SSUD71-300: Gold Coast Light Rail Project Analysis and Planning

This assignment analyzes the Gold Coast Light Rail Project, specifically stages 1-3, and how it addresses relevant megatrend challenges facing the Gold Coast, including demographic changes, climate concerns, traffic congestion, and unemployment. The analysis examines the Light Rail Project's strategies for dealing with population growth, ecological changes, and traffic issues, including the expansion of the project to provide jobs and improve transport efficiency. The assignment also explores the Queensland planning framework and the timeframe for project completion, outlining the planning processes involved, such as making planning schemes and considering state interests. The student's work provides a comprehensive overview of the project's planning and assessment processes, and the potential impact on the Gold Coast's development.

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PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT PROCESSES
Name of the student
Course
Date

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Question 1
Critical analysis of how Light Rail Project including Stages 1-3 may respond to relevant
megatrend challenges facing the Gold Coast.
Introduction
Light Rail Project has been a great success in contributing towards transportation of people and
goods around Gold Coast. While picking travellers through designed stages, it has led to the
tremendous growth of the economy of Gold Coast. This transport service has led to a connection
between communities through jobs, need for health services, entertainment and other sporting
activities. The government has therefore allocated funds aimed at developing Light Rail project
with the aim of continuously providing transport services to satisfy the rapidly growing
population of Gold Coast. There are however megatrend challenges facing Gold Coast which
Light Railway project should aim at solving.
Megatrend challenges and how Light Railways may respond to them.
These are as follows;
1. Demographic change.
There is rapid population growth in Gold coast which are creating a number of challenges to both
businesses and individuals. This is shown from in various statics which further go on to estimate
that population will further increase in the next decade. People are living longer and having
children and needs are becoming a priority. There is an increasing need for jobs to satisfy the
growing population through the production of goods and services. There is also a need for

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healthy living among individuals and therefore, more workforce, lifelong learning and adequate
health care for survival is required.
This way, Light Rail Project need to adopt the following strategies on dealing with this rapid
population growth in Gold coast; monitoring citywide population growth and development
trends in planning in order to accommodate this growing population (Barnett & Spoehr, 2013).
This will help in providing an adequate transport system which will be important in movements
to work places, search for health services and carrying out businesses. Expansion of this project
will also provide jobs to people and this is important in economic growth of the city.
Figure: population growth in Gold coast from 2011 to 2016.
The diagram below shows the progress in population increase in gold coast between

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2. Climate.
There are a number of ecological changes taking place over time in Gold coast. This has
increased the pressure on the need to satisfy important resources among the lives of the people.
There is increasing demand for food, shelter and water to the people. But due to the gradual
climatic challenges together with the growing population, a number of individuals may go
without food or water in Gold coast in a day. There are also occurrences of bush fires and
smoke-filled atmospheres. Moreover, there are also severe rising sea levels and weather
conditions which have led to people being displaced to other regions for a better living
environment. Climate changes are also causing biodiversity leading to most animal species in the
region being exposed and on the risk of losing their lives. Weather experts are constantly giving
worrying reports about the future climate conditions about this region even though It is not easy
to predict climate changes (Chon et al, 2013).
However, in dealing with these challenges, Broadwater parklands- Stage 3 in Gold Coast have
been made accessible to the public. There have been schools built, the Southport amateur fishing
clubs and these have been having importance on creating awareness on the need for conserving
the environment which will, in turn, have a positive impact on our climate reducing risks such as
global warming (Hajkowicz, 2015).
There have also been proposed green building initiatives aimed at providing efficient solar power
or energy which aims at reducing pollution effects to the local and global surroundings. There
also plans to renovate existing buildings with the aim of making them more resilient to these
climate change effects. Thus, there has been a significant increase in the number of households

