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Abstract: In post 9-11 and post Hurricane Katrina era: the sustainable development model of economy, environment and social equity requires two additional priorities-civil defense (security) and emergency management (safety). Under the most ideal circumstances the poor and disadvantaged are caught in the cross fire of the conflicting priorities of these elements of sustainability. Modern planning theory and practice has to balance the priorities and conflicts in a planner's triangle of economic feasibility, social equity, environmentalism, safety and security. The evolution of planning theory and practice now requires the exploration of a planner's pentagon to adjust to a new normal while protecting the most vulnerable in society. This paper explores the basis of a new paradigm of the planner's pentagon for modern day planning theory and practice.
Keywords: 9-11; Hurricane Katrina; sustainable development; equity
The modern world has reached a social, economic, and environmental precipice. Our current state of development is unsustainable due to ever increasing social, political, and economic inequity, population growth, environmental limits, finite fossil fuel, climate change, and catastrophic events. Catastrophic events and gross social, political, and economic inequities are the drivers of unsustainability and the causes of the transmogrification of the sustainable development model that represent the priorities and conflicts of the three E's: economy, environment, and equity; and (2) a new sustainable development systems model is required for sustainability while ensuring equitable treatment of societies most vulnerable.
A Planner's Pentagon: Planning for Equitable and Sustainable Prosperity in Post 9-11 and Post Katrina America represents a systems analysis aimed at replacing current sustainable development theories and practices with an equity based model designed to achieve interconnectedness in community redevelopment. The Planner's Pentagon consists of economy, environment, equity, civil defense (security), and emergency management (safety). This paper argues that equity or just policy outcomes is the essential determinant of sustainability in the post 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina era. Equity and community empowerment are essential to acquiring the ability to prepare, respond, recover, mitigate, and thrive after calamitous events and the conditions these events generate.
Systems Theory and Sustainable Development
Fainstein & Campbell (2002) stated: "theory's transcendent purpose is to make sense of the world and to show how particular phenomena form part of a broader scheme" (p.13). In systems theory, sustainable development...