SET721: Evaluating Sustainability in Australian Engineering Practices

This report critically analyzes an article discussing the challenges to achieving sustainable cities in Australia due to current building and planning regulations. It examines the historical, current, and future contexts of environmental sustainability in Australia, highlighting the impact of the built environment on greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. The report identifies factors hindering sustainability, including human social factors, government policies, and engineering practices. Key stakeholders, such as the government, engineers, the public, and building material manufacturers, are discussed in relation to their roles in addressing or contributing to the problem. The report concludes by proposing engineering solutions, such as developing effective planning frameworks, streamlining approval systems, removing political obstacles, and promoting innovative sustainable building practices, ultimately advocating for a transformation of the built environment towards greater sustainability. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and past papers.

Running head: Engineering Sustainability
ENGINEERING SUSTAINABILITY
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Engineering Sustainability 2
1. INTRODUCTION
The article of investigation: ‘Sustainable cities? Australia’s building and planning rules
stand in the way of getting there’
The case study is on the article under the title ‘Sustainable cities? Australia’s building
and planning rules stand in the way of getting there,’ published on September 20, 2017
(Andréanne, Hurley, Susie & Trivess 2017). The article tries to examine the state of cities and
the current planning system that is blamed for not following the required environmental
sustainability. In addition, the article also indicates that currently upon examination of building a
show that building is not meeting the requirement for sustainable building. This is not
exceptional for that infrastructure since the planning of most of the Australian cities is not
properly done according to environmental requirement. The author tries to compare the planning
of cities with the UN Sustainable Development Goals showing that at the moment of writing the
article Australia was ranked 20th country in the world in terms of sustainability. Furthermore, the
authors try to evaluate the current sustainable building and planning frameworks to understand
the gaps that are there in the system leading to a failed system. The author finishes the article by
pointing out some system that needs to be changed in order to make the infrastructure
development sustainable.
The historical context of environmental sustainability is within the government
documents that were laid forth through research. The challenge of poor infrastructure

Engineering Sustainability 3
development began due to increasing demand for housing and infrastructure within the country.
This necessitates the need for development of sustainable land use and infrastructure
development policies or framework. The development of these environmentally sustainable land
use policy that guides the construction and infrastructure development has little legislation as
identified by the New South Wales state (Dunmade 2013b).
The current sustainable context for the infrastructure challenge is engraved within the
statistic showing the impact of the built environment to sustainability. According to the author of
the article, build environment account for a third of greenhouse gas emission originates from the
built environment. Moreover, 12% of the energy use emanate from the built environment within
Australia as compared to 40% that forms the world index. The greenhouse emission within
Australia built environment on the other hand account for 13% and this shows the far that poor
environmental sustainable planning impact cities. Currently, the government of Australia has
tried to improve environmental planning through local government a system that does not work
given the low legislation framework. One example of a local government trying to institute
sustainable environmental planning is the government of Victoria. The body that is used by the
government called Council Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments (CASBE). The core
function of this body is to bring together engineering professionals within Australia to come up
with sustainable building and planning framework (Dunmade 2013a).
The future context of the sustainable indicates there is a need for better building design
and planning. There is a need for sustainable building policies that is coupled with sustainable
environmental land use. Future also points to advance the use of other sustainable building
practices that will help improve the sustainable environmental use. This will include a robust
government system that is easy to approve construction. The system will also be backed up with

Engineering Sustainability 4
good government policies that reduce the impact of a political obstacle in sustainable
engineering practices (Rosen 2012).
The primary areas of investigation
The case study is about sustainable construction, environmental planning, infrastructure
development, and urban planning. Firstly, the article indicates that in terms of sustainable
construction, most of Australia cities are not sustainable. Most of the constructions are poorly
designed and planed making various environmental challenges. Secondly, environmental
planning within urban cities still falls short of standards as proposed by the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals (Dunmade 2014).
2. The objective of the investigation
The investigation brings to understanding the construction and infrastructure challenges
affecting sustainability and possible sustainable engineering solutions. The investigation analyses
the poor environmental sustainable development especially in construction and infrastructure
challenges that are presented in the article.
3. The factors facing sustainability
The author cites some of the factors that have resulted in the lack of sustainability of
Australian cities. Some of these factors human social factors, government factors, and
engineering factors. Firstly, human social factors that have led to challenges in sustainability
refers high cost of living that is driving many people to build houses without considering the
impact on the environment. The need for settlement also has because many people to build a
house with no proper approval and with poor planning. The high housing pressure that exists,
presents the need to develop more built environments to accommodate the ever-rising