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making use of solar energy. Further research findings show that Southport has seen the highest
increase in the number of households currently utilizing solar energy around Gold Coast.
3. Traffic and Congestion.
There are is frequent traffic and congestion in towns across Gold Coast. This is accompanied by
poor quality breathing air and spread of air-borne related diseases which are even spread faster
when individuals are overcrowded over places. Traffic jams have also affected the supply of
goods to places with those business-related companies being heavily affected economically. This
poor quality in transportation has led to price increment on the price of goods delivered to
customers around the region as they may tend to shift locations or change the size of goods.
Traffic effects have also lead to more sophisticated changes in operations in service-oriented
economies which are reliant on effective transport systems to deliver. Furthermore, traffic
congestion often leads to increased chances of collisions and accidents occurrences (Yudelson,
2016). Traffics, therefore, have impacted negatively on the economy and businesses of the
people living around Gold Coast through an increase in operational costs and reduction in the
size of the market at many business centres. It can also lead to significant fluctuation in the
prices of goods and services delivered to customers.
To reduce and manage these traffic and congestion-related challenges, Light Rail Project have to
encourage more non-vehicle trips to be taken by pedestrians and cyclists by increasing the
efficiency of movement through corridors with an aim improving the general outlook of Light
rail as a transport option. This leads to a significant increase in the number of pedestrian road
crossings and mid-block links. This will facilitate efficiency in movements of large commercial
vehicles to various places for service delivery in time and will, in turn, lead to significant

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improvements on the economy of Gold Coast, and minimize inflation in prices of goods and
services delivered (Meharg et al, 2015).
The following is an image showing the importance of addressing traffic congestion effect in
Gold coast which has eased movement in transportation;
Figure 1.
4. Unemployment.
Increasing population means there are chances of many people missing out on jobs. The lack of
adequate knowledge means that such individuals are disadvantaged as they can only do manual
work. The chances of work opportunities being available are therefore thin in such scenarios.
There are also poor working conditions in rural areas especially when these job opportunities

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become available. It has been a challenge to the government in trying to deal with challenges
related to unemployment. Research shows that there will be an increase in the number of
unemployment situations in the years to come. There will also be an increase in the number of
youth travelling to cities and town around Gold coast in search of job opportunities (Niemeier et
al, 2013). Many youths who lack jobs, therefore, resolve to actions such as theft and burglary
while looking for a means of survival. Some have even resolved to gamble and drug abuse to
overcome stress. This has encouraged laziness in young individuals in the society which
therefore impacts negatively on Gold Coast.
There are plans that the Light Rail project can put into place with the aim of increasing job
opportunities to youths and some adults even though the whole population is impossible to be
taken care of. There has to be improvement made towards making working conditions better to
eradicated the bad ideas attached to being unemployed. This will be important in bringing
positive energy towards work with the aim of achieving goals set resulting in the improvement in
the economy of Gold Coast. This is even better when fair financial incentives are allocated to
workers as a reward for the good work done. In this way, chances of unemployment will be
minimized and the challenges related to this situation such as theft and drug abuse be fairly
controlled.
Gold coast as a result of the light rail project is shown below;

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Figure 2
Figure Light Rail Project stage 3.
References.
Barnett, K. and Spoehr, J., 2013. Playford Prospects. Challenges and opportunities.

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Chon, Kaye Sung. Tourism in Southeast Asia: A new direction. Routledge, 2013.
Hajkowicz, S., 2015. Global megatrends: Seven patterns of change shaping our future. CSIRO
PUBLISHING.
Lamnabhi-Lagarrigue, F., Annaswamy, A., Engell, S., Isaksson, A., Khargonekar, P., Murray,
R.M., Nijmeijer, H., Samad, T., Tilbury, D. and Van den Hof, P., 2017. Systems & Control for
the future of humanity, research agenda: Current and future roles, impact and grand
challenges. Annual Reviews in Control, 43, pp.1-64.
Meharg, S., Kirono, D.G.C., Butler, J.R.A., McEachern, S. and Hajkowicz, S., 2015. Australia-
Indonesia Centre Megatrends: Infrastructure. Report prepared for the Australia-Indonesia Centre,
Monash University.
Niemeier, S., Zocchi, A. and Catena, M., 2013. Reshaping retail: Why technology is
transforming the industry and how to win in the new consumer driven world. John Wiley &
Sons.
Spiller, P., Reinecke, N., Ungerman, D. and Teixeira, H., 2013. Procurement 20/20: Supply
entrepreneurship in a changing world. John Wiley & Sons.
Taylor, B., Walton, A., Loechel, B., Measham, T. and Fleming, D., 2017. Strategic foresight for
regional Australia: Megatrends, scenarios and implications.
Yudelson, J., 2016. Reinventing green building: Why certification systems aren't working and
what we can do about it. New Society Publishers.

