Environmental planning is a process of facilitating decision making to carry out land development with the consideration given to the natural environment, social, political, economic as well as governance factors as well as provides a holistic model tosustainable outcomes. A major goal of environmental planning is to defecate sustainable communities, which aim to conserve and protect undeveloped land.
Table 1.0 depicts the create different of focus in planning over the last 300 years in Australia, which has evolved from an amenity and resource usage focus to an integrated approach which espouses the stewardship of natural systems for the continued long term viability of both human and natural systems.
Relevant environment protection, planning & administering agencies and legislation at the level of commonwealth, states & territories are as exposed in table below. Environmental planning policies reorient from state to state.
The incorporation of environmental considerations in land-use planning in Australia began after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972. One of the key principles developed in character to planning and human activity was:
Principle 13 In grouping toa more rational management of resources and thus to enhance the environment, States should adopt an integrated and coordinated approach to their development planning so as to ensure that developing is compatible with the need to protect and upgrade environment for the advantage of their population.UNEP
Previous to this conference the United States Congress passed National Environmental Policy Act, which created a process whereby government agencies were required to publicly state and justify the environmental impacts of their development proposals by preparing an Environmental affect Statement EIS. The EIS order was further developed by Burchell and Listokin 1975, and this approach has informed the development of environmental impact regulation worldwide Beer 1977, and resulted in the development of legislation within several Australian states.
In NSW the first attempt to incorporate environmental assessment and security degree into planning law began in 1974 with the appointment of a Planning and Environment Commission to overhaul the existing predominately urban land-use system. After various delays the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 EP&A Act came into force on 1 September 1980. The EP&A Act incorporated a three tired system of State, Regional and Local levels of significance, and invited the applicable a body or process by which energy or a particular factor enters a system. control to take into consideration the impacts to the environment both natural and built and the community of filed development or land-use change. Within the EP&A Act almost development requires a or situation. of Environmental Effects SEE or Review of Environmental Effects REF detailing the impacts to both natural and human environments, which should be taken into consideration by the regulatory authority. Significant projects require a more thorough Environmental Impact Assessment with a corresponding greater public scrutiny.
Concurrent with this development was the creation of a parallel legal system, the Land and Environment Court, to arbitrate disputes. The EP&A Act has been amended over time, generally giving the government, acting through the Minister, greater powers to determine approval of development, particularly large projects of 'State Significance', but also to incorporate specific environmental laws, such(a) as the Threatened mark Conservation Act 1995 Park 2010.
The Environment Effects Act 1978 was the number one environmental planning leadership in Victoria, and it assessed the environmental impact of significant developments via an Environmental Effects sum EES. However the obligation for presenting an EES remained somewhat unclear and is ultimately at the discretion of the Minister for Planning Eccles and Bryant 2007. The Planning and Environment Act 1987 created a statewide nested planning process, Victoria Planning Provisions VPP which has within the statewide objectives:
"the security measure of natural and man-made resources and the maintenance of ecological processes and genetic diversity" PaE Act 1987, s41
Tothese ends, the VPP includes several overarching policy frameworks, including the identification of important environmental values and assets, such(a) as 'protection of catchments, waterways and groundwater', 'coastal areas' and 'Conservation of native flora and fauna'. Below this level, local planning schemes identify land-uses through Zone designation, and also identify land affected by other criteria, called 'overlays'. Overlays add environmental parameters such as 'Environmental Significance', 'Vegetation Protection', 'Erosion Management' and 'Wildfire Management', but also social issues like 'Neighbourhood Character'. Below this again are various regulations on particular issues, such as details pertaining to regulation of areas of Native Vegetation DSE Victoria
Reform has occurred to the Victorian framework in recent years aimed at improving land use and transport outcomes including consideration of environmental impacts. The Transport Integration Act identifies key planning agencies as interface bodies required to have regard to a vision for the transport system and objectives and decision making principles if decisions are likely to have a significant impact on Victoria's transport system. In addition, the Major Transport Projects Facilitation Act 2009 establishes a scheme to improve the approval and delivery of major rail, road and ports projects.
Planning in South Australia is coordinated within the Development Act 1993. Under this law near urban and land-use planning is assessed against local plans of allows development. The Minister must declare a proposed development either 'Major Development' or a 'Major Project' for it to be allocated to greater depth of environmental assessment and public consultation, via an self-employed person Development Assessment Commission of experts. Complex proposals will loosely require an indepth EIS. Planning SA
The Integrated Planning Act 1997 vested most planning control with local government, but required 'significant projects' to be assessed by a State Coordinator General and ordinarily required an environmental impact statement EIS.
This has been replaced by the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 which came into force 18 December 2009. This law aims to 'improve sustainable environmental outcomes through streamlined processes', and incorporates Statewide, Regional and local planning hierarchies, which undertake the model of Victoria's VPP. The Coordinator General may still declare projects to be 'significant projects' which then require assessment under the State Development and Public working Organisation Act 1971 Qld.