Building sustainable cities through the integration of environmental ethics in urban planning frameworks: case study of two city-regions: Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia

The aim of this research was to explore how and if environmental ethics can inform urban planning's theoretical and operational frameworks. The motivation to embark in this research was (i) to encourage environmental ethics as an approach that can make a meaningful transformation in the development of environmentally sustainable cities by rethinking urban planning's structures, attitudes and decisions in relation to the natural world and its non-human constituents, and (ii) to address in a broad and preliminary way the gap identified in the literature which determined an insufficient lack of interdisciplinary exchange between environmental ethics and urban planning. A multiple-case study research methodology guided a qualitative research that consisted in studying the City of Brisbane and three local councils in Melbourne (City of Melbourne, Yarra Ranges Council and Mornington Peninsula Shire). Four environmental ethicists were interviewed to identify theories from this field that could inform urban planning's theoretical and practical frameworks. Analysis of the most relevant state, regional and local planning documents was completed as a parallel method. The third method for collecting data was done through in-depth interviews with six urban planners from the four study cases. The results of this research indicated the following: (i) three environmental ethical streams were identified as having the potential to align with urban planning: biocentric and ecocentric ethics as foundations to a principle-ist approach, environmental pragmatic ethics and environmental virtue ethics; (ii) urban planning documents are informed by an environmental anthropocentric ethic, with an indication of non anthropocentric ways of valuing the environment, (iii) planning documents can work as templates or guides to foster a culture of environmentally virtuous professionals, and (iv) urban planners perception is that planning is guided by a strong environmental agenda that responds to the benefits it can provide to human beings. These findings have provided new insights as to how an environmental ethic is integrated in urban planning and possibilities or ways in which this can be improved or incorporated to a greater extent