Thinking about a title and some other things

Quick drawing from earlier today

Refining a thesis title is difficult. 

• Socially-conscious planning for post-industrial landscapes - basalt quarries in Melbourne's west? 
• Coordinating future land use through community-led remediation of Melbourne's basalt quarries?
• Community-focused reuse of post-industrial space in Melbourne's (changing?) basalt plains?
• Community-led remediation in post-industrial landscapes: a case study of Melbourne's basalt quarries?

None of these are by any means even close to a "draft" title. I feel like I'm just shuffling words around and trying to find something that sticks (not that whatever I come up with at this point will be the title I end up going with).

I think my general question is: 

• What are the determinant factors in coordinating quarry redevelopment (or remediation) in a manner sensitive (or responsive) to local communities (or local community needs/values) ([possibly] undergoing change)?

That's not very elegant but I'm sure it can be refined.

Regardless of question and title, I've done some basic site research. The Sunshine North quarries are segmented into six parcels of land:

Dodgy map but you get the idea...

A. WINGED FOOT DRIVE SUNSHINE NORTH 3020

Planning Zone:	RESIDENTIAL 1 ZONE (R1Z)
	SCHEDULE TO THE RESIDENTIAL 1 ZONE
Planning Overlay:	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY (DPO)
	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY - SCHEDULE 3 (DPO3)
Areas of  Aboriginal  Cultural  Heritage  Sensitivity:	This property is within, or affected by,  one or more areas of cultural heritage sensitivity

A1. 265 DUKE STREET SUNSHINE NORTH 3020 

Planning Zone:	COMMERCIAL 1 ZONE (B1Z)
	SCHEDULE TO THE COMMERCIAL 1 ZONE
Planning Overlay:	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY (DPO)
	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY - SCHEDULE 3 (DPO3)
Areas of  Aboriginal  Cultural  Heritage  Sensitivity:	This property is within, or affected by,  one or more areas of cultural heritage sensitivity

A2. MCGRATH PLACE SUNSHINE NORTH 3020

Planning Zone:	RESIDENTIAL 1 ZONE (R1Z)
	SCHEDULE TO THE RESIDENTIAL 1 ZONE
Planning Overlay:	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY (DPO)
	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY - SCHEDULE 3 (DPO3)

A3. 60 ST ANDREWS DRIVE SUNSHINE NORTH 3020

Planning Zone:	RESIDENTIAL 1 ZONE (R1Z)
	SCHEDULE TO THE RESIDENTIAL 1 ZONE
Planning Overlay:	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY (DPO)
	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY - SCHEDULE 3 (DPO3)

B. SUNNYBANK RISE SUNSHINE NORTH 3020

Planning Zone:	RESIDENTIAL 1 ZONE (R1Z)
	SCHEDULE TO THE RESIDENTIAL 1 ZONE
Planning Overlays:	DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OVERLAY (DDO)
	DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OVERLAY - SCHEDULE 1 (DDO1)
	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY (DPO)
	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY - SCHEDULE 3 (DPO3)
	SPECIAL BUILDING OVERLAY (SBO)
	SPECIAL BUILDING OVERLAY SCHEDULE (SBO)
Areas of  Aboriginal  Cultural  Heritage  Sensitivity:	This property is within, or affected by,  one or more areas of cultural heritage sensitivity

C. 14A HALONG DRIVE SUNSHINE NORTH 3020

Planning Zone:	RESIDENTIAL 1 ZONE (R1Z)
	SCHEDULE TO THE RESIDENTIAL 1 ZONE
Planning Overlays:	DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OVERLAY (DDO)
	DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OVERLAY - SCHEDULE 1 (DDO1)
	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY (DPO)
	DEVELOPMENT PLAN OVERLAY - SCHEDULE 3 (DPO3)
	ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE OVERLAY (ESO)
	ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE OVERLAY - SCHEDULE 5 (ESO5)
	LAND SUBJECT TO INUNDATION OVERLAY (LSIO)
	LAND SUBJECT TO INUNDATION OVERLAY SCHEDULE (LSIO)
	MELBOURNE AIRPORT ENVIRONS OVERLAY (MAEO)
	MELBOURNE AIRPORT ENVIRONS OVERLAY - SCHEDULE 2 (MAEO2)
Areas of  Aboriginal  Cultural  Heritage  Sensitivity:	This property is within, or affected by,  one or more areas of cultural heritage sensitivity

