PUBH6002 Global Health: Environmental Risk Assessment of Housing

This report provides an environmental risk assessment of housing and the built environment, focusing on the Australian context. It identifies driving forces such as sustainability concerns and population growth, which put pressure on resources and lead to state changes affecting ecological processes. The report highlights the exposure to toxic wastes from construction and the effects on public health, including potential disabilities and diseases. It also examines social, political, and economic influences related to new housing developments. The current situation involves government initiatives to promote engineered housing and sustainable urban landscapes. The report concludes with suggestions for improvement, such as integrating IoT concepts and smart city technologies to enhance urban management and quality of life. Desklib offers a range of resources, including past papers and solved assignments, for students studying similar topics.

Running head: HOUSING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Housing and the Built Environment
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note

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HOUSING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Table of Contents
Part 1..........................................................................................................................................2
Description of the selected issue............................................................................................2
Driving forces.........................................................................................................................2
Pressure..................................................................................................................................3
State Changes.........................................................................................................................3
Exposure.................................................................................................................................3
Effects of the environmental health issue..............................................................................4
Social, Political and economic influences..............................................................................4
Part 2..........................................................................................................................................4
Current Situation of Environmental health issue...................................................................4
Suggestions to Address Identified Gaps................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Part 1
Description of the selected issue
It has been estimated from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Household and family
projections (ABS 2015b) that the number of households that are currently resident in
Australia have a high increasing rate and the increase in the number of households would
increase by 3.7 million and 4 million from 2006 to 2031 as per estimation ("5206.0 -
Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Mar 2018", 2018).
There are various types of housing facilities that are adopted by the people of Australia such
as the Detached housing, free-standing housing which have be located on the quarter-acre
building and these type of housing has been lending an predominant feature for the urban
development within the country. The population density of the country has been comprising
of around 20% of the total housing for the urban history of Australia. The Australian
government has also increased the density of the high housing that would help the people of
Australia to obtain higher level of housing types. In addition to this, the due to history of low
density planning by the Australian government the most common type of housing for the
general population in the country are the detached homes. Additionally, there has been semi-
detached dwellings for about 9% in the country and units and apartment account for around
13 per cent in the country ("5206.0 - Australian National Accounts: National Income,
Expenditure and Product, Mar 2018", 2018). Overall for the major change in the type of
housing density for the country has taken a long time and huge improvement is required for
the full development in the country.
Driving forces
The major driving forces towards the development of the housing and building
environment in the country basically is dependent on the sustainability concerns in the

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country of Australia and this should not be halted with the construction and hence, the
emergence of the housing projects has risen for the increase in the housing density ("5206.0 -
Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Mar 2018", 2018).
The newer designs of the housing environment describe the development of the systems and
the ability of growth of the country. The newer housing also arises from the need to conserve
the energy of the country as the country is losing out on the energies and fuel constrains of
the country.
Pressure
The Population of the country has been ever growing and area of the country has been
constant and would also remain constant in the future. Additionally, the demands for the
population has also increased and the demands for the natural resources and the fuel constrain
within the country has increased to a great deal (Dieleman, 2017). Hence, creating more and
more housing space is not the only concern but also making an efficient population density
that can be maintained efficiently in the country and this is very important with respect to
sustainable development within the country.
State Changes
There has been a huge development in the standard of the living for the people of
Australia and hence, the disturbance is caused mostly by the influence of the humans in the
country. The natural ecological process also affects the changes to a great deal and the
changes include the human infection and diseases which involve the destruction of the natural
resources (Haselwandter, 2015). Also with the increase the in the housing area within the
country the forest region within the country gets decreased and this hampers the production
of the natural resources to great level.

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Exposure
Additionally, due to constructions and building developments huge amount of toxic
and building wastes are released in the environment, and the exposure to these type of
harmful chemicals and waste in the environment can sometimes cause widespread diseases
for the people of the country.
Effects of the environmental health issue
Due of the detached housing complex system the people of the country are suffering
from various type of disabilities. In addition to this, the lack of proper engineering would
make the access to clean water very difficult and this might spread chronic diseases in the
country (Carmichael, Connolly & Egan, 2016). Additionally, there are various other type
disabilities that might be caused from the environment.
Social, Political and economic influences
New households are no doubt enhancing the better livelihood of the individuals
however; lands are necessary for building new houses. These new construction are not only
leading to the deforestations but also influencing the community in both negative and positive
manner. There is always two face of a coin and same matter is in this scenario where
economic conditions are being enhanced and disturbed too.
Part 2
Current Situation of Environmental health issue
The government of Australia is trying to make the way for the engineered house
which would take up less space and hold a much higher level of population within the
housing complexes ("5206.0 - Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure
and Product, Mar 2018", 2018). According to the National Housing Supply Council (NHSC

