University of Technology Sydney

15146 Sustainable Urban Development

6cp; Online Attendance. Further details will be provided via CANVAS.
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.

Postgraduate

Description

This subject provides an introduction to sustainable development and discusses the triple bottom line concept of environmental, economic and social sustainability in urban development as well as the ESG concept of environment, social and governance sustainability, particularly in relation to sustainable development. Sustainable practices are discussed and demonstrated using national and international case studies, guest lectures, in-class group discussions and exercises, and field visits. To gain maximum benefit from this class, students must attend each of the block sessions. Groupwork marks are also earned in each block and students must be in attendance to be eligible for these marks.

During the first block students learn about the concept of urban resilience and explore the sustainability challenges faced by global cities and, more specifically, by the city of Sydney as they seek to address these challenges in their local context. The causes and urban effects of climate change are analysed and discussed in the context of greenhouse gas emissions (and reduction), energy consumption (and alternative energy development strategies), air quality and population growth challenges, economic planning for resilience, as well the social sustainability implications related to equity and inequity across the city (e.g. affordable housing policy and night-time economy policy considerations).

In the second block, students investigate sustainable urban development at the precinct and building scale. In this block, the concepts of eco-footprints and assessment methods for sustainable building and precinct developments are discussed as benchmarks for evaluating sustainability performance. Physical constraints on development such as landform, hydrology and ecology are introduced. The nature of social and economic sustainability and sustainable urban development are discussed in the context of rating tools for sustainable building and precinct developments (do they measure actual performance?), sustainable transport, sustainable energy use, new build vs retrofit and adaptive reuse considerations and challenges, and green roof and urban vegetation as urban sustainable design strategies. In addition, the feasibility of alternative methods for evaluating sustainability strategies is discussed.

Typical availability

Autumn session, City campus
Spring session, City campus


Detailed subject description.

Fee information

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Access conditions

Note: The requisite information presented in this subject description covers only academic requisites. Full details of all enforced rules, covering both academic and admission requisites, are available at access conditions and My Student Admin.