature, theoretical speculations on this topic, case studies and reports of clinical interventions was conducted. These principles were then incorporated into the terms of reference (the brief) for an international design competition for the new hospital. While the overall quality of the evidence to support these design principles is hampered by the paucity of scientifically rigorous research in this area, the scope and breadth of the reported studies made general design principle recommendations possible.

The design framework that emerged from the research is devided into five broad categories. These categories range from the most general, acknowledgement that nature is somewhere “out there”, and simply being aware of this fact can impart a sense of well-being, to more specific structured interventions for passive or direct,active contact with nature to elicit specific health outcomes. People who will be using the redeveloped RCH-Royal Park system can be grouped into three broad categories, patients, their families and other visitors, and staff and volunteers. Landscape design elements and strategies associated with the healing benefits of contact with nature and how it may impact all of these user groups was identified as part of the research. Evidence used to derive these design principles strongly supports the advantages of an integrated hospital-park system for the RCH redevelopment. This integrated system requires an understanding of sustainable development and healthcare facility design in the context of urban open space systems. The aim is to implement architectural and landscape designs that maximize views of, and interaction with, nature associated with the park, and to integrate natural elements into the hospital design itself. This is expected to then maximize the potential health benefits of having contact with nature for the user groups. The ultimate aim is that a combination of children’s gardens, habitat for urban wildlife, abundance and diversity of greenery and/or flowers, water features, quiet contemplative spaces, and other interventions will contribute to a seamless integration of the new hospital with its parkland setting. Ideally, a long-term post-occupancy evaluation of the clinical significance of the implemented design interventions should be initiated, with study outcomes contributing to the expanding research in health benefits associated with contact with nature.

Involving Local Communities in Defining Town Character in Victorian Coastal Towns

Chief Investigator: A/Prof. Ray Green
Funded by: ARC Discovery-Project grant (2003-2005)

Many Australian coastal towns are experiencing rapid growth from tourism and what in Australia has been termed the sea change phenomenon - the move to semi-rural coastal towns by urbanites who are seeeking a more relaxed lifestyle in natural and scenic surroundings. In such places it is common to hear the local residents in the destination communities complain that the character of their towns is being lost due to what they see as inappropriate development. Local planning authorities are now attempting to respond to these concerns by undertaking studies to define what it is people feel is being lost in terms of valued place character. This project explored development of methods for involving local communities in defining town and neighbourhood character in affected rural coastal areas of Victoria. Questions concerning resident's conceptualisation of town character and relationships between psychological and biophysical attributes associated with the notion of town character were also explored.

Assessment of environmental impacts of tourism in Thai coastal communities: Resident perceptions of environmental change

Chief Investigator: A/Prof. Ray Green
Funded by: University of Melbourne International Collaborative Research Grant (2000)

This study explored how members of a small town community on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand, perceive their everyday surroundings within the context of an environment that has rapidly changed, primarily due to tourism and associated development. Initially, a projective mapping technique was employed to identify a range of local environmental settings: from those that have most dramatically changed to those that have remained relatively unchanged. These settings were then photographed and used as stimuli in two photographic sorting tasks (Multiple-sort and Q-sort). Quantitative and categorical data derived from the multiple sorting methods were subjected to Multidimensional Scaling Analysis (MDS) and Categorical Principal Component Analysis (CATPCA) while the aggregated Q-sort data was used to assess the perceived "suitability" (moh sohm in Thai) of the stimuli settings and associated features from the perspective of local inhabitants. Six setting/environmental feature types were identified: non-tourist buildings that hold cultural and social significance for locals, tourist facilities and the social and environmental problems associated with these developments, water features used by the local community and places and environmental features representative of "unspoilt" nature. In addition, respondents were found to discriminate between the stimuli settings along three underlying dimensions: suitability of change, built versus natural environments and "insiders" (inhabitants) versus "outsiders" (tourists and recent migrants). Individual differences in the way respondents used these evaluative dimensions were also assessed. The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods used in this study may have utility for identifying and assessing environmental and social impacts, as well as the mental constructs used in assessing such impacts, from the perspective of host communities in others places where tourism is a catalyst of rapid change. See publications.

Community exploration of changing landscape values

Chief Investigators: Professor Ian Bishop and A/Prof. Ray Green
Funded by: Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation (2002-2004)

This project explored local attitudes towards changing rural, primarily agricultural landscapes in northeastern Victoria by eliciting community-based assessments of future land-use options. Geographic information system (GIS) and virtual reality (VR) technology was used to develop a portable landscape simulation environment that allowed local stakeholders to propose alternative land cover configurations and view them through walk/drive/fly realistic simulations. At the same time respondents were able to review the likely outcomes of proposed changes on a variety of environmental, economic and social scales, as determined through simplified assessment models. Respondents were also asked to rate the changes in terms of visual amenity, biodiversity, water quality and quantity, and other factors, while navigating through the simulated landscapes. Thus it was possible to determine if the proposed land-use changes and associated biophysical attributes were congruent with community environmental values and allowed respondents to adjust the extent or nature of the changes accordingly. More information about this project can be found here.

The impact of tourism development in Victorian coastal towns: A comparative analysis of resident perceptions of environmental changommunity exploration of changing landscape values

Chief Investigator: A/Prof. Ray Green
Funded by:The University of Melbourne (2000-2001)

This project was concerned with the impact of tourism on host communities, particularly in small coastal towns, and the development of methods and assessment techniques for studying the perceptual consequences of tourism and its impact in this context. The project explored how inhabitants of coastal towns in Australia perceive environmental and social change, and consistency, that has resulted from increasing levels of tourism development to provide theoretical understanding of these issues. In this study, members of Victorian coastal town communities were surveyed to determine the effect progressive degrees of change might have on their environmental perceptions and preferences. The practical application of this research was in suggesting methods for supporting environmental planning and design strategies that may be helpful in mitigating the negative consequences of change due to tourism in coastal towns.