Author(s)

D. Kilsby & P. Laird

Abstract

Sustainability is a word that means different things to different people. The National Committee on Transport (NCTR) of Engineers Australia has been developing position papers on several aspects of sustainability. This paper is based on one of them. The paper begins by describing the urban context in Australia. It describes the impacts, at different scales, of transport activities on the environment and on public health. Environmental impacts are distinguished according to their geographic scale – global, regional, local, while public health impacts are distinguished according to their time scale – long term, medium term, short term. The paper reviews estimates of the scales of these impacts in Australia. It pleads for greater rigour when using the concept of sustainability. It concludes with ten pointers which, if followed by engineers, would allow the transpo

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