In global terms, the bulk of Australian society live in a wealthy, educated, secure, and reasonably well governed environment. This has enabled many people to share in the benefits of the country’s prosperity and has been reflected in the wide diversity of lifestyle choices of today. However, Australians also live in a era dominated by issues of economic recession, peak oil, food miles, increasing obesity, housing affordability, urban consolidation, climate change, increasing regulation, globalisation, and high dependency on technology.
As public open space planners and managers, how do we provide for a changing world? How do we continue to create and maintain open spaces for environmental, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing? How can we plan a city’s open space network to complement urban consolidation requirements?
Of particular note, urban consolidation is currently popular in planning circles as a tonic to remedy this cluster of urban ailments but it requires tailored solutions associated with the quality and provision of open space.This presentation reviews an empirical study on the provision of urban open space for Queensland’s Gold Coast high-rise strip and its application to future park developments.