DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES: THE SETTLEMENT MODEL, DESIGN SOLUTION AND MATTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

Abstract

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 United Kingdom and shows that while in Scotland, the growth management strategy is clearly plan-led, the degree to which the design solution can be seen to be environmentally friendly is questionable. The paper suggests this is because in its current form, the model is not able to show whether the design solution advanced is ecologically sound. Whether, in particular, the solution is ecologically sound and because of this, not only efficient in greening economic development, but in also making it financially viable for plan-led experiments of this kind to produce environmentally friendly patterns of settlement.