The planning and design of urban housing and public open space can improve animal management outcomes.  When added to the social aspects of pet ownership, planning can contribute to wider social capital for the community and compliance for effective animal management.  

Main issues

Urban consolidation may prejudice people's ability to have pets and derive their benefits. Multi-dwelling developments, smaller homes and back yards may discourage people from owning dogs while placing greater demands on limited public open space. Compact living can also compound animal management issues, for example nuisance barking by bored dogs. Papers in this section will identify elements of urban design affecting pet ownership and guidelines are presented to integrate pets into new residential developments (Strategic planning and design of urban developments and housing).

There are excellent designs for planners to use for best access, views and environmental enrichment for pets. ('Pets in Urban Areas: A Guide to Integrating Domestic Pets into New Residential Development'.)

Access to public open space by dogs and owners (Guidelines for designing and managing public open space) is critical and policy addressing to the issues arising must be carefully thought through. Local authorities can make better policy choices using a strategic framework to choose the optimum combination of public open space options, and should consider key issues for the community such as (Making room for pets in high and medium density housing) on/off leash areas.

Surveys with dog owners (Meeting in the park) about social contact between people in parks has been found to build social capital (The pet connection). Taking this further, beneficial links are shown between social capital, triple bottom line management, compliance and successful UAM (Triple bottom line and UAM).   

Surveys of local government employees (Who's taking who for a walk?) on the role of dog ownership and regulatory issues of dogs in public places find a decrease in problems such as barking, an increase in compliance with local laws, increased sense of community and deterrence of local crime.   Such findings have an impact on regulatory issues in terms of designing effective urban animal risk management plans for the future.

Other issues

The complexities of animal management mean that due consideration must be given to (How to improve companion animals by managing people better) laws versus education, community legal compliance and behaviour change.