Improving the urban environment: How to adjust national and local government policy for sustainable urban growth

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the problems of developing policies which stimulate urban economic development without causing sub-optimal damage to the environment. It is, therefore, concerned with policies which lead to sustainable urban growth. The objective is to illustrate not only that the consequences of the inadequate consideration of environmental factors in urban policy making have harmful long term, environmental effects but also that these effects can impede the economic development of urban areas as measured more conventionally in terms of job creation and monetary incomes. Further, it is argued that, given the interactive nature of both environmental effects and the remedial policies available to tackle them, it is preferable to consider the application of a portfolio of policy measures rather than pursue a single problem/target strategy. To this latter end a dynamic approach to the long term application of such a portfolio is explored.