A Theoretical, Interdisciplinary Framework for Environmentally Sensitive Urban Land Use and Development

Abstract

Environmental problems in urban areas have been increasingly associated with inefficient land use and uncontrolled, low-density urbanization. Thus, one goal of the sustainable city movement is to change land use and development patterns currently deemed wasteful and inefficient. However, many strategies that have been developed over the past decades fail to address urban environmental problems in a comprehensive manner. It is suggested that an integration of strategies from multiple disciplines across different scales is needed. The goal of this paper is to outline a theoretical, but practice-oriented, framework that integrates land use strategies and ideas for environmentally sensitive land use from different fields. It is hoped that such an approach will help to mitigate the shortcomings of a single discipline or strategy in promoting environmentally-sensitive land use patterns and will further the cause of sustainable urbanism.