‘This is a wonderful book that should be on the desk of every architect and planner. It shows how

Box 10 Linear-reductionist Urban Analysis
In urban planning, sustainability is often broken down into factors or categories to facilitate 
measurement. Targets and indicators are assigned for these factors (usually based on available 
data).
1
‘Surrogates’ for sustainability are used to simplify this process. Consequently, most 
of the literature on sustainable urban form can be placed somewhere within the following 
nested sequence of assumptions: 
•
The urban environment is often taken to be the whole system, as if it could 
be separated from the bioregion or other systems (eg air transport or cargo 
containerization).
•
Urban environmental ‘quality’ (eg clean air and water) is often used in place of the 
broader concept of ecological sustainability (eg health of ecosystems and biodiversity). 
•
Energy and greenhouse gas emissions are often used as a substitute for the 
broader concept of environmental quality and then converted to energy for ease of 
measurement.
•
Transport is often regarded as the main cause of greenhouse gas emissions, and other 
sources are marginalized (yet buildings can be a bigger source than transport).
•
The subset of car transport is often taken to represent all transport although, for 
example, trucks may have greater net environmental impacts than cars.
•
Urban population density correlates with reduced car usage, so other factors that 
influence car ownership and usage are marginalized, such as indirect subsidies to cars. 
•
Residential ‘density’ (eg dwellings/hectare) is often used in place of other relevant forms 
of development ‘intensity’ (eg energy use per square metre or resource consumption 
per person). 
Increased residential density through compact urban form is thus seen as ‘the’ solution even 
if it consumes space less efficiently or uses more energy and water. 
Linear-reductionist view of urban form 
This sequential series of reductions often leads to one narrow solution. Compact urban 
form (to reduce the land area and discourage car usage) becomes the starting and end point.
However, increasing the environmental sustainability of urban areas involves far more than 
reducing travel distances, car usage or pollution. So far, design templates have been anthropo
-
centric. A 
whole
systems approach in which the ecology and equity would be seen as central, 
requires front loading design [Chapter 5].
Design
Sustainability
Urban
Sustain-
ability
Environ-
mental 
quality
Energy 
pollution
GHGs 
(CO2, 
NOx)
Transport Passenger
transport
Density 
(per
capita)
Compact 
urban
form

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Positive Development