What I Wish Planners and Designers Knew about Planning for Pandemics
Key learnings from No.1 Talk in the series of “What I wish Planners and Designers Knew” by Melbourne University’s Student Planning Society (MUPSS).
By Vincent Ng
An epidemiologist turned transport planner, an architect, a digital health expert, and 60 planners walk into a bar. Uh, wait a minute. Sorry, no they don’t! The pub’s sadly closed.
Faced with the intractable dilemma of what to do when the pubs are closed, Melbourne University’s Planning Student Society (MUPSS) decided to take to the digital realm, and fortunately, the good news is that the virtual pub’s still open. Last year, one of our most successful series was ‘Planning at the Pub’, in which we invited a speaker or two to share a few insights into a topical planning issue. Given the constraints of not being able to meet physically, the committee this year decided to launch a virtual event series, partially inspired by PIA NSW chapter’s “What I Wish Planners Knew” series with a virtual session on “Planning for Pandemics,” moderated by MUPSS Education and Industry Officer, Natasha Manawadu.
Grappling with how pandemics and built environments intersect is not a simple question. As Mark Stevenson, Epidemiologist and Professor of Transport Planning and Public Health at the University of Melbourne noted, the built environment and pandemics have historically been closely intertwined. From Cholera and open sewage systems, to the Spanish flu which spread significantly through transport networks, there is undeniably a close relationship. Some countries have already begun repurposing large venues — and even public transportation — as critical healthcare infrastructure (eg. London is repurposing stadiums for emergency hospitals, Australia is using hotels — and previously offshore detention centres — for quarantine measures, and France is using its TGV to transport critically ill patients to less overwhelmed areas for emergency treatment).
As Rachel de Sain, advisor for the national eHealth policy highlighted, the test of working from home in Australia has actually revealed our gross under-investment in digital infrastructure. According to a recent 2020 global index by Speedtest, Australia ranks 68th in the world in average internet speed, lagging behind Kazakhstan. “Our NBN is simply not sufficient. How do we expect aged care homes, hospitals, or even residences to take advantage of opportunities for telemedicine if we don’t even have the digital infrastructure to make a ‘healthy’ city.” Perhap planning codes need to have digital infrastructure requirements embedded? On the point of digital infrastructure Mark further added, “we are in the middle of a pandemic. We need to be finding ways to track and isolate movement around a city. Contact tracing has been shown to be incredibly effective at isolating cases and physically cordoning off areas within the city.” How we plan and design cities, and even the type of building materials we use, can significantly impact our ability to use digital enhancements to improve health and wellbeing outcomes.
Tania Davidge, architect and President of Citizens for Melbourne, who notably led the campaign against the location of an Apple store within Federation Square, cautioned that “it actually makes planning for public space, parks, gardens, and our streetscapes even more important. The shape of our cities shouldn’t be driven by fear. As in the physical realm, we also need equitable digital access. Not everybody has the ability to access the internet. As with public space, the digital public is a forum that requires us to ask the same questions of digital public forums. Who owns the platform? Who has access? How is it moderated? What does a publicly owned Facebook look like?”
Speaking further on the topic of policy and governance, Tania stated that “while pragmatic infrastructure streamlines (development), the government’s ability to care has been left behind. It comes back to fundamental questions about complex issues such as housing. In a pandemic, where do we house the homeless, and what about people living with the threat of domestic violence? Affordable and social housing has been neglected for a long time and the issues are only further exacerbated in a crisis situation.” As planners, designers and city shapers, equity must be at the forefront of our minds.
Sustainability is also paramount, Mark elaborated. “One of the most unusual outcomes of COVID-19 is that there is a phenomenal natural experiment happening where we are seeing some of the most substantial decline in PM 2.5. We are starting to actually see what visions for a sustainable transport system could look like!”
Perhaps what COVID-19 will leave us with is an opportunity to shift not only what it means to do healthcare, but also how we think about the built environment. As Rachel concluded, “20% of a person’s health is based on clinical care rest but the rest is how you’ve lived your life.” Particularly in times of crisis, cities cannot lose sight of the importance of creating thriving and equitable spaces, both in the physical and digital realm.
