Living suburbs for Living Streams: how urban design strategies can enhance the amenity provided by Living Stream orientated Public Open Space

Abstract

Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, is a city which is urbanizing into seasonally waterlogged land on two major development fronts. One result of this is that many new greenfield developments are adopting Living Stream orientated Public Open Space systems to cope with the related drainage issues. With respect to this situation this paper scopes the twin research questions, to what degree can Perth Living Stream reserves be considered high amenity Public Open Space, and how can Living Streams be optimized, from an urban design perspective, to provide greater amenity?’ These questions are explored in relation to a taxonomy of recently constructed greenfield Living Stream projects in Perth. The paper concludes that a number of urban design strategies could be deployed in relation to urban density and structure, which could increase the amenity Living Streams provide.

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Jill Penter for her ever patient copy editing.

Notes

1. Geomorphic wetlands are groundwater dependent wetlands which are typically only seasonally inundated (Department of Biodiversity, C. a. A. 2014).

2. AEP refers to ‘Average Exceedance Probability’ which is the probability that a given rainfall total accumulated over a given duration will be exceeded in any one year (Bureau of Meterology).

3. ARI refers to ‘Average Recurrence Interval’ is ‘the value of the periods between exceedances of a given rainfall total accumulated over a given duration’ (Bureau of Meterology).

4. Despite the focus applied to creating linear POS in the form of Park Avenues and Living Streams, the Wungong project also proposed to provide space for active recreation through the shared use of school ovals and regional sports facilities (Wood-Gush 2008).

5. ‘Bush forever’ is a strategic plan for the conservation of remnant endemic bushland in Perth.

6. This issue is outside of the scope of this necessarily brief paper, but is certainly worthy of further research.

7. Perth’s current population of 2 million people is projected to possibly reach 6.6 million by 2061 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2013). Moreover, 68% of all new residential development tends to be in Greenfield sites (Department of Planning, & Western Australian Planning Commission 2012), many which are within an extensive network of geomorphic wetlands.

8. Amenity in this paper referring to the provision of ‘comfort, convenience or pleasure’ (Ask.com 2008).

9. These interviews were conducted anonymously in 2016.

10. These mini case study projects will be referred to in this paper by the name of the suburb as some of the Living Streams do not appear to have official names.

11. Given the area is still under construction, such an assessment may change over time.

12. In a greenway planning in the USA ‘trail use is correlated positively and significantly with trail segments that have greater land-use diversity …’ (Lindsey et al. 2008, 76).

13. This concept is partly borrowed from urban waterfront developments in which ‘To avoid the less desirable consequences of a thin line of development, a city must create perpendicular streets and civic corridors that are as desirable as the shoreline drive’ (Kreiger 2004, 34).

14. In the Phoenix region in the USA, Nan Ellin has been responsible for a similar proposal concerning canals (referred to as the ‘canalscape’ initiative) where “vital urban hubs” are being distributed where “canals meet major streets throughout the metropolitan area” (Ellin 2010, 602).

15. In the USA people’s use of park amenities and greenway trail systems has been linked to the proximity of their residence to leisure amenities (Scott Shafer et al. 2013), as well as the density of population (Lindsey et al. 2008; Scott Shafer et al. 2013).