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Monitoring the area of settlements, land used for settlements, and population changes is important because settlements affect most aspects of environmental condition described in this SoE Report. Further, retaining the diversity of Tasmania's settlements requires consideration of the range of local, regional and global influences on these communities. The environmental and natural resource impacts of settlements can be viewed in a narrow sense in terms of the physical extent of settlements, population, and impacts in changing land cover. A more complete assessment would also consider settlements from the point of view of their ecological footprint. The idea of an ecological footprint is based on the work of Rees (1995), and Rees and Wackernagel (1994), which asks 'how large an area of productive land is needed to sustain a defined population or economy indefinitely?' The ecological footprint is the total area of productive land and water required to produce on a continuous basis all the resources consumed and to assimilate all the wastes produced by a defined population, wherever on Earth that land is located. For example, urban areas consume quantities of energy (electricity, gas etc), food (often transported long distances), materials (building and technological goods), land (for buildings and recreation) and water. At the same time these urban areas generate large amounts of waste (atmospheric, chemical, water borne, solid and organic). The aim of the 'ecological footprint' is to define how much land is required to support the region's population indefinitely at a given material standard. The National SoE Report notes that there have been four major ecological footprint studies undertaken in Australia but none at this stage specifically for Tasmania. The footprint estimates of the national studies range from 4.5 ha per capita for Canberra to one estimate for Australia of 14 ha per capita. Most estimates for Australia are around 4 and 5 ha per capita (Australian State of Environment Committee 2001). The National SoE Report concludes that despite the variability in the estimates of ecological footprints in Australia, the results indicate that the average Australian consumes at least more than double their 'fair share' of the world's ecologically productive land. Ecological footprints can provide an indication of equity in resource consumption between nations. Wackernagel et. al. (1997) calculated that there is 1.7 ha of ecologically productive land per capita available globally-this is called the globally available 'fair share'. However, measures of the physical size of settlements, population, land use and ecological footprints are still only a part of the story. Settlements are 'the environment' for their citizens and most people interact with the environment through an urban setting. So the state of the urban environment influences the quality of life and the sense of place that people and visitors to the State appreciate. Urban design and urban environment issues directly affect people's quality of life through:
People experience their sense of place within their locale or neighbourhood, which is difficult to report effectively at Statewide scales. Nevertheless, some of the broad-scale measures of change in settlement help to describe and quantify some of the changes that influence people's experience of their sense of place and livability at the local level. Historical context Changes in transport technology have strongly influenced the pattern of urban growth in Tasmania. In the early years of settlement, most settlers lived in seaports, as ships were then the easiest way to transport livestock, people and cargo . Launceston, Hobart, Burnie, Devonport, Strahan, Zeehan, Orford, Triabunna, Dover and Bicheno were the main settlements. The settlements in the Midlands were made possible by the horse-drawn carriage and the service of the Royal Mail, for which inns and stables developed along much of the present-day Midland Highway. These centres later developed large agricultural hinterlands. Before industrialisation, activities in cities were mixed and development was dense; people walked, rode horses, or used horse-drawn carts to obtain goods and services, to earn an income and to socialise. Cities were compact because workers had to live close to where they worked. This form of settlement is still evident in inner city areas such as Battery Point in Hobart and Inveresk in Launceston. Workers could live further away from their places of work with the advent of railways and trams. City people could more easily visit and live in outlying urban areas and the countryside. The more well-off built detached houses on large suburban lots close to transport. In Hobart, growth followed the railway and tram lines along the more level land to the north of the city, and along the tram lines south to Lower Sandy Bay. When motor cars became more affordable, there was a spread of the urban landscape around the larger cities and towns. Suburbs could develop in areas away from the fixed transport lines-on hill slopes, in bushland or close to rivers and beaches. After the Second World War, increasing car and truck ownership meant that new investment in roads and highways was necessary. Manufacturing underwent widespread relocation from inner city sites to new expansive fringe industrial estates, retailing moved to new one-stop regional shopping centres, and tracts of land previously used for rural activities were converted to accommodate the increased demand for suburban housing. The role of new transport links in releasing new areas for development was particularly evident on Hobart's eastern shore after the opening of the floating bridge in 1943 and the Tasman Bridge in 1965. Similarly, the opening of the southern outlet in 1970 led to rapid growth in Kingston and Blackmans Bay in the 1970s and 1980s. In Launceston, arterial highways promoted urban expansion to the north in Riverside in the 1960s and to the west at Blackstone Heights in the 1970s and 1980s. Improvements to the Bass Highway and by-passes of urban centres encouraged the spread of settlements along the north-west coast. There is also a growing fringe urban settlement in the Port Sorell/Shearwater area, north-east of Devonport. Between the 1950s and 1980s the State Government developed public housing suburbs on the fringes of the main cities. In Hobart, Moonah and Glenorchy were built when the Brooker Highway was