Assessing the Delivery of Sustainable Residential Development

Achieving sustainable development of new dwellings in growing cities is a major challenge for urban managers. This paper presents and demonstrates a quantitative methodology for assessing the sustainability of urban residential development by directly comparing household demand and dwelling supply. Sustainability is an international concern because of the rapid urbanization that is a feature of our times, and it is increasingly reflected in the metropolitan planning strategies that inform the practices of urban managers. In societies with rhetorical support for sustainability but a reluctance to embrace the practical repercussions, the method promotes evidence-based analysis and a transparent approach to help determine whether specific sustainability objectives are being achieved. The approach is to review the demographic structure, urban governance and strategic planning framework contextualizing residential development before measuring and comparing demand and supply and assessing the implications of any mismatch between development outcomes and strategic objectives. Summary findings from an application of the method to a case study in Melbourne show that the city's residential development remains largely fixed in a pattern established in the nineteenth century, and that neither the demographic basis of household demand nor policy frameworks seem to have effectively influenced recent development outcomes. A range of implications for social, economic and environmental sustainability are identified before possible causes of the failure to implement policy are identified and potential resolutions suggested.