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2013), the entire dwelling stock is accounted for the flats, units and apartments that would be
accounting for the 3.9 per sent improvements across the whole of the country ("5206.0 -
Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Mar 2018", 2018).
The main increase is in the capital territory of country and New South Wales. The number of
units that have been changed from the year 2011 there has been an increase in the number of
housing that have transformed from the detached housing types. The share in the number
flats that have three or bedrooms in them have increased from just less than 13 per cent in
2001 to almost 18 per cent in 2011, and there has been a suggestion that the apartments which
closer to the detached dwellings have been ever increasing in number.
In addition to the development of housing areas the government of Australia also
adopted policies for the development of the urban landscapes that ecologically more
sustainable and the key habitat structures are maintained in the region ("5206.0 - Australian
National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Mar 2018", 2018). These
areas are located strategically, which would provide the people who are living there the
option of reaching out to any type of facilities required by them and also have a very efficient
Eco space distributed around the complexes.
The overall picture suggests that overall stock of housing complexes would take a
linger amount of time for their complete evolution and despite the higher rate of suggestion
from the national data centres there has been a very low level of change rate in the country
from the year 2008 to 2014 (Wang & Lin, 2014). This is consistent as there has been a very
low rate of change in the smaller proportion for the total housing stock of the country. The
total stock in the country was around 9 million in country and by the year 2015 it was
227,000, with 52 per cent of these being detached houses in comparison to 56 per cent in
2013-14 and 58 in the years 2012-13 ("5206.0 - Australian National Accounts: National
Income, Expenditure and Product, Mar 2018", 2018).

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Greater Melbourne has the Largent number of residential homes and approvals range
to 56,657 approvals in the year 2014-15 and percentage in inner Melbourne has risen to
around 95%. Additionally, 65% of the approvals were also received from greater Sydney.
60% rate was also available in the city of Brisbane.
The Home affairs department of Australia has also made some policies to establish to
act as a ‘portfolio agency’ for ASIO, the AFP, the Australian Border Force, the Australian
Criminal Intelligence Commission, AUSTRAC and the Office of Transport Security. In the
month of January, a Critical Infrastructure Centre was made available in the Attorney-
General’s Department for the Assessments of the risks involving sabotage, espionage and
coercion on telecommunications, electricity, water and maritime ports arising from foreign
activities in the sectors (Rupp & Lamberts, 2015). A draft bill was also passed in this context.
Suggestions to Address Identified Gaps
The policies adopted by the Australian Administrators seems quite efficient and this
would work in great way to help the population of the country, however some minor changes
and development can be suggested to the administration. The integration of the IOT concepts
in development of the city would help the developer to great extent and make their job easier.
Smart city concepts would be making the city automated and the maintenance of the city
would become very easy for the authorities and this would also increase the quality of living
of the people of the country. Involvement of the online facilities would be very helpful for the
people of the country.

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References
5206.0 - Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Mar
2018. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/5206.0
5206.0 - Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Mar
2018. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/5206.0
Cao, X. (2014). Residential self-selection in the relationships between the built environment
and travel behavior: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Transport and Land
Use, 7(3), 1-3.
Carmichael, L., Connolly, A. M., & Egan, M. (2016). House of Lords: Revised transcript of
evidence taken before The Select Committee on National Policy for the Built
Environment.
Dieleman, F. (2017). Households and housing: Choice and outcomes in the housing market.
Routledge.
Gomez, S. L., Shariff‐Marco, S., DeRouen, M., Keegan, T. H., Yen, I. H., Mujahid, M., ... &
Glaser, S. L. (2015). The impact of neighborhood social and built environment factors
across the cancer continuum: current research, methodological considerations, and
future directions. Cancer, 121(14), 2314-2330.
Haselwandter, E. M., Corcoran, M. P., Folta, S. C., Hyatt, R., Fenton, M., & Nelson, M. E.
(2015). The built environment, physical activity, and aging in the United States: A
state of the science review. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 23(2), 323-329.
Rupp, R. F., Vásquez, N. G., & Lamberts, R. (2015). A review of human thermal comfort in
the built environment. Energy and Buildings, 105, 178-205.

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Wang, D., & Lin, T. (2014). Residential self-selection, built environment, and travel behavior
in the Chinese context. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 7(3), 5-14.