Symposium Themes

What Does Planning for “Sustainability” mean? How do you define, measure and promote ‘Effectiveness’ in pursuit of sustainability? What are institutional frameworks and structures that promote sustainable urban practices? What about resource consumption, environmental quality and sustainable development practice and ‘Best Practice’ examples or lessons for planning sustainable urban areas? How is Louisville, Kentucky, USA a case study for this?  All of these themes and more will be explored at the Sixth Biennial Conference and 10th Anniversary Celebration of the International Urban Planning and Environment Association Conference.

	I. What Does Planning for “Sustainability” mean? · For Resource Utilization – human, economic, ecological, social · For Neighborhoods – stability, property values, safety, mixed-uses, etc. · For Human Development – education, skills, health, and the like · For Spatial Distribution of Human Uses – density of land uses, clustering of activities · For Ecosystems – riparian corridor, water and airshed
	II. Defining, Measuring and Promoting ‘Effectiveness’ in Pursuit of Sustainability · How does ‘effectiveness’ get measured in different institutional settings and for different types of programs or approaches (urban design, architecture, land-use planning, transportation, etc.)? · What factors or public policy concerns constrain or facilitate effectiveness (legal requirements, social needs, nature conservation, economic efficiency, etc.)? · How do we measure and monitor outcomes to assess sustainability? · How do we create environmental/sustainability profiles, monitoring programs and measure significant effects of environmental management systems? · How can the effectiveness measures used by different disciplines (economic concerns, equity considerations, ecosystem maintenance issues, etc.) be reconciled?
	III. Institutional Frameworks and Structures that Promote Sustainable Urban Practices · Which institutional structures and local government forms are more or less likely to foster sustainable urban management? How and why do they do so? · How does the engagement of and relationships between key players (policy-makers, private owners, citizens) in different urban functions and responsibilities shape sustainable development? · How do different types of public participation (in visioning urban sustainability and/or in monitoring and ensuring effectiveness) affect the outcomes of sustainability promotion efforts? · How do the legal, constitutional and/or traditional requirements and practices in different nation-states affect the prospects for pursuit of greater urban sustainability?
	IV. Resource Consumption, Environmental Quality and Sustainable Development Practice · How does the ‘precautionary principle’ relate to ‘environmental due diligence’ in sustainability practice? · How do infrastructure and other environmental investments relate to sustainability promotion efforts? · What does ‘land recycling’ really involve? How does the extent of contaminated site mitigation relate to environmental quality and the prospects for increasing intensive of use of urban lands as an alternative to sprawl? · How, in actual practice, are resource consumption and environmental quality measured in sustainable development planning?
	V. ‘Best Practice’ Examples – Lessons for Planning Sustainable Urban Areas Examples and case studies of actual plans and implemented policies and practices and are welcomed from any of the disciplines and approaches that may contribute to efforts to promote more sustainable cities (these may include ‘worst practices’ and constructive warnings): · institutional frameworks · urban designs · partnerships and inter-organizational networks · other
	VI. Case Study: Louisville, KY Louisville post-merger as a case study in terms of sustainable planning. In what ways has the new merged government both facilitated or constrained various forms of sustainable development in its planning?

Within each theme, papers may focus on any of the following aspects: strategies and policy, theory, testing/empirical research, modelling, auditing and assessment, design, case studies or demonstration projects.