Spatial patterns of urban compactness in Melbourne: An urban myth or a reality

The current Victorian Government Urban Planning Melbourne 2030 Plan supports a compact city model. The challenge facing local governments is the pressure on development of higher density housing near designated activity centres. Using the Victorian Government official VicMap property datasets for the years 2001 and 2006 in conjunction with dwelling count data from the ABS Census for 2001 and 2006, the transformation of Melbourne from a sprawling city to a compact city structure has been tested in order to have a reality check on the effect of a policy shift in recent years. Within the Melbourne urban growth boundary, the spatial variability and levels of densification was mapped using a 1x1kilometere grid. Further buffer analysis was applied to evaluate differences between different zones from the Melbourne CBD and from Activity Centres. The ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) results indicate that urban densities across buffer zones around Melbourne CBD are statistically different. It was also revealed that the densification is just not restricted to the target areas (i.e. activity centres) as the evidence of higher density housing can be seen widely across the metropolis. Activity centres are ranked from highest to lowest for the measures of dwelling counts and dwelling density over the time period between 2001 and 2006. The ranking highlights the need for a rethink of the current urban compactness policy as its effect on urban form at the metropolitan level is yet to be seen.