Newsroom team
14 November 2018: University of Canberra professor Barbara Norman says we need to work with nature, not against it, to ensure sustainability. This appears to be a simple enough creed to live by, but putting it into practice is proving to be far more problematic as decision makers struggle to keep pace with urban growth.
Professor Norman’s plan to change the mindset is through informing policy makers about how planning can help prepare urban and regional communities for the significant changes now occurring in 21st century cities. Part of the change includes a response to the massive urbanisation of the planet.
As the Director of Urban and Regional Planning Futures (CURF) at the University of Canberra, Professor Norman is well positioned to be a key influencer in this field.
Professor Norman’s work, outlined in her publication Sustainable Pathways for Our Cities and Regions: Planning within Planetary Boundaries (2018), points out that urbanisation and climate change are highly connected. As cities produce 76 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions and account for 75 per cent of energy use worldwide, cities will be at the heart of achieving the aim to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius.
Amongst the key messages within the publication is the significant scale of the challenge. As Professor Norman states, “It is expected that nearly 10 billion people will live in cities by 2050. That’s equivalent to building a new city of one million people every five days between now and then. We have to learn to live within our environment, and undertake an environmental health check for every city and region so that cities become part of a larger planetary effort towards sustainability.”
And Professor Norman puts ‘meat on the bones’ of her pathways to sustainability by providing systematic processes and examples of innovation occurring at the city and regional level.
Because of its practical approach to policy, Sustainable Pathways for Our Cities and Regions is quickly becoming recognised as a valuable teaching tool throughout the world.
And Professor Norman has been recognised in other ways for her original work. She won the ACT Planning Award for cutting-edge research and teaching. The associated notation said that she used innovative sustainability science to inform land use planning at the urban and regional scale.
Beyond the ACT, Professor Norman most recently accepted an invitation to become a United Nations Association of Australia’s Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Cities and Communities. The primary aim of this role is to help spread the word and promote relevant issues to the Australian Government, business, academia and more broadly.
She is making certain that her creed is cemented into practice by influencing urban futures when opportunities arise. She explains, “I presented it to the United Nations Human Settlement Programme, or UN-Habitat, in Nairobi a month ago, developing a set a climate laws for developing countries”.
The importance of policy-practice is central to the implementation of sustainable urban and regional change and Professor Norman is certainly working effectively to see that this is achieved.
She says, “I am yet to meet someone who does not want to live, work and play in a more sustainable, healthy and liveable environment. We are the stewards of our home, our planet. So call up your presidents, prime ministers, mayors and local officials, and make it happen!”