There's another quarry (or an attempt at one) located a little north of the ones mentioned above. I'm thinking about whether it should be included (or if it even counts as a quarry - I'd be inclined to call it an exploration). 

I'm going to look into the site history (ownership, previous uses, cultural value etc.) tomorrow. I came across some small bits of information while researching Solomon Heights so it shouldn't be too difficult (hopefully).

I've read through the abstracts of quite a few papers tonight. A 2013 paper by Luís Loures seems to cover the basic ideas I want to explore, although he frames it more as a conflict between urban growth and a lack of open space, with quarry remediation capable of alleviating the pressures of both forces (I like this idea). My initial curiosity was more focused on the specific factors that mediate quarry re-use itself - I came across Lain Walter's blog earlier and the extent of his development plan for the Sunshine North site is quite significant; would an in-depth investigation of this (as in, why the quarries are still undeveloped) appropriate for a thesis? I'm not sure.

(Sourced from Lain Walter's blog)

(Sourced from Lain Walter's blog)

You can see Walter's proposed streets on Google Maps

My small collection of relevant literature so far, and a few points on each:

• Loures, L 2013, Planning and Design of Post-industrial Landscapes: Defining Redevelopment Principles. Spaces & Flows: An International Journal of Urban & Extra Urban Studies, vol. 3 no. 4, pp. 45-57.
• Leney, AD 2008, A systems approach to assess the redevelopment options for urban brownfield sites. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
• Explores "factors relating to the brownfield site and the surrounding urban area"
• Leney developed a tool to assess the redevelopment capacity in light of "social, economic and environmental aspects"
• Darwish TM, Stehouwer R, Khater, C, Jomaa, I, Miller, D, Sloan, J, Shaban & A, Hamze M 2010, Rehabilitation of Deserted Quarires in Lebanon to Initial Land Cover or Alternative Land Uses, Land Degradation and Desertification: Assessment, Mitigation and Remediation, pp. 333-345.
• Focuses on revegetation and water harvesting
• Case studies concern Lebanon but cites other papers on the negative impact of disused quarries, which could be useful (Mouflis et al. 2008)
• Uberman, R & Ostręga, A 2012, Reclamation and revitalisation of lands after mining activities : Polish achievements and problems, AGH Journal of Mining and Geoengineering, vol. 36, no. 2.
• Again, foreign case studies (I didn't read this out of sheer patriotism, by the way) 
• Outlines "mode[s] of reclamation" and common post-quarrying uses
• A neat little diagram was provided for "incompatible uses" (p. 290).
• Parker, RJ, Edmond, RM & Hince, KJ 1989, End-use development of Northcote tip, Fifth National Local Government Engineering Conference 1989; Preprints of Papers, Barton, A.C.T., Institution of Engineers, Australia, pp. 56-61.
• Local precedent (well, more local than international ones...)
• Could be somewhat irrelevant but still discusses planning processes involved in site redevelopment
• Cowles, S & Holmes, R 2013, "For Every Pile there is a Pit"
• List of references at the end, something to investigate later.
• Novák, J & Konvičkab, M 2006, Proximity of valuable habitats affects succession patterns in abandoned quarries, Ecological Engineering, vol. 26, no. 2, 1 February, pp. 113–122.
• Specifically addresses basalt quarries, which is nice
• Vegetation focus: "probability of development of valuable habitats within the quarries decreased with distance to the closest grassland sites, and increased with their area" (interesting! I wonder if the same can be said for Sunshine North)
• Howland, M 2007, Employment Effects of Brownfield Redevelopment: What Do We Know from the Literature?, Journal of Planning Literature, vol. 22 no. 2, pp. 91-107.
• Concerns relationship between quarry remediation and SES ("brownfield sites are located in weak land markets", "many of the most seriously contaminated sites are located in the most distressed neighborhoods") 
