Survey of the Built Environment Professions in the Commonwealth, Key Findings

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IMPACT OF THE FINDINGS ON THE GROUND

While the findings of the survey have evidenced the range of challenges being faced, the consequences are being experienced in different ways in different Commonwealth countries as illustrated below:

3.1 AUSTRALIA

Professor Barbara Norman, University of Canberra, Australia

Australia is one of the most urbanised nations in the world. Over 85% of the population live in the coastal zone and most live in the urban areas of the coastal zone. Australia is therefore predominantly a coastal urban nation. Urban growth continues particularly in the capital cities and regional coastal towns. As a nation, our urban population is expected to grow from 20 to 40 million by 2050. Australia is also identified as a country that will experience significant impacts from climate change; fire, flood drought and storms. The Australian fires of 2020 are a prime example of stretched resources with small urban coastal communities being in some cases nearly wiped out. Australia is also a very large and diverse country with tropical environments in the north, arid environments in the centre to cold climates in the south. The challenges for built environment professionals are indeed large. Given the above context and the survey findings, the built environment professionals face the following three challenges in Australia: · Supporting the training and development of professionals in coastal regional Australia that are experiencing both the pressures of urban growth and climate risks. · Ongoing professional development for built environment professional across a large and very diverse nation. · Upskilling of the current and future professional on planning for climate change i.e. actions we can take in the built environment that will both reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The built environment professions in Australia have played a critical role in recent years in the process of recovery and rebuilding from disasters. In particular, the professionals have argued strongly to ‘build back better’ to be more resilient in the future. To do this better in the future, we need strong investment in strategic and scenario planning as highlighted by the Planning Institute of Australia’s recent national statement: ‘Through the lens: the tipping point’34, calling for a national planning framework.

34 https://www.planning.org.au/policy/national-settlement-strategy

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Planning for climate change and rapid urbanisation

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Survey of the Built Environment Professions in the Commonwealth, Key Findings

Published on Jun 24, 2020

Commonwealth Association of Architects

Climate change and rapid urbanisation are among the most serious challenges facing the Commonwealth; challenges which have now been compounded by the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. UN Habitat estimates that 65% of the targets underlying the 17 Sustainable Development Goals are linked to territorial and urban development, and built environment professionals are central to the design of cities and human settlements that achieve the requirements of Goal 11 to be ‘inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. With nearly 50% of the projected increase in the worlds urban population to 2050 taking place in the Commonwealth, how well equipped are the built environment professions to meet this challenge? This is the question which the four Commonwealth associations representing architects, engineers, town planners and surveyors have set out to answer in the Survey of the Built Environment Professions in the Commonwealth; the first such joint survey ever to have been undertaken.