Acknowledgements vii 1Putting residential development in a sustainable context 1 Introduction 1 Definitions of sustainable development and sustainable landscape 3 Sustainable development 3 Sustainable landscape 4 Sustainable development in English planning and development 8 The key role of housing in sustainable development 12 Current concepts and initiatives for delivering sustainable homes in England 17 What impact have these initiatives had on delivering sustainable residential communities? 22 References 25 2 Opportunities for improving the sustainable profile of new residential developments 29 Introduction 29 Conservation of resources and minimisation of pollution and waste 29 Energy consumption and microclimate control 29 Encouraging walking and cycling 33 Specification and detailed design of hard landscape materials 37 Specification and detailed design of soft landscape materials - vegetation 52 Water management 63 Enhancement of site ecological function and human well-being 73 Site ecological function 73 Providing for the health and well-being of residents 79 References 89 3Creating a residential landscape sustainability checklist 99 Introduction 99 A review of sustainable checklist tools for residential development 99 A detailed description of the template BRE EcoHomes method104 Adapting the EcoHomes method for landscape assessments 106 The Energy Category 106 The Transport Category 108 The Pollution Category 108 The Materials Category 110 The Water Category 112 The Ecology and Land Use Category 113 The Health and Well-Being Category 113 Adjusting the EcoHomes weighting factors 116 Setting compliance standards 116 Judging visual qualities 117 General limitations of the checklist assessment approach 118 References 119 4Case studies: applying the Residential Landscape Sustainability Checklist121 Introduction 121 Greenwich Millennium Village, London 122 Childwall, Liverpool 125 Evaluation of the case studies against the Residential Landscape Sustainability Checklist 126 The Energy Category 126 The Transport Category 127 The Pollution Category 128 The Materials Category 133 The Water Category 142 The Ecology and Land Use Category . 142 The Health and Well-Being Category 144 What factors encouraged and discouraged residential landscape sustainability? 150 Factors which contribute to delivering residential landscape sustainability 151 Factors which may undermine landscape sustainability 152 Conclusion 155 References 156 Appendix: Detailed Residential Landscape Sustainability Checklist 157 Index 193