Developing sustainable communities: Edinburgh's settlement model and design solution.

Sustainable communities are seen as offering the opportunity to manage growth in plan-led and environmentally-friendly patterns of settlement. This paper examines the settlement model put forward for the development of sustainable communities in the South East Wedge of Edinburgh. It suggests that while the growth management strategy is clearly plan-led, the degree to which the design solution can be said to be environmentally-friendly is questionable. The paper goes on to suggest this is because the settlement model put forward for the development of urban villages and neighbourhoods – as sustainable communities - in Edinburgh’s South East Wedge, is unable to say whether the design solution advanced is ecologically sound. Whether, in particular, the solution advanced in Edinburgh is ecologically sound and because of this, not only efficient in greening economic development, but in also making it financially viable for the South East Wedge to produce environmentally-friendly patterns of settlement