IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i24p10492-d462693.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards Australian Regional Turnaround: Insights into Sustainably Accommodating Post-Pandemic Urban Growth in Regional Towns and Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Mirko Guaralda

    (QUT Design Lab, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia)

  • Greg Hearn

    (QUT Design Lab, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia)

  • Marcus Foth

    (QUT Design Lab, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia)

  • Tan Yigitcanlar

    (School of Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia)

  • Severine Mayere

    (School of Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia)

  • Lisa Law

    (Division of Tropical Environment and Societies, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns 4870, Australia)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has made many urban policymakers, planners, and scholars, all around the globe, rethink conventional, neoliberal growth strategies of cities. The trend of rapid urbanization, particularly around capital cities, has been questioned, and alternative growth models and locations have been the subjects of countless discussions. This is particularly the case for the Australian context: The COVID-19 pandemic heightened the debates in urban circles on post-pandemic urban growth strategies and boosting the growth of towns and cities across regional Australia is a popular alternative strategy. While some scholars argue that regional Australia poses an invaluable opportunity for post-pandemic growth by ‘taking off the pressure from the capital cities’; others warn us about the risks of growing regional towns and cities without carefully designed national, regional, and local planning, design, and development strategies. Superimposing planning and development policies meant for metropolitan cities could simply result in transferring the ills of capital cities to regions and exacerbate unsustainable development and heightened socioeconomic inequalities. This opinion piece, by keeping both of these perspectives in mind, explores approaches to regional community and economic development of Australia’s towns and cities, along with identifying sustainable urban growth locations in the post-pandemic era. It also offers new insights that could help re-shape the policy debate on regional growth and development.