Engineering Sustainability 5
populations within the country is part of the problem that is driving the unsustainable
construction (Vallero & Brasier 2008).
The government
Government factors include a bureaucratic system and political obstacles. The building
planning and approval have been termed as a complex discouraging system with many
developers not meeting the required standards for environmental planning. In addition, the article
also shows that the government has failed to develop and enforce sustainable construction
framework. The author state the need for environmental sustainability standards for planning and
building that can help reduce the poor planning that is currently affecting the country. Leaving
the framework development into the hand of the local government is not solving the
sustainability challenges as this only brings tension (Dunmade 2013b).
The difference in the responsible government unit is another challenge that is mention
within the article as the tension is building between the local government and national
government planning framework. Lack of proper legislation that guides the planning framework
is one of the areas that affect sustainable environmental us as most governments fail to put in
place the required framework. This has resulted in some state government such as that of New
South Wale developing their own framework and eventually results in tension. This brings
engineering challenge especially for those designing infrastructure and constructions
(Sustainable Engineering & Design 2016). For instance, the rejection of nightingale in the year
2015 has also contributed to the tension developed as shown in figure 1.

Engineering Sustainability 6
Figure 1: Nightingale (Andréanne, Hurley, Susie & Trivess 2017)
Lastly, engineering factors that are also cited include manufacture construction material
that is not meeting the sustainable threshold. Poor planning and infrastructure design is another
engineering challenge that has led to unsustainable cities in Australia. The article presents the
engineering sustainability challenge limits the engineering capacity to develop those projects that
comply with the required set of sustainable standards. There are other engineering factors that
have influenced the low sustainable construction and infrastructure development within Australia
as indicated within the article that includes a poor design on the part of engineers since they are
professional and are expected to complies with standards. The sustainable construction and

Engineering Sustainability 7
infrastructure development challenge is attributed therefore is a more complex system with a
number of factors. Some of these factors as indicated in the article may also include stakeholders
that act directly or indirectly (Sachin & Bhaskar 2016).
Stakeholders in the case study
There are various stakeholders that are part of the case study play an important to the
sustainable challenges or solution. Firstly, the government is a key stakeholder that has been
mention as having failed in its environmental regulation when approving or developing the
construction or infrastructure. The government provides systems that are used for approval of
plans and also provides the blueprint for sustainable environmental or infrastructure
development. Secondly, engineering is also stakeholders within the context of the case study that
may bring a sustainable system in place. A government such those of the Victoria and New
South Wales are bringing together building design and planning professional to develop land use
policies that are important for sustainable environmental planning. Thirdly, the public is another
stakeholder that forms part of the challenge that is mention in the article. The public which also
forms part of the land and building owners and is an active actor within the system. Poor
approval of construction of a building within the country is also attributed to the negligence of
house owner as some do not follow the right channel citing complex government systems.
Lastly, the manufacture of the building materials is another area that is also connected to
sustainability since the type of material that is sued render the construction unsustainable (Rosen
2012).
Sustainable infrastructure development

Engineering Sustainability 8
Based on the article the available engineering solution can help make these cities
sustainable. The author suggests the need to transform the built environment into a more
sustainable environment. Transforming the built environment requires the development of an
effective planning framework and alternative manufactured building materials. Firstly, the
various tires of the government can bring together the engineering professionals to design a
sustainable environmental plan (Huesemann & Joyce 2011). A sustainable environmental plan
will guide the environmental use leading to a preplanned development. Secondly, develop an
engineering approval system that is less complex and meet the requirement as laid out in the
framework. As identified in the article, the current government approval system is complex and
makes building different leading to the unsustainable built environment. Thirdly, removing
political obstacle is another area that can lead to the sustainable built environment. The
government that has good engineering and land use policies is important for the advancement of
sustainable engineering. In addition, the government policies also play an important role in
ensuring that all the engineering developments meet the sustainable standards that are laid down
within the land use policies. It is also exceptional for qualification of engineers involved in the
construction as it also contributes to sustainable construction and infrastructure development
(Dunmade 2012).
The author of the article also indicates the need for innovative sustainable building
capacity that contributes to the sustainable built environment. A good sustainable building
capacity has good building materials that enhance the sustainability of our construction and
infrastructure. As indicated by Chan & Salustri (2012), a sustainable building system should use
engineering capacity to bring a new way of developing constructions that minimize energy usage
and emission of greenhouse gases into the environment. This implies that one way of solving the

