Urban consolidation

Urban consolidation refers to a diverse set of planning policies intended to make better use of existing urban infrastructure by encouraging development within existing urbanised areas (so-called 'brownfield sites') rather than on non-urbanised land (aka 'greenfield sites'), thus limiting urban sprawl. It is the building of higher density housing in existing areas of a city in order to increase population density. Urban Consolidation involves increasing the number of houses or units within existing areas so they can have more efficient use of services and reduce the overall impact on the environment. Urban Consolidation is touted as a means to reduce the total amount of land needed to house the population.

There are broadly three kinds of urban consolidation: Market-led consolidation of existing residential areas involves residential redevelopment of established dwellings as well as non-residential land and buildings at higher densities than the metropolitan average. Transit-oriented development (or TOD) involves high-density residential and mixed-use buildings within walkable precincts around public transport nodes, often referred to as Activity centres. The third approach is to require that all new development on the urban fringe of existing metropolitan areas is at higher densities than the current average for those cities.

See also

• Activity centre
• Automobile dependency
• Circles of Sustainability
• Compact City
• Green belt
• London Plan
• Medium-density housing
• Melbourne 2030
• Mixed-use development
• New Urbanism
• Sustainable development
• Transit-oriented development
• Urban growth boundary