Conclusions.

        The causal factors and relationships involved in urban sustainability, including the more tangible ones discussed in this paper, are necessarily complex not only to identify, but to describe as well. Because of this, (and, very importantly, to avoid verbal sprawl), graphics were used as much as possible to describe spatial relationships between, and outcomes of, the various factors influencing sustainability objectives and the achievement of them. The hope is that a more focused and in depth analysis of these factors resulted. Indeed, the inherent complexity associated with the factors and issues surrounding urban sustainability can be seen to be yet another barrier to the achievement of it.  

        As the concept of sustainability continues its ascension into mainstream social and environmental discourses, its interpretation, perceived implications, and the degree to which it is effective in ameliorating current environmental and social problems are becoming increasingly contested. In this paper, I reviewed a body of literature premised on the notion that sustainability can be significantly enhanced by a particular urban form expressed at a range of scales as a set of specific topological relationships involving factors related to land-uses and transportation.  I then showed how the GVRD has incorporated many of the concepts identified in this body of literature into various regional sustainability initiatives. An analysis of various land-use and transportation patterns across the region seemed to confirm many of the assumptions GVRD sustainability objectives are based on, namely, that higher densities and mixed land-uses, more sustainable in themselves, contributes significantly to sustainable transportation patterns as well. However, an analysis of transportation and land-use outcomes across the region reveal that GVRD sustainability objectives, although they are based on widely accepted and empirically proven theories, are generally not being met to any significant degree, except for perhaps in a few instances. The most significant reasons for this that were identified in the paper were a lack of regional cohesion and, more significantly, a lack of mechanisms for enforcing regional sustainability objectives in the face of development pressures and market forces.

         A transition from our current state of affairs to one that is more sustainable cannot be market led. Clearly, the quality and placement of growth in the region cannot be determined by market forces, developers, and consumer choice alone if real sustainability is the goal. While the concept of sustainability involves environmental issues, it also very much involves issues related to health and social justice. And just as there are health regulations in place to ensure public health, and a criminal and civil justice system to ensure justice, so too there should be in place meaningful regulations with which to ensure sustainable land-use and transportation outcomes. To date, neighborhoods and communities in the GVRD have, more or less, been designed largely as the result of individual consumer choice influenced by the market place and implemented by profit focused developers. To integrate the diversity of complex factors encompassing strong interpretations of sustainability, a long range and integrated land-use and transportation strategy complete with targets, goals, and implementation strategies is needed. However, this alone, as has been shown in this paper, is not enough. Sustainability strategies must also include enforcement mechanisms in the form of regulations delivered at regional, national, and even global scales of intervention to mitigate against the destructive effects resulting from competition between localities. Regulating principles of sustainability (like those found in GVRD initiatives) into policy making and implementation practice is an effective way of intervening in the development and strictly profit driven state characterizing much current and past urban growth in Greater Vancouver. However, in addition to ‘real regulation’ involving laws and concrete structures, these more concrete forms of intervention must also be supported by complementary social values and norms of behavior such that principles underpinning sustainability become embedded in society as a whole.  

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