Addressing green urbanism in Malta

Abstract

Green urbanism is still a relatively new way of thinking for Europe and beyond. Although we can identify the foundations of this rationale in Ebenezer Howard's works, this concept started gaining ground following the emphasis on sustainability and the shift from town to environmental planning which characterised the early 1990s. This was reinforced by the advent of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where Agenda 21 (A21) was formulated to translate ideas about sustainable development into tangible policy-making. In particular, it proposed the formulation of LA21 plans, the local interpretation of A21 within smaller communities. Today, green urbanism principles are being implemented via eco-neighbourhoods, which are sustainable communities and which have been pioneered in Europe in the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, together with regeneration projects in the United Kingdom. In Malta, we are continuously faced with unsustainable lifestyle patterns, due to inadequacies of past schemes and policy documents that were meant to guide new developments. This is mostly visible in the newer suburban communities developed from scratch. The consequences of these actions are being felt today and must necessarily be addressed as quickly as possible. The local planning profession and practice must moreover adapt to the demands of this new century, vis-a-vis both environmental and social issues. This dissertation discusses all the above issues and seeks to formulate a model for creating local sustainable communities, while indicating how contemporary green urbanism principles may be effectively implemented from a policy-making viewpoint.