Engineering Sustainability 9
infrastructure challenges mention in the article is by coming up with alternative construction
materials and the source of energy used in the building. Moreover, the task of government is to
develop sustainable policies that will ensure that new building complies with proposed
sustainable construction practice. For instance, some government has come up with a building
framework that incorporates gardens into building so as to reduce the rate of greenhouse gases
released into the environment (Dunmade 2015).
4. Summary
The article presents some of the challenges that affect sustainable engineering
developments especially on environmental use, planning, building and infrastructure
development. Some of the challenges that have been cited in the article include the government
policies and systems that limit the ability of sustainable planning and construction. The article
also tries to compare the current building planning framework with the need to develop a more
sustainable framework that will help in future infrastructure and building development and this
will help make cities more sustainable. This is important for future development since the plan
will assist those willing to develop decent housing. In addition, all future engineering projects
will be guided by the present framework that is yet to be put in place. Government policies also
instill future hope for those willing to removing the political obstacle that hinders sustainable
engineering within the country. Moreover, the challenges that are presented in the article
presents gaps that must be filled for future sustainable building and infrastructure development.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the engineering sustainability is an important system that needs clear
policies and planning framework that enable proper land or environmental use. This is is the core

Engineering Sustainability 10
aspects that are presented in the article under investigation. The article also presents some of the
challenges that are currently facing some of the engineering constructions and the need to solve
these impediments. There all the stakeholders that have been mentioned in the article need to
come up together to develop the required framework.

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References
Andréanne, D., Hurley, J., Susie, M. & Trivess, M. (September 20, 2017) Sustainable cities?
Australia’s building and planning rules stand in the way of getting there. The Conversation.
Available at https://theconversation.com/sustainable-cities-australias-building-and-planning-
rules-stand-in-the-way-of-getting-there-84263 [accessed on September 22, 2018]
Chan, V. & Salustri, F. A. (2012) Design for Assembly. Available at
http://deed.ryerson.ca/~fil/t/dfmdfa.html [Accessed on 22, September 2018]
Dunmade, I.S. (2012) Recycle or Dispose Of? Lifecycle Environmental Sustainability
Assessment of Paint Recycling Process. Resource and environment, vo.2, no.6, pp 291-296
DOI:10.5923/j.re.20120206.07
Dunmade, I.S. (2013a) Design for Multi-Lifecycle and Its Role in Enhancing Environmental
Protection in the Agri-Industrial Sector, International Journal of Engineering Research and
Applications,vol.3, no.2, pp 1279-1285

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Dunmade, I.S. (2013b). A Case study on needs assessment for sustainable development, World
Environment, vol.3, no.4, pp 127-132
Dunmade, I.S. (2014) Sustainability Issues in Rural-Urban Partnerships: A Study on Regional
and Inter-municipal Collaborations between some Southern Alberta Municipalities, Environment
and Ecology Research, vol.2, no.1, pp 1-7
Dunmade, I. (2015) WATS - The Future Energy and Water Supply Solution for Developing
Countries. In the Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Planning and Design held
25-28 May 2015 in Tainan City, Taiwan
Huesemann, M.H., & Joyce A. H. (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the
Environment, Chapter 13, "The Design of Environmentally Sustainable and Appropriate
Technologies", New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, 464 pp.
Rosen, M.A. (2012) Engineering Sustainability: A Technical Approach to Sustainability.
Sustainability 4, 2270-2292; doi:10.3390/su4092270
Sachin, A.M & Bhaskar D. K. (April 2016) Introduction to Sustainable Engineering: A course
module for undergraduates: (A course book for internal circulation among students) Section IV:
Case Studies. Research gate. Available at
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304248989_Introduction_to_Sustainable_Engineering_
A_course_module_for_undergraduates_A_course_book_for_internal_circulation_among_studen
ts_Section_IV_Case_Studies [accessed on 22, September 2018]
Sustainable Engineering & Design, LLC (2016) available at
http://www.sustainableengineeringdesign.com/ [accessed on 22 September 2018]

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Vallero D. & Brasier C. (2008) Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green
Engineering. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ,