Analysis of Urban Containment and Sustainable Water Supplies Report

This report critically analyzes urban containment and sustainable water supplies, focusing on the global issue of urban sprawl and its impact on resource management. It explores the conversion of rural areas into residential zones and the consequent strain on water resources. The report delves into the importance of sustainable development, examining policies implemented in Europe and the factors influencing their effectiveness. Using the Australian Bourneville case study, the report identifies factors affecting policy implementation and the crucial role of local authorities and stakeholders in ensuring urban containment and sustainable water supplies. The study highlights the relationship between sustainability and urban form, emphasizing economic, social, and environmental considerations. It examines how industrial philanthropy and placemaking influence the quality of life and explores factors contributing to urban growth, including population, economic expansion, and European integration. The report also discusses the impacts of uncontained urban growth, urban containment policies, and the importance of sustainability in development, particularly concerning water resource management. The conclusion emphasizes the need for efficient resource utilization and conservation for future generations.

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies1
URBAN CONTAINMENT AND SUSTAINABLE WATER SUPPLIES
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Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies2
URBAN CONTAINMENT AND SUSTAINABLE WATER SUPPLIES
Abstract
For so long urban sprawl has been a common phenomenon all over the world and it refers
to the spread of urban areas which highly contributes to changes in land use. Urban sprawl
results into many rural areas being converted into residential areas for the growing population in
the urban nearby urban areas. This has been a topic of concern around the globe since this
conversion has impacts on the quality of life as well as the environment. Countries in Europe
which are developing very fast have put policies in place to limit urban sprawl in order for them
to achieve sustainable development.
Although they are policies put in place to control urban sprawl and its impact on the
social, economic and environmental aspects of life, the implementation of these policies is not
efficient and effective on some occasions. Therefore there are several factors and stakeholders
involved in the formulation and implementation of these policies. The Australian Bourneville
case study can be used to identify the factors that affect the effective and efficient
implementation of these policies in order to realize urban containment and sustainable water
supplies.
The local authorities play a very crucial role in the formulation as well as the efficient
and effective implementation of urban containment policies. The local authorities also have to
involve all the stakeholders in order to ensure that their no gap between the policies and practice
due to ignorance of some interests of the stakeholders. The local governments, as well as
organizations such as Cadbury, have a role in ensuring the natural resources are utilized
effectively and conserved for the benefit of future generations. Water supplies are an example of
such resources that have to be utilized efficiently and be conserved in order to achieve

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies3
sustainable development in Australia and all over the globe in general, (Hortas‐Rico, M., 2015).
The Australian Bourneville case study can be used to show how the local government and
business organizations failed in urban containment and the steps to be taken in the development
of future settlement with a goal of ensuring there are sustainable water supplies.

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies4
Table of Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................6
Factors Contributing to Urban Growth........................................................................................................7
Impact of Uncontained Urban Growth......................................................................................................10
Urban Containment Policies......................................................................................................................12
Sustainability in Development...................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................14
References.................................................................................................................................................15

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies5
Introduction
The relationship between sustainability and urban form is a topic of discussion that has
raised concern on the international environmental agenda. Essentially individuals and societies
are defined by the political beliefs, social networks as well as the place they live, or they were
raised. These factors determine what they believe and what they need to coexist efficiently.
Studying the settlements provided for people can serve as a basis to gauge the level of respect for
human rights, the desire to conserve and enrich the environment as well as maintain good
economics. To ensure that urban settlement areas are well contained and several sustainable
factors have to be considered, (Davoudi and Sturzaker, 2017). The United Nations has put in
place sustainable development goals and the second goal purposes explicitly to make cities
inclusive, safe, resilient and durable.
Placemaking principles are very crucial in urban containment and sustainable water
supplies for both urban and rural living in Australia and all over the world in general. What a
town feels and looks like in the street, and the neighbourhood level is an essential factor in
determining the people, the business and the investment in the area. The resilience and the health
of any city are also highly dependent on the physical setting of that city, the activities taking
place in the town and the quality of a home in general. This paper is a critical analysis of the
Australian Bourneville model community case study as a basis to discuss urban containment and
sustainable water supplies.
The sustainability concept is very complicated especially when it comes to the urban
context. Sustainability involves economic, social and environmental issues and for urban areas to
achieve sustainable development all these three issues have to be considered and be well
balanced. The planning and development of cities have an impact that directly affects the

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies6
economic and social sustainability since it affects the depletion of the resource. Water is one of
those resources that any urban city needs to sustain its population as well as the various activities
, therefore, ensuring sustainable water supplies is crucial in future urban planning. Industrial
philanthropy and placemaking main aim is to improve the quality of life by establishing viable
settlement areas for employees.
In 1920 January, Cadbury company representatives William Cooper and Quakers
Thomas met in Sydney with a mission to build a new factory and Bourneville seemed to possess
all the location factors the company was looking for. The climate was cool, and the beauty of the
site was irresistible even though the new location would increase logistic cost through extra
transportation costs. This decision was the genesis of Garden cities surrounding factories since
the imported employees to the factory would require quality settlements with supporting social
facilities.
Literature Review
The size of cities has always been a concern since towns began to grow. Rome is one of
the first cities that had a population of more than one million people in the ancient times. There
are series of Imperial edicts issued during the first and second century that aimed at limiting the
spread of this city. The courts of Tudor Kings and Queens made similar pronouncements in the
sixteenth century to limit the range of London city. However, during the middle of the 18th
century, the industrial revolution began, and it contributed to the rapid growth of cities in Britain,
(Batty et al., 2003). Urban growth used to be considered as a sprawl; however, in the modern
days, urban growth is deemed to be the unplanned and uncoordinated expansion of community
regardless of its social, economic and environmental impact. Whenever the population in urban

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies7
areas grows the new population is accommodated around their suburbs, and this contributes to
urban growth.
Factors Contributing to Urban Growth
According to Franz et al., for us to understand urban growth and find the appropriate
solution to urban sprawl we have to study and understand its causes. There are several existing
literature that gives the reasons for the urban growth and research all those factors will help us
formulate and implement the appropriate mechanisms for urban containment and sustainable
water supplies. The factors affecting urban growth are numerous, and this makes it mplicated to
identify the element with more significant influence. It is also worthwhile to note that the factors
contributing to urban growth differ between regions, cities and countries, (Christiansen and
Loftsgarden, 2011). These factors are highly dependent on the economic, social and political
conditions existing in specific cities.
It may be difficult to classify the factors behind urban growth, but they can be
categorised into three categories namely micro reasons, meso reasons and macro reasons. The
micro reasons involve individual actions and decisions such as leisure, place of work, retailing
and the nature of personal housing investments. The second category, that is, meso reasons
involves all the space-specific aspects such as local geography, local government, migration,
social and cultural condition, local demography and many more. The third category entails all the
political and economic issues and trends such as household price, rising income, transport costs,
cheap energy as well as globalisation. These factors are evident from the case study where the
Cadbury company had to make a compromise to ensure that the company will still make the
profit as well as cater for the social welfare of its employees in the settlements.

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies8
Considering the three categories of reasons behind urban sprawl we can discuss the
following as the factors contributing to urban growth. Population growth is the first factor that
contributes to the growth of urban areas. Population growth in urban areas is mainly as a result of
migration to the metropolitan area and natural increase in population. Both internal and
international movement highly contributes to population growth in urban areas. For instance, the
Cadbury company had to create a new factory in a new location, and this implied that employees
coming from various parts had to settle in places near the factory. The company had a suggestion
of the preferred settlement designs but had to make a compromise to ensure that the profit
margins are not reduced. As a result, this leads to the establishment of low-quality settlements
that are poorly planned and this causes strain to the natural resources such as the water supplies.
The population growth in urban areas is the main factor to the rapid growth of cities in Europe,
and thus urban planning must be done considering the appropriate population estimates.
Economic growth and globalisation is also considered t be another factor behind the rapid
increase in urban areas. Economic growth is closely related to population growth since it attracts
people to migrate to urban areas to find employment opportunities and engage in commercial
investments. The establishment of the Cadbury company in Bourneville created employment
opportunities for both the local people as well as for people outside the area. The increase in per
capita income and the number of working persons creates demand for housing and the need for
more housing space. This demand calls for the rapid construction of houses by the developers to
meet the demand. However the early development in this urban areas due to the increased
demand results into lack of planning and coordination among developers and the government as
well as it producing discontinuous events. For the case of the Australian Bourneville case study,
the proposed plans were rejected because they seemed too costly for the Cadbury Company.

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies9
However, the population kept on increasing, and this led to the growth of the town to its suburbs
unplanned and uncoordinated leading to strain in the available water supplies in the area.
European integration is another factor that contributes to the growth of urban areas in
Europe since the European Union aims at reducing the economic and social regional differences
all over Europe. The European Union not only does it desire to promote economic and social
development but also wants to achieve sustainable development. One way of reducing the social
and economic difference in the region has been through improvement of accessibility and
mobility investments in the long-distance transport network, (EEA, 2006). These transport
networks enhance accessibility between member states, but future urban planning should
consider the impact of these networks in the growth of a metropolitan area. The Trans-Europe
Transport Networks (TEN-T) was designed to achieve accessibility and connectivity in the
region, but this encourages migration which highly contributes to the challenges in urban
containment and sustainable water supplies.
Competition between municipalities and the price of land also contribute to the growth
of urban areas. Land use zoning is a responsibility that entirely lays under the local authorities
throughout the European Union member states. The local authorities are therefore responsible for
safeguarding and protecting of natural and agricultural land from commercial development and
housing, (EEA, 2006). However, these local authorities need to create revenue, and one way is
through encouraging investment in the areas and the long run they become too lenient on
reinforcing the urban containment policies kept in place. Land prices in the urban areas are
generally high for both housing and development. This makes developers to such low priced land
within the peripherals of cities, and this leads to encroachment of land set aside for agriculture

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies10
and other public use. The competition among local areas to attract investors and create revenue
contributes to the uncontrolled and unplanned growth of urban areas.
Transportation cannot be ignored as one of the factors that contribute to the growth of
urban areas. Better transport facilities from the centre of the town to its peripheries encourage
cities to expand within their suburbs, (Batty et al., 2003). The development of transport in cities
such as metro, buses, train and cars allows people to work in the central business district of the
town and conveniently live in the suburbs and this eventually makes a city to expand due to the
increase of settlement within its suburbs. The same happened for the Cadbury factory where
some workers chose to stay in the neighbouring towns such as Hobart. Regulatory policies also
play a critical role in the growth of urban cities. Countries with strict and effective land use
policies and a government that implements these policies are more likely to control the growth of
its towns well.
Impact of Uncontained Urban Growth
The unplanned and uncoordinated growth of urban areas has so many effects that are
why it has become a topic of discussion in modern philanthropy and placemaking. These effects
have economic, social and environmental impacts for both the urban areas and the rural suburbs.
Understanding these effects will shade light on the importance of urban containment policies and
sustainable water supplies for present and future urban plans. The most common effects of
uncontained urban growth include air pollution, increased energy consumption, increased traffic
congestion, increased stress on natural resources such as water sources as well as the waste of
rural area meant for agriculture and other public use. The uncontrolled growth of urban cities
contributes to the increase in the social disparities between the people who leave in the
surrounding rural areas and those leaving in the urban centre, (Jehling, Hecht and Herold, 2016).

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Furthermore, urban growth is closely associated with the increase in costs of development of
public infrastructure to take care of the high population. All these effects contribute to reducing
the quality of life for the people living in both the rural suburbs and those who leave in the urban
cities.
The growth of urban cities has to be controlled since it directly affects natural resources
and energy. Sustainable development entails the efficient and effective use of the natural
resources which are non-renewable so that future generations can also benefit. It is an issue of
corporate responsibility for organisations such as the Cadbury Company to ensure that their
activities and decisions contribute to establishing a sustainable society, (Youn, 2006). The
business organisations have to ensure that the quality of life of their employees is preserved as
they offer them settlement schemes. Establishment of settlements in the rural suburbs is very
costly since the developers have to ensure roads and other social amenities are provided for
quality leaving standards.
The growth of urban centres threats the natural environment in the peripherals of these
cities. The rural areas are designated for agriculture to ensure food security as well for sustaining
the various natural ecosystems, (Marcotullio, 2017). The land in the rural plays a significant role
in preserving native species of trees and animals, water retention and storage as well as for
recreation purposes. The growth of urban cities increases stress on the natural ecosystem through
the invasion of such land for settlements and also causing air pollution that negatively affects the
natural ecosystems. The loss of these reserved lands for settlements leads to displacement of
animals such as birds and loss of native species of plants. This process also disrupts the local
farming activities in the area thus contributing to food shortages and more demand for water and
fertilisers to sustain the increased population, (Roon, 2007). For instance, in the Australian

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies12
Bourneville case study, the site that was chosen for the settlement of new employees for the
factory was supporting plants and animals, and they had to be destroyed to pave the way for
developers to establish housing units for settlement.
Apart from the environmental and economic impact of the growth of urban cities, there
is a social implication of this phenomenon. There is a difference between the income and the
purchasing power of the people living in the rural areas and those who leave in cities. Therefore,
there is going to be a gap between the people staying in the suburban areas and this will cause
the social imbalance in the society, (Nelson and Dawkins, 2016.) Social interaction is significant
to establish a cohesive society that will encourage coexistence of its members.
As much as the growth of urban areas has several contrary social, economic and implications, it
also has some positive effects. One of the positive results is that the people residing in the rural
areas have more space since they are low-density areas. The level of pollution both noise and air
pollution is low compared to the urban cities, and there is also no traffic congestion. Establishing
settlements in these areas is also advantageous to both the developers and the residents. The
developers acquire land at a lower cost thus the cost of development becomes low, and even the
residents can enjoy low rental and mortgage rates.
Urban Containment Policies
In Europe and all over the world land use and planning is under the national government
and the local government in those areas, (Bengston and Youn, 2006). To prevent the loss of
valued land resources to the development and growth of cities, several urban containment
policies have been formulated to safeguard the land and the natural resources.
The urban containment policies are among the more efficient mechanism used to manage the
growth of the metropolitan cities globally. The legal framework, the degree of aspiration and the

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies13
policy instruments in the urban containment policies in various countries are different, but the
primary objective is to safeguard the valued land resources and ensure sustainable development,
(Hague, 2007). The urban containment policies are formulated for two purposes. The first
purpose is to facilitate and promote accessible and contiguous development with all the
necessary facilities. The second purpose is to preserve environmentally sensitive areas,
agricultural land and open space that is currently not seemly for any form of development.
The zoning system is widely applied in the European countries Australia included, and
this system is similar to the American systems. This system contains detailed plans created for
local areas, and these plans give an outline of the kind of developments allowed in a specific
area. The zoning system is very efficient in managing the growth of urban cities since it precisely
shows the regions where settlement development are permitted and those explicitly designated
for agriculture and other natural resources. The zoning system is efficient for urban containment
since it clearly shows the limits for urban and non-urban zones thus it becomes easy to
implement the policy for sustainable development. The municipal service boundaries, the urban
growth boundaries and the greenbelts are the three primary forms of urban containment policies
in Europe, (The mayor of London, 2011). The greenbelt is the most restrictive containment
policy among the three, and it has been the most efficient in the areas it has been applied.
Therefore if the local authorities had implemented this policy may be the Cadbury factory could
not have been situated at that location, and this would not have brought the issue of urban
containment and sustainable water supplies.

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies14
Sustainability in Development
Access to safe water supply and sanitation is very important, and the design of urban
centers should put this into consideration. The growth of urban cities to the suburbs puts the
available water source under pressure, and this can affect the health conditions of the residents as
well as cause social and economic despair, (Shuster and Garmestani, 2015). The unplanned and
uncoordinated growth of urban cities is a threat to the sustainable development. In order for the
urban and the rural areas to be sustainable, there must be a balance between the population in the
area and the available sources of water to prevent depletion of the resources. For instance, in the
case study, the establishment of the new factory increased the demand for the available water by
the increased population, and no mechanisms were put in place to ensure that there is a balance
between the demand and supply. In order to achieve sustainable development, the government
Conclusion
Essentially individuals and societies are defined by the political beliefs, social networks
as well as the place they live, or they were raised. These factors determine what they believe and
what they need to coexist efficiently. The size of cities has always been a concern since cities
began to grow. The unplanned and uncoordinated growth of urban areas has so many effects that
are why it has become a topic of discussion in industrial philanthropy and placemaking. These
effects have economic, social and environmental impacts for both the urban areas and the rural
suburbs. Understanding these effects will shade light on the importance of urban containment
policies and sustainable water supplies for present and future urban plans. Countries in Europe
which are developing very fast have put policies in place to limit urban sprawl in order for them
to achieve sustainable development. In order for countries to achieve sustainable development,
they have to ensure these policies are effectively and efficiently implemented.

Urban Containment And Sustainable Water Supplies15
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centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. Sage
Bengston, D.N. and Youn, Y.C., 2006. Urban containment policies and the protection of natural
areas: the case of Seoul's greenbelt. Ecology and Society, 11(1).
Bhata, Dand Youn, Y.C. 2006. Urban Containment Policies and the Protection of Natural Areas:
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Christiansen, P and Loftsgardeb, T. 2011. Drivers behind urban sprawl in Europe. Institute of
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Davoudi, S. and Sturzaker, J., 2017. Urban form, policy packaging and sustainable urban
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European Environment Agency (EEA) 2006. Urban sprawl in Europe-The ignored challenge.
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Hague, C 2007. Urban containment: European experience in Dutch planning: Establishing a
comparative perspective for the compact cities. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
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US cities. Journal of Regional Science, 55(2), pp.298-323.
Jehling, M., Hecht, R. and Herold, H., 2016. Assessing urban containment policies within a
suburban context—An approach to enable a regional perspective. Land Use Policy.
Marcotullio, P.J., 2017. Towards sustainable cities: East Asian, North American and European
perspectives on managing urban regions. Routledge.
Nelson, A.C. and Dawkins, C.J., 2016. The social impacts of urban containment. Routledge.

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Shuster, W.D. and Garmestani, A.S., 2015. Adaptive exchange of capitals in urban water
resources management: an approach to sustainability?. Clean Technologies and Environmental
Policy, 17(6), pp.1393-1400.
The mayor of London, 2011. The London Plan: Spatial Development Strategy for Greater
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Van Roon, M., 2007. Water localisation and reclamation: steps towards low impact urban design
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