Urban and regional planning: WACE Year 12 Geography
“Explain how urban growth and regional development are planned and the role of stakeholders”
Urban and regional planning is the process by which governments and other stakeholders guide where and how places grow, manage land use, transport, housing and services, and balance competing demands; it responds to pressures such as rapid urbanisation and uneven regional development through strategies including urban consolidation, growth boundaries and regional investment.
What this dot point is asking
SCSA wants you to explain why planning is needed, who is involved, what tools and strategies planners use, and how they manage the pressures of urban growth and regional change. A strong answer links planning decisions to real places, especially in Western Australia, and recognises the competing interests of different stakeholders.
Why planning is needed
The world is now majority urban, with the UN estimating over half the population living in cities and the share rising. Rapid urbanisation creates pressures that markets alone manage poorly:
- Urban sprawl consuming farmland and bushland on the city edge.
- Housing affordability and supply problems as demand outstrips supply.
- Traffic congestion and pressure on transport infrastructure.
- Service provision for schools, hospitals, water and power.
- Environmental degradation and loss of green space.
Regions outside the major cities face different pressures: population decline, narrow economic bases, distance from services, and dependence on single industries such as mining or agriculture.
Urban planning is the deliberate management of land use, development, transport and infrastructure in towns and cities to achieve social, economic and environmental goals. It uses statutory tools such as zoning and planning schemes, and strategic documents that set long-term directions.
The planning system and tools
Planning in Australia operates across levels of government, each with different roles.
- State government sets the strategic framework. In Western Australia the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage and the Western Australian Planning Commission guide growth, supported by strategies such as Perth and Peel @3.5 million, which plans for a future population of 3.5 million.
- Local government prepares local planning schemes, sets zoning, and assesses most development applications.
- Zoning designates land for residential, commercial, industrial, rural or open-space use, controlling what can be built where.
- Urban growth boundaries limit outward sprawl by drawing a line beyond which urban development is restricted.
Stakeholders and their interests
Planning is contested because stakeholders want different things.
- Residents want amenity, affordable housing and protection of their neighbourhood (sometimes opposing nearby development, known as NIMBYism).
- Developers want to build profitably and quickly.
- Government balances growth, infrastructure cost and political support.
- Businesses want access to customers, workers and transport.
- Environmental groups want to protect bushland, wetlands and biodiversity.
Planners often face a choice between outward expansion (greenfield development on the urban fringe) and urban consolidation (increasing density within existing areas through infill and apartments near transport). Consolidation reduces sprawl, cuts car dependence and uses infrastructure efficiently, but can meet resident resistance. Perth's strategy targets a large share of new dwellings as infill rather than fringe expansion to slow sprawl.
Key planning strategies
- Urban consolidation and infill raise density within the existing footprint, especially near rail stations and activity centres.
- Transit-oriented development (TOD) clusters higher-density housing and jobs around public-transport nodes to reduce car use.
- Activity centres concentrate retail, employment and services at designated hubs to avoid car-dependent sprawl.
- Regional development policies invest in infrastructure, services and economic diversification in areas outside the capital, such as Western Australia's Royalties for Regions program, which directed mining royalties into regional projects.
Perth is a low-density, sprawling city stretching along the coastal plain, which makes car dependence and infrastructure costs high. The state strategy Perth and Peel @3.5 million plans for the city to reach 3.5 million people and aims to accommodate much of that growth through infill and consolidation around transport corridors and activity centres rather than continued sprawl into bushland and farmland. Stakeholders disagree: developers favour profitable fringe estates, environmental groups want the Swan Coastal Plain protected, and some residents resist higher-density development nearby. This shows planning as the management of competing interests under growth pressure.
A balanced answer recognises that planning rarely satisfies everyone and that decisions involve trade-offs between growth, cost, amenity and the environment.
- Treating planning as just zoning maps
- Planning also covers strategy, transport, stakeholders and long-term vision, not only land-use rules.
- Ignoring regional areas
- The focus is urban and regional planning; include examples beyond the capital city.
- Presenting stakeholders as agreeing
- The marks lie in showing competing interests and trade-offs.
- Using only overseas examples
- WACE rewards local Western Australian examples such as Perth and Peel @3.5 million and Royalties for Regions.
Exam-style questions
Questions in the style of SCSA exam questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer. They are written by ExamExplained unless tagged "Past paper"; the year shows the paper a question is modelled on.
WACE 2021-style12 marksExplain how urban growth is planned and managed, and analyse the role of stakeholders, using Western Australian examples.Show worked answer →
A 12 mark response needs the planning system, its tools, and stakeholder analysis.
Why and how. Explain that rapid urbanisation creates sprawl, housing, congestion and service pressures that markets manage poorly, so government plans growth. In WA, the state framework and strategies such as Perth and Peel @3.5 million set directions, local government sets zoning and assesses development, and growth boundaries limit sprawl.
Stakeholders. Residents want amenity and affordable housing and may resist nearby development (NIMBYism); developers want to build profitably; government balances growth, cost and politics; businesses want access; environmental groups want bushland and wetlands protected.
Analysis. Show that planning is contested because these interests conflict, so decisions involve trade-offs.
Markers reward the multi-level system, named WA tools and strategies, and stakeholders shown in conflict.
WACE 2024-style6 marksExplain the difference between greenfield development and urban consolidation, and one advantage of consolidation.Show worked answer →
A 6 mark response needs both definitions and an advantage.
Definitions. Greenfield development is new building on undeveloped land at the urban fringe. Urban consolidation increases density within existing urban areas through infill and apartments, especially near transport.
Advantage. Consolidation reduces sprawl, cuts car dependence and uses existing infrastructure efficiently, while protecting fringe farmland and bushland; this is why Perth's strategy targets a large share of new dwellings as infill rather than fringe expansion.
Conclude that consolidation makes more efficient and sustainable use of land and infrastructure than continued outward growth. Markers reward the two definitions and a clear consolidation advantage.