Logan City, Australia

Addressing the urban challenge

Breadth of the issue- How are the problem(s) that are being tackled by your initiative affecting citizens/local businesses or a significant component of the local wildlife?

The City of Logan is one of the largest and fastest growing local governments in Australia. With a population nearing 342,000 and a land area of 959 square kilometres, the Southeast Queensland Regional Plan predicts the city to grow to 568,000 residents by 2041 and will need to accommodate an additional 90,000 dwellings. To support this growth Logan City Council will need to balance lifestyle, social, liveability, economic and environmental outcomes. As a large and complex organisation, Council has $6.5 billion worth of city assets and an annual budget of $940 million. Over 1,700 staff provide more than 85 diverse services to the community.

The impacts on our environment from population growth and development puts incredible pressure on our natural environment and has potentially significant impacts on biodiversity values.  This issue has been identified as a major concern for our community through community surveys conducted over the last few years.  The Logan Listens community survey canvasses the community and bushland protection, and waterway health are consistently in the top 5 concerns identified for the last several years.

Depth of the issue – How seriously are the problems being tackled by your initiative impacting the life of the citizens/businesses/wildlife concerned?

The Logan Rivers and Wetlands Recovery Plan 2014-2024 (the Plan) has been developed in direct consultation with the Logan community. It represents a shared commitment to the recovery of our waterways and a more integrated approach to catchment management. Long term, the health of our waterways and wetlands is central to ensuring a variety of ecosystem services, such as recreational opportunities, rural productivity and our unique ecosystems into the future. With the population of the City of Logan set to increase significantly over the next two decades, it is critical that we prepare for this growth and ensure that these unique community assets are enjoyed, utilised and protected for future generations.

This led to the development of the Albert River Vision and Logan River Vision – two fifty-year long-term visions for the two major rivers running through the City of Logan.  

We recognise the need to secure ongoing community and political commitment to taking action by maintaining strategic alignment and connection to global, national, regional and local level goals and objectives. 

With that in mind, the Logan City Council Living Green for Biodiversity suite of initiatives, which includes a Natural Environment Strategy, Logan Rivers and Wetlands Recovery Plan, River Visions, Sustainability policy and framework, Environmental Conservation Partnerships policy and Green Fleet Strategy have been designed to protect, enhance, connect and celebrate our natural environment and biodiversity with alignment to international commitments including:

• United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
• 2016 Paris Climate Change Agreement