ABPL90064 Climate Change & Sustainability Planning

How ABPL90064 is assessed

Current assessment is a 20% policy brief, a 40% policy evaluation and a 40% group project; the ordinary subject pass standard and current LMS instructions control.

Current ABPL90064 dates

Dates are as published in the current course materials. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.

What ABPL90064 covers

Build the course in three arcs: Climate Systems, Urbanisation and Planning Responsibility establishes the frame, Adaptation, Resilience and Maladaptation deepens it, and Integrated Urban Climate Proposal and Field Evidence tests the complete method.

It is positioned as an environment and urban-planning subject.

Students move from individual policy writing into a field-informed group proposal that must negotiate practical and distributive consequences.

Assessment in ABPL90064 is distributed as follows: a 20% policy brief, 40% policy evaluation essay and 40% group planning project

The operational assessment conditions matter here.

The subject culminates in the Week 14 group project: a written report, presentation and peer/self review.

What makes ABPL90064 demanding is concrete: turning climate science and justice analysis into a planning intervention whose authority, spatial scale, delivery path and monitoring are credible

The ordinary subject pass standard applies alongside the three published coursework components; current LMS instructions control operation.

For enrolment planning, Consult the current official enrolment and eligibility controls for this offering.

Build the course in three arcs: Climate Systems, Urbanisation and Planning Responsibility establishes the frame, Adaptation, Resilience and Maladaptation deepens it, and Integrated Urban Climate Proposal and Field Evidence tests the complete method.

Worked example · free

Audit an urban-heat proposal

Key terms

Greenhouse effect

Warming produced when atmospheric gases absorb and re-emit outgoing infrared radiation. This chapter uses the concept when students connect a climate process to urban activities and a planning mandate.

Urban system

Interacting built, ecological, social and governance elements through which a city functions. It helps explain the reasoning required to connect a climate process to urban activities and a planning mandate.

Planning responsibility

Authority and duty to shape land use, infrastructure and development outcomes over time. Its limit matters because global causation does not make every local intervention equally effective or authorised.

Hazard

Potentially damaging climate-related event or trend. This chapter uses the concept when students separate hazard, exposure and vulnerability in an urban case.

Exposure

Presence of people, assets or ecosystems in places that could be affected. It helps explain the reasoning required to separate hazard, exposure and vulnerability in an urban case.

Vulnerability

Propensity to be harmed because of sensitivity and limited capacity to anticipate, cope or recover. Its limit matters because mapping heat or flood alone can conceal housing, health and mobility differences.

Urban sustainability

Long-term ability of urban systems to support ecological integrity, wellbeing and just resource use. This chapter uses the concept when students compare a proposal across ecological, social and economic objectives.

Trade-off

Loss in one objective or group associated with gaining another under constraints. It helps explain the reasoning required to compare a proposal across ecological, social and economic objectives.

Strong sustainability

Position that critical natural systems cannot always be replaced by manufactured or financial capital. Its limit matters because a broad sustainability label can hide incompatible indicators and time horizons.

Mitigation

Human intervention that reduces greenhouse-gas sources or enhances sinks. This chapter uses the concept when students connect planning decisions to emissions sources and avoid high-carbon lock-in.

Urban form

Spatial arrangement of land uses, density, networks and public space. It helps explain the reasoning required to connect planning decisions to emissions sources and avoid high-carbon lock-in.

Lock-in

Persistence of emissions or vulnerability caused by long-lived infrastructure and institutions. Its limit matters because density alone does not reduce emissions without access, building quality and behaviour.

ABPL90064 FAQ

Questions students ask in each ABPL90064 chapter

Which links need evidence when students connect a climate process to urban activities and a planning mandate?

Connect a climate process to urban activities and a planning mandate. Week 1 establishes climate drivers, urban contribution and the planning profession's role. Warming produced when atmospheric gases absorb and re-emit outgoing infrared radiation. This chapter uses the concept when students connect a climate process to urban activities and a planning mandate. Chapter 01 · Climate Systems, Urbanisation and Planning Responsibility

Why is it important to separate hazard, exposure and vulnerability in an urban case?

Separate hazard, exposure and vulnerability in an urban case. Early lectures and tutorials distinguish physical climate pressure from socially produced vulnerability. Potentially damaging climate-related event or trend. This chapter uses the concept when students separate hazard, exposure and vulnerability in an urban case. Chapter 02 · Climate Risk, Vulnerability and Unequal Exposure

Which common basis lets a student compare a proposal across ecological, social and economic objectives?

Compare a proposal across ecological, social and economic objectives. The subject connects climate imperatives to contested meanings and measures of urban sustainability. Long-term ability of urban systems to support ecological integrity, wellbeing and just resource use. This chapter uses the concept when students compare a proposal across ecological, social and economic objectives. Chapter 03 · Urban Sustainability Goals and Competing Definitions

Which links need evidence when students connect planning decisions to emissions sources and avoid high-carbon lock-in?

Connect planning decisions to emissions sources and avoid high-carbon lock-in. Mitigation weeks translate climate targets into land-use, transport and building choices. Human intervention that reduces greenhouse-gas sources or enhances sinks. This chapter uses the concept when students connect planning decisions to emissions sources and avoid high-carbon lock-in. Chapter 04 · Mitigation Through Urban Form, Transport and Buildings

Which constraints shape the work needed to design an intervention that reduces vulnerability without transferring risk?

Design an intervention that reduces vulnerability without transferring risk. The subject distinguishes resilience rhetoric from adaptive capacity and maladaptation risk. Adjustment to actual or expected climate effects to reduce harm or use beneficial opportunities. This chapter uses the concept when students design an intervention that reduces vulnerability without transferring risk. Chapter 05 · Adaptation, Resilience and Maladaptation

Which criteria should govern an attempt to select an instrument and delivery chain for a climate objective?

Select an instrument and delivery chain for a climate objective. Mid-semester material moves from climate objectives to planning institutions and implementation. Statutory or strategic tool used to influence land use, development or infrastructure. This chapter uses the concept when students select an instrument and delivery chain for a climate objective. Chapter 06 · Planning Policy, Governance and Implementation

What must be brought together to integrate distribution, recognition and authority into planning?

Integrate distribution, recognition and authority into planning. The subject makes equity and justice explicit outcomes rather than project side notes. Fairness in how benefits, burdens and resources are allocated. This chapter uses the concept when students integrate distribution, recognition and authority into planning. Chapter 07 · Climate Justice, Participation and Indigenous Knowledge

What evidence would allow a student to evaluate whether a policy caused useful and equitable change?

Evaluate whether a policy caused useful and equitable change. The policy-evaluation task requires criteria, evidence and a reasoned judgement rather than description. Explicit account of how activities are expected to produce intermediate and final outcomes. This chapter uses the concept when students evaluate whether a policy caused useful and equitable change. Chapter 08 · Policy Evaluation, Evidence and Adaptive Monitoring

What must be brought together to synthesise site evidence into an equitable mitigation-adaptation proposal?

Synthesise site evidence into an equitable mitigation-adaptation proposal. The field visit and final project connect observation, group negotiation and a viable planning response. Evidence-led account of place-specific processes, actors, assets and constraints. This chapter uses the concept when students synthesise site evidence into an equitable mitigation-adaptation proposal. Chapter 09 · Integrated Urban Climate Proposal and Field Evidence

How to prepare for the assessments

Retrieve the course map, practise the recurring method—diagnose the urban climate process and affected populations, connect evidence to a planning instrument, compare mitigation and adaptation consequences, then defend implementation through feasibility, justice and monitoring—on changed scenarios, and verify every operational assessment detail in the live institutional system.

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