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3. Services—well served, with public, private, community and voluntary services
which are appropriate to people's needs and accessible to all.
4. Environmental—environmentally sensitive, providing places for people to live
that are considerate of the environment.
5. Equity—fair for everyone, including those in other communities, now and in
the future.
6. Economy—thriving, with a flourishing, diverse and innovative local economy.
7. Housing and the built environment—well designed and built, featuring quality
built and natural environment.
8. Social and cultural—active, inclusive and safe, fair tolerant and cohesive with a
strong local culture and other shared community activities.
It might be envisaged that the science city concept might lend itself to the
achievement of these broad goals in two main ways: by being sustainable and by
promoting sustainable development. Future planning of new developments might
be seen to contribute to environmentally sensitive places by, for example: actively
seeking to minimise climate change, including through energy efficiency and the
use of renewables; protecting the environment, by minimising pollution on land, in
water and in the air; minimising waste and dispose of it in accordance with current
good practice; making efficient use of natural resources, encouraging sustainable
production and consumption; protecting and improving bio-diversity (e.g. wildlife
habitats); enabling a lifestyle that minimises negative environmental impact and
enhances positive impacts; and creating cleaner, safer and greener spaces. The
promotion of sustainable development might take the form of eco-science parks, or
initiatives such as Wise@CAT, that recognises the importance of linking science-
based research, technological development, learning and basic education in
changing the norms and values that underpin currently unsustainable behaviours.
The later project creates a 'micro-campus' for the transmission and development
of environmental education and research.
A central proposition in this chapter is that the notion of science cities or
technopolis is a normative policy construction, based on spatial organising ideas—
that is, it prescribes how the process of urbanisation should occur, in order to
achieve certain high growth technological/economic outcomes. The ability for
these ideas to be delivered in reality, and for implementation to match these broad
goals, is conditioned by a number of factors. Thus, science cities are socially
constructed as much as they are the product of bricks and mortar, financial and
agency instruments. It is argued that the prevailing strategic planning frameworks
are one of the factors that can, in part, determine these outcomes. Critical to these
are the role seen for the state (e.g. highly interventionist, enabling, regulatory,
etc.). Above it is also argued that science cities face two major challenges as a
spatial organising idea in the future planning of urban development: responding to
the still emergent global knowledge economy which is creating further uneven
spatial development; and to the demands to achieve sustainable development,
which will certainly increase over time and territories. The future internationali-
sation of the science city idea needs to be considered within the strategic spatial
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