• That being said, the emphasis is on redevelopment which catalyses the creation of more job opportunities in an American context
• McCarthy, L 2009, Off the Mark? Efficiency in Targeting the Most Marketable Sites Rather Than Equity in Public Assistance for Brownfield Redevelopment, Economic Development Quarterly, vol. 23 no. 3, pp. 211-228.
• Seeks to outline the effect of brownfield redevelopment policies in low SES context
• Economic incentives for redevelopment result in lower levels of redevelopment in low SES populations?
• Potential benefits discussed and the need for social benefits to be considered
• Gasidáo, K, Stankiewicz, B & Sąsiadek, Z 2012, Concept of redevelopment : The inundations in the Szotkówka river valley in Mszana and Jastrzębie-Zdrój local communities, AGH Journal of Mining and Geoengineering, vol. 36, no. 1.
• Summary of projects undertaken to remediate quarry sites 
• Objectives of redevelopment to include landscape, commercial, and community value
• Wang, H, Shen, Q, Tang, B & Skitmore, M 2013, An integrated approach to supporting land-use decisions in site redevelopment for urban renewal in Hong Kong, Habitat International, vol. 38, pp. 70–80. 
• Need for quarry redevelopment to be compatible with existing land uses
• Assessing suitability for types of future site uses
• Chang, J, Zhang, H, Ji, M & Chen, X 2009, Case study on the redevelopment of industrial wasteland in resource-exhausted mining area, Procedia Earth and Planetary Science, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1140–1146.
• Discusses remediation and approaches to retain industrial heritage aspects, which is interesting
• Crockett, R 2007, The Quarry: A Planning and Development History of the Northeast Minneapolis Retail Center, report, Windom Park Citizens in Action.
• I like the brief overview of the site, but I don't know if this is something I need to include in the thesis or not (maybe?)
• The above point would allow for some context to be established which may be relevant later on
• Loures, L, Burley, J & Panagopoulos, T 2011, Postindustrial Landscape Redevelopment: addressing the past, envisioning the future, International Journal of Energy and Environment, vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 714-724.
• Has more of a landscape architecture focus
• I like the phrase "postindustrial land transformation"
• Mentions some good case studies
• Sandberg LA 2013, Environmental gentrification in a post-industrial landscape: the case of the Limhamn quarry, Malmö, Sweden, Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability.
• "Environmental gentrification" is another neat phrase but is it relevant to Sunshine North? I'd like to think so
• Mentions integration of site history, informal users and new "immigrants" (very specific) will culminate in the quarry becoming a meeting place for "others" and a "force against environmental gentrification"
• Pietrzyk-Sokulska, E 20212, Geological environment as an important element of the reclamation and revitalization of the quarries, AGH Journal of Mining and Geoengineering, vol. 36, no. 1.
• Defines reclamation and revitalisation: I think I should similarly define or at least briefly explore the differences between redevelopment, re-use, remediation, etc.
• I didn't realise until I got halfway through this, but they refer to Skalka Geologów which is where my grandfather and uncle were both in labour camps during WWII and communist rule respectively. I went there in 2012. One part of it has a tiny door secured in the limestone which provides access to a cave network beneath Kielce
  
  

By no means is this research at all intended to support the thesis itself. In fact, I'd be inclined to say all of the above has been undertaken to help me formulate a clear vision for what I'm going to write - in other words, get a better understanding of my topic/thesis title/other research conducted. Without making too much of an assumption, I feel as though my thesis would fill some kind of gap given the heavy emphasis on quarry remediation in Europe and the US. I hope that doesn't make me sound too self-important.