Posted: April 1st, 2015

Sustainable development at the rural-urban interface

Sustainable development at the rural-urban interface

Order Description

Report 1: Sustainable development at the rural-urban interface

Weighting: 15%

Due: 8 April, 11:00PM, submitted online. The due date allows 6 weeks of preparation and extension applications are unlikely to be successful.

Expected length: 1500 words (excluding bibliography).
Core Objectives

The core objectives being assessed are:

CO2. describe and explain principles & concepts of contemporary land use planning
CO3. explain the main features of urban & rural land use systems

Assessment Description

General description of assessment

You are a consultant and you have been asked to provide advice to a developer during the early stages of a development on the urban-rural interface of a town. The developer is seeking advice on how to make the development sustainable and minimize conflict with adjacent land uses. You will need to validate your ideas and recommendations with suitable research and references.

Client letter

Sustainability Plus Developments Pty Ltd

North Terrace, Adelaide

1/3/2015

Dear Student Consultant,

Sustainability Plus Developments are in the early stages of planning a new 20 ha development called Rural Vistas on the outskirts of Pleasantville. Pleasantville is an expanding regional town, which is located in a productive agricultural area. The Rural Vistas development will be adjacent to a vegetable farm and there is also a creek running around part of the boundary of the development.

Sustainability Plus Developments pride themselves on creating rural housing developments that meet three objectives:

houses that have a low ecological footprint
maximize integration with the existing town
minimize the impact on and from adjacent land uses

As a leading developer, Sustainability Plus Developments takes a proactive approach to planning its developments. We are aware that rural housing developments can receive criticism that they are ‘just another’ urban development that impacts negatively on the very essence of what makes rural living attractive. We are also anticipating concern about the impact of the development on the creek and the neighbouring vegetable farm and the impact of these adjacent land uses on the development.

With these concerns in mind, Sustainability Plus Developments is requesting your expert advice on how it can achieve its three development objectives. We are requesting a report that outlines the opportunities and issues and makes recommendations with respect to the objectives. We are particularly interested to receive advice on where planning controls, such as encumbrances and land management plans, could be used to help achieve a sustainable rural housing development on the outskirts of Pleasantville.

Guidance on this report

Urban-rural interface – this report is not about any specific town. But you might find it useful to research townships in areas such as the Adelaide Hills, where there has been rapid housing development in a rural area.
Read the assessment description carefully. This report has a broad focus and you will need to research widely but then synthesise and summarise creatively.
Report language & writing style – this is a professional business report, please use an appropriate level of formality but not overly technical. Written communication skills are an important part of all business communication: clear, concise, logically ordered and grammatically correct. If written English is not your strength please use the resources below to get support in improving your written skills.
Report structure – use the suggested resource below to gain an understanding of report writing. Your report is an analytical-style report and it is expected that you will include the following sections: title, introduction, overview of literature/prior research, recommendations and a bibliography. The ‘meat’ of this report, and the credibility of your recommendations, is based on the literature review/research and your synthesis of this into key findings. There is a ‘tight’ word count for this report – you can’t afford to waffle or waste words with unnecessary duplication. The bibliography is not included in the word count.
Referencing – use the Harvard referencing style. Make sure you understand the difference between a reference list and a bibliography. Referencing can be tricky but it is well-explained through the suggested resources and there is no excuse to lose marks through poor referencing. As a rough guide you should use a minimum of 5 credible and relevant resources. But the more you read, the more you will learn and the quality of your report will be improved.

Submission, marking and return of assignment

This report must be completed over 6 weeks and only unexpected or exceptional circumstances will be considered a good cause for an extension in the final week as described in Section 7.8 of the 2015 UniSA Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual. If you are not going to be available for an extended period of time you will need to apply for a variation to assessment in line with Section 7 of the aforementioned Manual. Without an extension, students will not be able to submit the assignment after the due date.

If you have a disability access plan it is also essential that you discuss any requirements for ongoing assistance or extension of time during the study period based upon your progress.

Staff will aim to mark assignments within 2 weeks of receiving them.

A mark and comment for this assignment will be provided through the learn-online grade book system.

Each section will be marked against the standards specified in the feedback form. Comments for this assignment will be provided on a feedback form in compliance with the University assessment policies and procedures. You will find the feedback form, that will be used for this assignment, on the course web site.

Suggested resources

Report writing – UniSA’s School of Business teaching and learning resources – http://resource.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=25410&chapterid=11100 – see note above on sections
Referencing – https://lo.unisa.edu.au/course/view.php?id=3839
Language and writing – http://resource.unisa.edu.au/course/view.php?id=3813&topic=10

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