To celebrate World Cities Day 2020, an annual awareness day developed to promote global urbanization and sustainable urban development, we spoke to Griffith University’s expert in planning and urban policies, Professor Paul Burton.
Paul is the Director for Griffith’s Cities Research Institute (CRI), Australia’s largest research facility focused on all aspects of cities and urbanisation.
CRI experts span across a wide range of disciplinary fields, from transport and land use planners to civil engineers; systems modelers to environmental scientists, economic and social researchers to coastal engineers; and from geographers to architects.
Their mission:
Doing research that helps make cities better places.
How is CRI contributing to future planning and cities?
The Cities Research Institute has one of the largest concentrations of researchers in Australia focussed on all aspects of cities and urban change.
CRI researchers are at the forefront of building our understanding of how cities work and change. Some of CRI core research areas include:
- Adaptation science: is the pursuit of knowledge – how to adapt with contributions from physical, natural, social and policy sciences.
- Building science and construction innovation: investigating the load carrying mechanisms, force redistribution patterns and large-deformation behaviour of the substructures under various column loss scenarios.
- Coastal resilience: helping to tackle the problems of coastal erosion, inundation and in developing more effective management and adaptation.
- Digital earth and resilient infrastructure: exploring decision-making pathways for complex built environment challenges, to benefit people and planet.
- Digital multi-utility transformation: seek to integrate ‘big data’ metering and monitoring technologies and associated expert systems into infrastructure.
- Gold Coast futures: exploring planning and growth management in the city with a focus on long term strategic visioning.
- Sea cities: aim to create innovative design solutions for future water-adapted architecture and cities.
- Transport research group: help plan, build and manage transport systems and give people access to the jobs, goods and services they need in daily life.
- Water and waste management: works with partners in industry and government to identify the key research challenges of integrating water and waste management in our ever-expanding cities.
What research opportunities do you have for students to get involved in?
We have around 100 candidates undertaking research inline with our expertise.
From architects and planners, through coastal and civil engineers, to environmental and social scientists – we are always looking for talented upcoming researchers to join CRI.
A full list of our PHD research projects can be found here.
Whether you’re interested in partnering, studying or collaborating with us, or have a research or media enquiry, we welcome questions and comments.
Feel free to call, email, or write to us using the details below. If you wish to visit us, our office is at the Griffith University Nathan campus in Brisbane.
Phone: (07) 5552 7269
Email: [email protected]
