This report has been written in response to an investigation conducted to find the results of the urban dynamics of change, including: Suburbanisation, Urban Decay, Urban Renewal and Consolidation, in Sydney. It will explain the changing nature of Sydney, and its results, such as the alterations and differences of social structures and spatial patterns of advantage and disadvantage and wealth and poverty, the changing economic character, nature and location of residential land, commercial and industrial development, and the growth, developed, future trends and ecological sustainability that will deduce from each of the four urban dynamics of change. Furthermore, the report will also analyse the four urban dynamics of change and how they have implications on each other, and how they are all related, and evaluate the environmental management strategies [that have /if have] been implemented and the ecological sustainability of our actions. The successfulness of environment management strategies in this report is to be regarded as a course of action that produces benefits for both current and future generations, which will allow these generations to have the opportunity to experience and benefit from the same resources, as well as maintaining to a minimum of the extent of environmental damage during suburbanisation, urban decay, etc. and also how sustainable it is. Suburbanisation
Suburbanisation is the process which involves the movement of people, employment and facilities away from the inner city into suburbs, which are an urban area surrounding and being connected to the central city. Many of these suburbs are exclusively residential, such as Ashbury and Constitution Hill, which are located 10km and 28km west of the Sydney CBDm respectively. Other suburbs have their own commercial centres and facilities such as Parramatta, Chatswood and Burwood, which all have the major shopping centre, Westfield. Due to the movement of people from inner city suburbs to outer city suburbs, for its larger land, lesser pollution, and a more serene lifestyle in relative comparison to the inner city, areas such as Newtown and Redfern have been left neglected, resulting in the process of urban decay. In turn, this has contributed to urban renewal and even consolidation to the places where the more affluent demographic of people have moved into, such as Chatswood and Parramatta, where Sydney’s median house price surpassed $1 million in July, 2015. Urban sprawl is a result of suburbanisation defined as “the continuous and often unplanned, outward growth of an urban area,” which involves the removal of a natural, green environment, with the replacement of an urban, built up, human environment. Suburbanisation would not have occurred without the Industrial Revolution, bringing technological advancements allowing for the extent of development. Factors that have assisted in suburbanisation include:
Changes in technology
Availability of motorways/freeways, roads and bridges
Cheaper transport that goes interstate
Suburbanisation of manufacturing and warehouses
The suburbanisation of commerce industry began to unfold during the early 20th century in Sydney, where this process of movement intensified during the 1960s and 1970s, resulting in a complete urban reconstruction of the metropolitan economy. The middle and working classes moved to suburbs such as Strathfield and Lane Cove, then Blacktown and Liverpool respectively in various waves throughout the 20th century. Transport and bridges assisted with suburbanisation, where bridges such as the Sydney Harbour, facilitated expansion towards the northern side of Sydney, which today is North Sydney. Furthermore, the decreased valuations of vehicles due to its increased availability and access, made it more affordable for people to travel across larger distances, where originally, the form of transportation was horse carts. Railways and tram lines helped drive the expansion of older outer suburbs and villages and the development of new outer suburbs in the 1900s. The population of Sydney is predicted to reach 4.9 million by 2026 through natural increase and net migration, up from 3.9 million in just 20 years.
Figure 2: New Homes in Western Sydney in 2007
Changes in Social Structure, Spatial Patterns of Advantage & Disadvantage, Wealth and Poverty
Suburbanisation has resulted in changed the spatial patterns of social structures, advantaged and disadvantaged and wealth and poverty. There is large segregation and a huge difference of wealth between Sydney’s affluent inner city and north shore, and the western suburbs.
Figure 3: Choropleth maps showing the income growth of areas of Sydney
From the graph above, we can interpret that the income growth of those in the western suburbs are far less compared to the already higher income, Eastern suburbs. Areas in the west have only had around 20% increase of income in 2003-2013, whereas some suburbs in the East have had income growth of up to 60%, even though their income was already $100,000+. For example, Darling Point’s average income in 2003 was $110,607, and has grown up to $177,514 in 2013, an increase of 60.5%. This can be contrasted against the south western suburb, Campbelltown, where its average income in 2003 was $37,778 which only rose to $47999, an increase of 27.1%. From this information, we can assume that the rich are only getting wealthier, and those who are in a worser economic status, are not doing so well.