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Question 2
Queensland planning framework and likely timeframe for completion.
The purpose of this review is to identify necessary reforms to be implemented on transportation
with the aim of achieving the long term sustainability of the transport industry in Queensland.
These reforms target also improving the economy and living standards of people of Queensland
and the country as a whole. These reforms, therefore, aims at achieving development, certainty
and financial sustainability. There are long term infrastructure plans that are financially
sustainable, certain and equitable which are aimed at developing the whole Queensland (Russo,
2015).
These reforms ideas are gathered from expert reviews and focuses on the charges, elements and
the priority frameworks which should be in place when carrying out planning procedures. These
reviews from the expert's forms options aimed at identifying the right procedures to be taken
towards development. In order to develop a reasonable and reliable infrastructure plan, the
government should make use of standardized planning processes. The following process can be
used in the Queensland planning project for active transport in the region with references already
taken by Stage 3, with the details of each phase provided. In order to carry out a certain planning
process, the local government of Queensland must prepare the planning scheme in accordance
with section 18- 20 of the Queensland planning Act (Christensen, 2018). This planning process
involves the following major categories;
 Making planning schemes.
This process is involved when the local government wants to make use of a planning scheme. A
proposed planning scheme is given to the chief executive by the local government (Dur, 2012).

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The kind of information which can be included in this proposed planning scheme include; nature
and objectives of the planning scheme to be used, potential duration which the work can be done,
the ideal communication strategy and also, the timing and order of steps to be followed in the
process. After consultations with the local government, the Chief executive gives a notice back
to the local government about the process for making a planning scheme. He can also provide an
amended notice about the process for making a planning scheme back to the local government.
When preparing the notice, the chief executive always considers the Minister’s procedures. Some
of the things the Chief Executive should aim to consider include state interests. This means that
he must consider the state government's willingness to support the entire project through funding
and any other help required. The state interest, therefore, needs to be reviewed and it is necessary
to consider the timing, size, and scale of the review. The Chief executive should also consider
whether the communication strategy proposed by the local government is effective for use in that
proposed planning scheme. In that communication strategy, he should check the nature of the
proposed planning scheme, whether the community engagement was honestly carried out in a
meaningful way and also whether the proposed planning scheme affects any person’s right under
the Act. Thereafter, the Chief Executive should consider the right person mandated with
approving the planning scheme proposed. He (Chief Executive) then sends a notice back to the
local government on the progress made and the final approval of whether the proposed planning
scheme is ready to be implemented. This notice is then first published by the local government.
For a period of about 40 days after publishing, the notice is then published to the general public
in order to access the local government planning scheme and how they wish to make certain
changes in that particular region. Several views of the people towards the proposed planning
scheme are collected by the local government, who then presents them back to the minister with

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a summary of matters raised by the general public (Guran et al, 2011). The local government
must also state in their report on how they dealt with arising issues from the proposed planning
scheme. If the Minister approves that this report is appropriate enough, it is passed on to the next
stage.
 Application of the planning scheme in tidal areas.
The local government may put into action a planning scheme to categorically implement tidal
works in the tidal area of its locality. This applies whether the tidal area is in the local
government’s area or as per the Coastal Act section 167(5) (c) directive (McDonald, 2011).
 Amending planning schemes.
This activity involves the amendment of the planning schemes in accordance with the minister’s
rules. This is normally done in case there is no need to make new planning schemes (Mukheibir
et al, 2013). These amendments can either be on administrative, minor or major interests or
qualified state interests. Here, the Minister's rules require that the local government publishes a
public notice about the planning scheme that is being or should be amended (Newton et al, 2012)
(Russo, 2015). The local government must, therefore, notify property owners who will be
potentially affected by the proposed amendment plan, and explain the meaning of the change and
how to get further advice on what to do. If the proposed amendment plan is considered valid by
the local government, they publish a notice within a period of 10 to 20 days, and give a copy of
the notice to the chief executive including a certified copy of the proposed amendment plan.
In conclusion, this planning process is effective with reference to Stage 3. In this section, the
different planning procedures have been explained and it is important to note that the Minister's
guidelines are followed strictly when putting these planning schemes in place. Drop-in-sessions