Suggested Citation

  • Mirko Guaralda & Greg Hearn & Marcus Foth & Tan Yigitcanlar & Severine Mayere & Lisa Law, 2020. "Towards Australian Regional Turnaround: Insights into Sustainably Accommodating Post-Pandemic Urban Growth in Regional Towns and Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10492-:d:462693
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10492/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10492/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Editorial, 2020. "Covid-19 and Climate Change," Journal, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 10(1), pages 5-6, January-J.
    2. Stilwell,Frank & Jordan,Kirrily, 2007. "Who Gets What?," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521700320, October.
    3. Tan Yigitcanlar & Md. Kamruzzaman, 2015. "Planning, Development and Management of Sustainable Cities: A Commentary from the Guest Editors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(11), pages 1-12, November.
    4. Yigitcanlar, Tan & Adu-McVie, Rosemary & Erol, Isil, 2020. "How can contemporary innovation districts be classified? A systematic review of the literature," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    5. Matthew Zenkteler & Marcus Foth & Gregory Hearn, 2021. "The role of residential suburbs in the knowledge economy: insights from a design charrette into nomadic and remote work practices," Journal of Urban Design, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 422-440, July.
    6. Pancholi, Surabhi & Yigitcanlar, Tan & Guaralda, Mirko & Mayere, Severine & Caldwell, Glenda Amayo & Medland, Richard, 2020. "University and innovation district symbiosis in the context of placemaking: Insights from Australian cities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    7. Tooran Alizadeh & Neil Sipe & Jago Dodson, 2014. "Spatial Planning and High-Speed Broadband: Australia's National Broadband Network and Metropolitan Planning," International Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3-4), pages 359-378, November.
    8. Tan Yigitcanlar & Marcus Foth & Md. Kamruzzaman, 2019. "Towards Post-Anthropocentric Cities: Reconceptualizing Smart Cities to Evade Urban Ecocide," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 147-152, April.
    9. Power, Anne, 2012. "Social inequality, disadvantaged neighbourhoods and transport deprivation: an assessment of the historical influence of housing policies," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 39-48.
    10. Jan-Willem van Staden & Fiona Haslam McKenzie, 2019. "Comparing contemporary regional development in Western Australia with international trends," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(10), pages 1470-1482, October.
    11. Sharma, Kishor & Oczkowski, Edward & Hicks, John, 2016. "Skill shortages in regional Australia: A local perspective from the Riverina," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 34-44.
    12. Robyn Eversole & Megerssa Walo, 2020. "Leading and following in Australian regional development: Why governance matters," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 291-302, April.
    13. Badland, Hannah & Whitzman, Carolyn & Lowe, Melanie & Davern, Melanie & Aye, Lu & Butterworth, Iain & Hes, Dominique & Giles-Corti, Billie, 2014. "Urban liveability: Emerging lessons from Australia for exploring the potential for indicators to measure the social determinants of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 64-73.
    14. Badland, Hannah & Pearce, Jamie, 2019. "Liveable for whom? Prospects of urban liveability to address health inequities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 94-105.
    15. Tan Yigitcanlar & Ingi Runar Edvardsson & Hjalti Johannesson & Md Kamruzzaman & Giuseppe Ioppolo & Surabhi Pancholi, 2017. "Knowledge-based development dynamics in less favoured regions: insights from Australian and Icelandic university towns," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(12), pages 2272-2292, December.
    16. Jos� Lobo & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick & Deborah Strumsky, 2014. "The Inventive, the Educated and the Creative: How Do They Affect Metropolitan Productivity?," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 155-177, February.
    17. Tooran Alizadeh & Leila Irajifar, 2018. "Gold Coast smart city strategy: informed by local planning priorities and international smart city best practices," International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 9(2), pages 153-173.
    18. Ling, Gabriel Hoh Teck & Ho, Christina Mee Chyong, 2020. "Effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic on Social Behaviours: From a Social Dilemma Perspective," SocArXiv 8duvx, Center for Open Science.
    19. Saberi, Meead & Wu, Hongzhi & Amoh-Gyimah, Richard & Smith, Jonathan & Arunachalam, Dharmalingam, 2017. "Measuring housing and transportation affordability: A case study of Melbourne, Australia," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 134-146.
    20. Tan Yigitcanlar & Md. Kamruzzaman, 2019. "Smart Cities and Mobility: Does the Smartness of Australian Cities Lead to Sustainable Commuting Patterns?," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 21-46, April.
    21. Michael Batty, 2020. "The Coronavirus crisis: What will the post-pandemic city look like?," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(4), pages 547-552, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tan Yigitcanlar, 2021. "Greening the Artificial Intelligence for a Sustainable Planet: An Editorial Commentary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Ghosh, Sumita, 2021. "Urban agriculture potential of home gardens in residential land uses: A case study of regional City of Dubbo, Australia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    3. Sally Baker & Stephanie Cousins & Claire Higgins & Massimiliano Tani, 2022. "Refugees are a Valuable but Overlooked Economic Resource, and it is Time to Update Our Approach to Migration," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 55(2), pages 273-280, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tan Yigitcanlar & Rashid Mehmood & Juan M. Corchado, 2021. "Green Artificial Intelligence: Towards an Efficient, Sustainable and Equitable Technology for Smart Cities and Futures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Palmyra Repette & Jamile Sabatini-Marques & Tan Yigitcanlar & Denilson Sell & Eduardo Costa, 2021. "The Evolution of City-as-a-Platform: Smart Urban Development Governance with Collective Knowledge-Based Platform Urbanism," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-25, January.
    3. Tan Yigitcanlar & Kevin C. Desouza & Luke Butler & Farnoosh Roozkhosh, 2020. "Contributions and Risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Building Smarter Cities: Insights from a Systematic Review of the Literature," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-38, March.
    4. Danial Owen & Daniel Arribas-Bel & Francisco Rowe, 2023. "Tracking the Transit Divide: A Multilevel Modelling Approach of Urban Inequalities and Train Ridership Disparities in Chicago," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, May.
    5. Adu-McVie, Rosemary & Yigitcanlar, Tan & Erol, Isil & Xia, Bo, 2021. "Classifying innovation districts: Delphi validation of a multidimensional framework," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    6. Jalaluddin Abdul Malek & Seng Boon Lim & Tan Yigitcanlar, 2021. "Social Inclusion Indicators for Building Citizen-Centric Smart Cities: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-29, January.
    7. Tan Yigitcanlar & Federico Cugurullo, 2020. "The Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence: An Urbanistic Viewpoint from the Lens of Smart and Sustainable Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-24, October.
    8. Tan Yigitcanlar, 2021. "Greening the Artificial Intelligence for a Sustainable Planet: An Editorial Commentary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-9, December.
    9. Tan Yigitcanlar & Hoon Han & Md. Kamruzzaman, 2019. "Approaches, Advances, and Applications in the Sustainable Development of Smart Cities: A Commentary from the Guest Editors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-11, November.
    10. Pancholi, Surabhi & Yigitcanlar, Tan & Guaralda, Mirko & Mayere, Severine & Caldwell, Glenda Amayo & Medland, Richard, 2020. "University and innovation district symbiosis in the context of placemaking: Insights from Australian cities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    11. Yahya Sheikhnejad & Tan Yigitcanlar, 2020. "Scientific Landscape of Sustainable Urban and Rural Areas Research: A Systematic Scientometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-28, February.
    12. Yigitcanlar, Tan & Han, Hoon & Kamruzzaman, Md. & Ioppolo, Giuseppe & Sabatini-Marques, Jamile, 2019. "The making of smart cities: Are Songdo, Masdar, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Brisbane the best we could build?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    13. Andrea Baranzini & Stefano Carattini & Linda Tesauro, 2021. "Designing Effective and Acceptable Road Pricing Schemes: Evidence from the Geneva Congestion Charge," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 79(3), pages 417-482, July.
    14. Robert J. R. Elliott & Ingmar Schumacher & Cees Withagen, 2020. "Suggestions for a Covid-19 Post-Pandemic Research Agenda in Environmental Economics," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 1187-1213, August.
    15. Yue Wu & Yue Yang & Weishun Xu & Qiuxiao Chen, 2020. "The Influence of Innovation Resources in Higher Education Institutions on the Development of Sci-Tech Parks’ Enterprises in the Urban Innovative Districts at the Stage of Urbanization Transformation," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-36, October.
    16. Patrycja Klusak & Matthew Agarwala & Matt Burke & Moritz Kraemer & Kamiar Mohaddes, 2023. "Rising Temperatures, Falling Ratings: The Effect of Climate Change on Sovereign Creditworthiness," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(12), pages 7468-7491, December.
    17. Francine Mestrum, 2020. "Universal Social Protection and Health Care as a Social Common," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 63(2), pages 238-243, December.
    18. David Klenert & Franziska Funke & Linus Mattauch & Brian O’Callaghan, 2020. "Five Lessons from COVID-19 for Advancing Climate Change Mitigation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 751-778, August.
    19. Susan Aaronson, 2021. "Can Trade Agreements Solve the Wicked Problem of Disinformation," Working Papers 2021-12, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    20. Nguyen, Minh-Hoang & Vuong, Quan-Hoang, 2020. "The third finding concerning a missing cultural value: a bibliometric analysis using the Web of Science," OSF Preprints jbcx3, Center for Open Science.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10492-:d:462693. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.