Suburbanisation has led to many new developments, such as urban consolidation, where developers have purchased large plots of land, in order to demolish existing dwellings, in order to be able to construct high rise apartments. This is seen in Burwood, where streets such as Wynne Avenue and Victoria Road, have experienced the development of new apartments. However, property investors are purchasing these apartments in order to make a profit out of it, which involves namely, students and people with lesser money that are unable to afford houses, to rely on renting in these properties.
Figure 4: Choropleth map that spatially shows income of people
From the graph above, the Eastern Suburbs and Northern Shore have more affluent people compared to the Western and South Western Suburbs. Regions such as the Canterbury-Bankstown, and Auburn/Lidcombe area also obtain people with lesser income, relative to those in the Eastern Suburbs, which is reflected by the streetscape of the suburbs, where houses found in the areas are usually one story, made of brick, and not new.
Figure 5: List of the Top 10 Richest Suburbs in Sydney
Figure 6: List of the Top 10 Poorest Suburbs in Sydney
From the tables above, we can conclude that the spatial areas of the top 10 richest suburbs are in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, around the harbour. The poorest suburbs in Sydney are in the South Western suburbs near Campbelltown and Canterbury-Bankstown suburbs.
Figure 7: Housing Report Prices in Campbelltown
Figure 8: Housing Report Prices in Darling Point
The average house price in Darling Point is 11 times more expensive than a house in Campbelltown, and the average apartment price in Darling Point is 4.5 times more expensive than a unit in Campbelltown. This information allows us to infer that suburbanisation has been created to facilitate for a less wealthier population, due to cheaper cost of living and properties, and that suburbanisation may have been a process that has assisted in the segregation of classes and poverty and wealth. The advantages and disadvantages of people are largely reflected off their financial status, whereby wealthier people are provided with much more opportunities, placing them of advantage over those who are not as wealthy. Due to the isolation of fringing suburbs, they are often poorly-serviced which tend to become neglected. As they have less access to the benefits of the city, suburbs on the fringe of the Sydney Basin are disadvantaged. Suburbanisation can lead to spatial inequality, where these suburbs have more poverty and also higher crime rates.
Furthermore, urban villages have been created through suburbanisation, where early immigrants of Australia chose to form communities with people of similar ethnicity and religion. This is reflected in suburbs of urban villages such as Hurstville and Harris Park. Out of the 5000 people who are residents of Harris Park, approximately 34.1% of the population is off Indian ethnicity. Around the same amount of the population practise Hinduism, and 34% of the population also speak their native language, showing that their culture is being passed down to the next generation. 88% of the parents in Harris Park are both born overseas. The main road Wigram Street, is full of Indian cuisine and groceries, showing a strong sense of maintenance of culture.
Figure 9: An Indian restaurant on Wigram Street
Hurstville is another urban village that has been created, which has effected the social structure of the community. Nearly 50% of the population is Chinese (13,662 people), where 34% are born in China. Over 80% of the the birthplace of Parents are overseas, and 50% of the population also speak some sort of a Chinese dialect. The main road of Hurstville, Forest Road, is also full of Chinese restaurants and grocery stores, which his a feature of an urban village. Changes in economic character, nature & location of residential land, commercial and industrial
In the past century, Sydney has had vast developments and steps towards a global economy and transforming into a world city. During the 1980s, there were several factors that contributed to the development of a global economy, including:
Major advancements in transport
Developments of Information & Technology
Deregulation of many financial systems in many countries
Greater encouragement of international trade
Sydney is developing as a a world city due to:
Low operating costs compared to other countries
Government policies that have been mostly beneficial to organisations, transnational corporations and both large and small businesses
Largely connected in flight paths around the world
Strong culture which attracts interest of international citizens
Highly skilled and educated workforce
To facilitate for this expansion, edge cities have had to be formed. Edge cities have been forming around the urban fringing areas, led by suburbanisations, and these areas compete against the Sydney CBD for economic growth and businesses. These suburbs include Macquarie Park, Chatswood and North Sydney. Global international companies such as 3M, which is located in Macquarie Park and IBM, located in North Sydney are bringing jobs and economic growth into the area. People have moved to these areas, closer to their jobs, leading to suburbanisation and the movement of businesses, employment and people away from the inner city. The reason for the outward movement is due to the cheaper costs of running, compared to the city, and still being able to function.
