Course overview
This course will critically examine approaches to environmental planning and governance in Australia and internationally. The course will introduce students to the rational planning model which has long-dominated planning strategies in Australia. It will then shift focus and explore how sustainable development is influencing planning via theories of ecology, the interrelationship between values and knowledge, a restructured public sphere and the emergence of new actors. Students will be asked to critique relevant recent Australian environmental planning decisions in relation to criteria of sustainable development. The course will move on to critically examine contemporary thinking about environmental governance including state and market-based approaches, decentralised environmental management, the role of NGOs, community based approaches and regional planning. International cases of environmental management which highlight the linkages between national or regional environmental governance structures and natural resource management outcomes will be analysed.
Course learning outcomes
- Explain the major tenets of environmental planning in South Australia
- Understand the roles of the different jurisdictional organisations within environmental governance structures
- Critically analyse environmental planning structures
- Discuss the implications of current governance practices in relation to sustainable development goals both in Australia and internationally
- Develop comparative analyses using quantitative & qualitative data to critique current governance systems
- Communicate in written and oral forms key aspects of environmental planning and governance