Peter Verwer |
Thursday, 9 October 2008 10:23 AM |
2 Comments
There’s more technological smarts in one teenager’s PlayStation than Australia’s entire planning system.
The nation’s paper-based patchwork of planning and building rules is smoked by the visual punch and sensational immediacy of gaming software and even DIY animations on YouTube.
How is it that Resident Evil 4 is smarter than the systems that shape our buildings, precincts and cities?
The Rudd Government’s $42 million commitment to online development assessment and conveyancing is news to cheer.
However, a quantum leap in policy imagination is possible.
That’s where the D_City project comes in.
D_City aims to map the spatial genome of Australian communities.
It’s Sim City meets Google Earth meets econometric modelling hot wired into real time socio-demographic, ecological and economic databases.
D_City’s standard accessory will be building information modelling (BIM) software. Think computer aided design (CAD) on crack with a steroid booster.
Imagine opening up Google Maps and clicking on the Australia Square building in Sydney. Touch the icon and every planning instrument relevant to the property and the surrounding precinct is revealed.
Click again and there’s the sales history of the asset along with its vital statistics, including the building‘s eco footprint.
Now, expand out to the locality and view key demographic stats, transport data, energy, water and IT capacity.
A side menu might provide a snapshot of major precinct assets (such as people and their earning power) or deficits (such as congestion ratios).
Imagine you’re redeveloping the building. You submit your development application electronically based on clear rules and objectives, after choosing the assessment track relevant to your project.
The DA includes a multi-dimensional building model that slots into the Google Earth-like frame. Old development gone, new one appears.
The BIM drawings allow planning assessors to easily understand every aspect of the proposed building, which they can ‘unfold’ to their hearts content.
Building aspect, shadows, massing, all are automatically available in four dimensions (including time).
Any necessary community consultation is now a lot easier, especially as D_City deals with the fact that most people can’t read maps, plans or diagrams. The community can see what they’re getting.
Now gravitate D_City to strategic planning.
The current planning system is flying blind and so it's little wonder we end up with accidental cities.
It’s not just a question of better databases that map population distributions, transport routes, congestion, urban density, well being indicators and eco systems.
It’s about linking these elements to better understand and shape urban hierarchies.
Econometrics is an effective problem solving tool because it looks at the complex interplay of multiple factors to better grasp impacts on economic growth, competitiveness, even welfare outcomes.
We need equivalent intelligent modelling systems for the spatial arena in which the economy and social opportunity are played out.
D_City will facilitate true strategic planning for the first time.
For instance, D_City will allow a rigorous analysis of employment land requirements and transport modes, better test residential densities as well as synchronise the roll out of infrastructure with future community needs.
D_City could even test ecological scenarios.
Surely it would be better to model hypothetical sea level rises and their impact on development rather than play the spatially blind guessing game that currently masquerades as policy thinking?
Cities are metabolisms. Like the human genome project, our efforts to crack the spatial genome should focus on the interplay of factors that deliver economic, social and environmental dividends.
In doing so, we can move from the legions of dry words and squint-inducing diagrams used to communicate policy to the content rich world of sensory law.
The community deserves access to policy objectives and planning rules that are as clear and easy to fathom as any movie or computer game.
Last month Sony released the latest app for PlayStation.
It’s called ‘Life’. We need a national effort to catch up to the gamers.
For more information on D_City, please click here.
Peter Verwer |
Thursday, 9 October 2008 10:23 AM |
2 Comments