extended. Later came Warrane, Mornington, Rokeby and Bridgewater on the Eastern Shore and smaller areas on the southern fringe at Kingston. The expansion of low-density living in recent years is shown on the map. The pattern of public suburban development was similar in Launceston, where Mayfield and Rocherlea, Ravenswood and Waverley were developed. Since the 1970s, low-density housing in rural environments has become popular. Typically, the homes are on about 2 ha, with limited reticulated services but within commuting distance of a city. In Hobart this type of development began in areas like Acton to the east and Margate to the south, but is now found in almost all peripheral areas with good access to the city. In Launceston, there has been low-density development along the East Tamar Highway at Dilston and Windermere, and south at Relbia and Devon Hills. On the north-west coast it is found around Burnie, Ulverstone and Devonport. Tasmania has traditionally had low population growth but consumption of land for low density housing has remained high. This has given rise to a number of pressures on infrastructure and the environment as demand for new services in rapidly developing urban fringes increases. Tasmania's return to higher rates of population growth since 2001 and the greater number of interstate arrivals are likely to result in greater demand for residential developments on the State than occurred during the 1990s. Settlements, and the people, physical assets and infrastructure they contain, are also vulnerable to a number of natural (and human exacerbated) hazards. Tasmania is susceptible to severe bushfires. Dispersed settlement patterns in fire susceptible bushland continue to present challenges in managing fire risk. Some settlements in low-lying coastal areas are vulnerable to storm events that may have a greater frequency and intensity because of climate change. The issue of adapting coastal settlements to climate change is considered in the Coastal, Estuarine and Marine Chapter. The natural setting of many Tasmanian settlements is dramatic and picturesque. These scenic values have been devalued by inappropriate suburban and ribbon development, particularly in urban bushland and skylines on city fringes. Without effective controls, continuing residential development of privately owned land and clearing of bushland will lead to a loss of biodiversity and visual amenity, qualities that are valued both by residents and visitors to the State. Dispersed settlement patterns may have various other impacts on water quality and on heritage, and biodiversity.
Assessing and measuring the current situation This assessment is limited to the following general measures:
The urban area is not easily definable because it consists of a continuum from heavily built with small lot sizes to lightly built with large lot sizes in bushland settings. The urban area can be based on a physical or land cover description, statistical boundaries such as greater Hobart, community-based boundaries such as the location of towns and suburbs, or municipal boundaries. Characteristics of the land can add to the environmental impact of settlements: the visual sensitivity analysis for Hobart shows how slope and ridgelines may add to the visual impact or subdivisions. The availability of suitable spatial data on urban area has also limited capacity to assess urban extent. Landsat data has been used but a resolution of 25 m only allows it to provide an impression of the consolidated urban area. Change detection with Landsat data to identify urban growth is also difficult because of issues including seasonal variations and cloud cover. Globally, urban extent has been mapped by NASA using satellite images of the light cities generate at night. With the resulting city lights maps, researchers are assessing the impacts urban sprawl has on food, air, and ecosystems. The Earth Observatory article 'Bright Lights, Big City' describes how NASA scientists use city light data to map urbanization. Using the global urban mapping undertaken by NASA, Tasmania's urban areas can be put in a global and national perspective. The images provided courtesy of NASA show the global, national, and south-eastern Australia (including Tasmania) extent of urban areas.
The recent completion of orthorectified aerial photographic coverage of Greater Hobart by the Information and Land Services Division of DPIWE has facilitated the mapping of the region's physical urban extent, providing a spatially accurate baseline to assess future change.
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Population Distribution - at a glance
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Residential Density - at a glance
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New Dwelling Completions - at a glance
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Land Use and Land Cover for Hobart and Launceston - at a glance
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Principal responses include the following.
Dispersed settlement patterns have led to widespread and mixed environmental impacts on air and water quality and on heritage, biodiversity and landscape values. Population decline in rural areas has had adverse impacts on social cohesion, quality of life and has undermined the economic stability of some rural enterprises. There is a need for recognition of the economic and environmental costs associated with dispersed and uncoordinated settlement patterns. Management responses could include the establishment of an integrated regional settlement strategy for the State and urban management strategies to guide development in each metropolitan region and local government areas. These approaches could be developed through Partnership Agreements. Principal future needs include: Tasmania Together and the RMPS Relevant Tasmania Together goals and standards for 'Settlements' are listed in the linked file. The Tasmania Together Progress Board reported on progress toward targets for benchmarks set (Tasmania Together Progress Board 2003). Indicators, targets and baseline data are available in the latest Progress Report June 2003. Further information, including progress report updates, is available from Tasmania Together. Involvement of the community, and the fair and orderly use of resources are also fundamental principles of the RMPS. The RMPS objectives have been developed to advance the principles of sustainable development.
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