A ‘global arc’ has formed reinforced by the high
tech industries of Macquarie Park and Macquarie
University stretching to the airport via the CBD’s
North Sydney and Sydney and 5 of Sydney’s
University
Figure 10: Global Arc of Sydney
Sydney has had significant changes in the structure of employment. 17% of employed people in Sydney work in finance & business services. The status of being a world city has effected the nature and location of commercial development, with profound impact on those transnational corporations which are involved in global activities. The effects include:
Location of regional headquarters — companies have moved to outer regions
Location of advanced procedure services — e.g. Lakes Business Park in Lord Street, Botany Bay
Location of financial services
Figure 11: The Lake Business Park in Botany
Figure 12: Growth of Sydney’s urban boundary
Figure 12 is a choropleth map which shows the extent of urban growth and suburbanisation in Sydney, and its growth over a period of time. In addition, there is a widespread suburbanisation of shopping, with a lot of Westfield Shopping Centres, including:
Chatswood
Parramatta
Burwood
Changes in Growth, Development, Future Trends and Ecological Sustainability
The physical spreading of people, urban sprawl, puts pressure on nature, where land is being deforested and degraded in order to account for the development of new accomodation, agricultural land and other facilities and infrastructure. The population of Sydney has been increasing, as well as ageing. To facilitate for the increase of population, the density of population has had to be increased through consolidation, and also spreading throughout the basin, through suburbanisation. Sydney has become very spatially large and this has caused issues with the amount of space left, where the remainder of space is in the north west and south west. There will also be many problems associated with traffic congestion, the protection of biophysical, built environments and facilities, and the discharge of solid waste, where Sydney’s landfill space left are approximated to be less than 10 years. In addition, the construction, increased use of cars and expansion of factory size and use is environmentally degrading and unsustainable, contributing to global warming, resulting in climate change and many environmental changes. A study conducted in 2005, discovered that the urban ecological footprint in Sydney, covered 49% of NSW. It also projected that if current rates of expansion continued without ecological-minded action, the footprint would cover about 95% of NSW by 2031. An urban ecological footprint accounts for resources used by people, including food they consume, spaces that they occupy and wastes that the generate. The Australian population has an extremely large individual ecological footprint, being the 8th highest in the world, at 7.4 hectares per person. This can be juxtaposed to the ecological footprint of the USA, which is 9.7 hectares per person and Africa, which is only 2.1 hectares per person. The global ecological footprint is about 2.3 hectares per person, which shows that an Australian’s damage to the environment is quite drastic compared to other people in the world.
Suburbanisation will undoubtedly increase a household’s resource consumption. Land is much cheaper in the outer suburbs, where commercial estate is far more expensive in more populated areas such as Ashfield or the Sydney CBD, due to the high amounts of potential customers that there is. The sprawl of population has resulted in more resource consumption, where areas of lower population which lack in public infrastructure such as trains, must rely upon private vehicles to travel. The direct effect of this procedure results in large environmental costs by decreasing air quality as well as increasing greenhouse gas production such as carbon dioxide.
Figure 13: Increase of carbon emissions through travel in Australia from 1990-2013
Governments have the ability to assist in ecologically sustainable development through legislation such as encouraging households and industry to reduce the amount of resources they consume, and to encourage a reduction in the amount of waste created. For example, the state government is attempting to reduce water consumption in Sydney, where the average person was using 411 litres per day in 2002, and reduced it to 329 Litres by 2011.
Figure 14: Projected Population growth in Sydney