Climate Change & Sustainability Planning (ABPL90064)

This subject was previously known as Urban Sustainability and Climate Change.

Human activity has altered the earth's natural environment significantly. This has resulted in biodiversity loss and warming of the earth’s climate, the implications of which are often distributed unequally. Organisations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have documented the risks associated with continued climate change. This has given rise to international agreements such as the Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5oC. While there are increasing commitments by nation states to address this international goal through the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, actions to date have not been to the scale, and at the pace necessary to achieve it. The role of cities and urban activities in contributing to this goal must be enhanced, and the international goals translated across levels of policy.

This subject will provide students with an understanding of the key factors contributing to climate change and biodiversity loss, and their centrality to urban planning and broader built environment activities. Students will critically analyse the complex interrelationship between environmental processes, climate change, urban change, sustainability goals and urban planning policies. Current urban planning issues including: sustainability, climate change, resilience, and vulnerability; will be critically analysed and applied to current and future urban problems arising from climate change (e.g. sea level rise, urban heat). Local and global examples will be drawn upon. The subject’s learning activities will equip students with the capability to propose urban planning solutions to address climate change – through both the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, and adaptation to unavoided impacts – to facilitate urban sustainability. Consideration of the equity and justice implications of proposed solutions will be facilitated.

Through completion of this subject students will be provided with exposure to cutting edge urban planning approaches to address and solve climate change and sustainability problems. Students will be well prepared to take elective subjects which focus in detail on environment, resilience and sustainability topics. A field trip to a site of interest to climate change and sustainability within Melbourne will be undertaken to embed learning in a real world urban planning example.