The city of Canberra now occupies only marginally less land than rural leases in the ACT. Current and projected population growth, and the already planned greenfield expansion, means that urban use will soon become the second most dominant land use after conservation reserves. Urban development (with all its associated infrastructure) is one of the most intensive forms of development that can be imposed on land and can dramatically alter natural ecological and hydrological functioning at a local, subcatchment and whole-of-catchment scale.

Best practice urban development and management aims to mimic natural ecological and hydrological processes so that the ecosystem services they provide are minimally disrupted. Best practice ensures that:

• strict controls over erosion during times when the land is most vulnerable (e.g. on building sites or after drought)
• vegetation cover on developed land is adequate, appropriate and resilient to large-scale natural events (e.g. fire or storms) and smaller-scale disruptions (e.g. prevention of driving on verges) and
• vegetation cover on buffer land (particularly at the urban boundary/interface) is preserved.

This target challenges the ACT to achieve and maintain a leading Australian standard for urban land health. Achieving this target depends on:

• developing better methods of measuring urban land health
• measuring current status and identifying priority areas for action and
• developing options for better urban land management and
  supporting their uptake.