A flood-ravaged Townsville has captured public attention, highlighting the vulnerability of many of our cities to flooding. The extraordinary amount of rain is just one aspect of the disaster in Queensland’s third-biggest…
Out in the heat: why poorer suburbs are more at risk in warming cities
Australian cities are getting hotter. The many reasons for this include urban densification policies, climate change and social trends such as bigger houses and apartment living, which leave less space…
Urban hacktivism: getting creative about involving citizens in city planning
Urban and regional planning, as an institutional practice, is increasingly criticised for failing to meet ordinary citizens’ needs. Enter “urban hacktivism”. Fusing hacking and activism, the term has previously referred to…
Cities Research Centre to tackle urban growth challenges
More intelligent infrastructure, creating better places for people to live and managing growth and diversity in communities are the big issues that will be tackled by the newly launched Griffith…
Media picture of urban consolidation focuses more on a good scare story than the facts
Neighbourhoods as “battlefields”, “sardine city”, traditional suburbs as “threatened species” and urban hubs as the domain of “latte-sipping yuppies”. These are examples of the dramatic and negative imagery Queensland newspapers…
If planners understand it’s cool to green cities, what’s stopping them?
Our cities are getting hotter, more crowded and noisier. Climate change is bringing more heatwaves, placing pressure on human health, urban amenity, productivity and infrastructure. Urban residents naturally want to…