Regenerating our cities
Investigating how cities can be reshaped to reduce carbon intensity, become more vibrant and meet sustainable development goals.
As cities develop, new areas are constructed and existing areas are redeveloped. This research theme studies the strategies — such as nature-based solutions, 20-minute city and circular economy concepts — through which cities in Australia and around the world can reshape themselves in a way that reduces carbon intensity, creates more vibrant cities and meets sustainable development goals.
Our research examines urban policy and governance, socio-technical transitions, building and urban water policy, urban design, institutional and community behaviour change, building retrofitting, design and operation, and community and private-sector engagement. The key disciplines involved are urban planning and design, scenario modelling, complex adaptive systems science, urban informatics and architecture.
Our studies include:
Qualitative policy and solutions-oriented research
Future studies, visioning and horizon scans for trends as well as dynamics and drivers for urban change
Urban modelling and policy scenario analysis, including using GIS or Agent-Based Modelling
Systematic and rapid reviews of emerging urban policy issues
Common metrics and indicators for monitoring urban transformations
Economic, business-case and investment analysis in low-carbon urban development.
Program leader
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Associate Professor Magnus Moglia
Program Leader, Centre for Urban Transitions
Current projects
This three year $1.85M project (2019–2021) is funded by the Australian Research Council’s Linkage, Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities Program involving researchers from Swinburne (lead organisation), UNSW, Monash, UQ and Curtin universities.
The program of work establishes five new, networked, urban research laboratories located in Australia’s four largest capital cities: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. Each laboratory has a common infrastructure layer of high bandwidth communications, high performance computing, high definition computer graphics and high quality videoconferencing, enabling a national digital platform for synchronous research collaboration, research synthesis and urban experimentation. A first of its kind, it will support innovative urban research between our centre, the Smart Cities Research Institute, the Centre for Design Innovation and their collaborators in academia, government, industry and community.
The Swinburne team comprises Professor Peter Newton (lead CI), Professor Mark Burry, Professor Marcus White and Professor Hussein Dia.
Contact
Professor Peter Newton
Past projects
This four-year project (2013–2017) is funded by the CRC for Low Carbon Living (CRC LCL RP3008) and involves researchers from our centre as well as the University of Melbourne and UNSW.
For this project we’re:
reviewing drivers, opportunities, barriers and uncertainties of a transition to a low carbon built environment
identifying emerging technical and social innovations
developing scenarios and translating these into visions and pathways (necessary socio-technical changes) related to distributed energy and water systems.
Our team comprises Professor Peter Newton and Stephen McGrail, collaborating with Professor Chris Ryan (Project Leader, University of Melbourne).
Contact
Professor Peter Newton
This five-year project (2012–2017) aims to create new development models and processes capable of enabling precinct-scale medium density regeneration in the ageing middle residential (greyfield) suburbs of Australia’s major cities. This is in response to urban infill targets of 70% new housing construction that feature in recent metro strategic plans. The project is funded by the CRC for Spatial Information and involves researchers from our centre and Curtin University’s Sustainability Policy Institute.
Our research focus is on developing innovative spatial technologies, planning and design instruments, and stakeholder (community and development industry) engagement processes to:
locate contiguous greyfield properties with high redevelopment potential as precincts
create low carbon and sustainable medium housing precinct designs and performance assessment tools
create new planning instruments to support medium-density precinct redevelopment in general and neighbourhood residential zones
develop a new suite of engagement processes for use in town hall and kitchen table meetings with communities and neighbours.
Our team comprises Professor Peter Newton (Project Leader) and Dr Stephen Glackin, collaborating with Professor Peter Newman (Curtin University).
Contact
Professor Peter Newton
This project aims to understand the cultural and societal mechanisms for low carbon behaviour and develop a psychological index of people’s likelihood to change. It’s a four-year project (2014–2018) funded by the CRC for Low Carbon Living (CRC LCL RP3012) and involves researchers from our centre as well as the University of Melbourne.
Our research involves:
a literature review
stakeholder surveys
a catalogue of behavioural practice regarding low carbon alternatives
development and validation of an index of readiness for low carbon living
a testing index in several CRC LCL laboratories.
Our team comprises Professor Peter Newton, Professor Christine Critchley and Dr Gordana Bruce, collaborating with Professor Yoshi Kashima (Project Leader) and Dr Lean O’Brien (University of Melbourne).
Contact
Professor Peter Newton
This nine-month project (conducted in 2016) identified whether conservation or rebound effects are associated with solar photovoltaic (PV) take-up by examining the changes in electricity use between 2008 and 2012 by Sydney households who installed PV compared to those that did not. It was funded by the CRC for Low Carbon Living (CRC LCL RP2016).
Our research analysed Ausgrid data for 5,000 households in order to develop and test an econometric model capable of estimating the level of additional electricity consumption that households with installed PV consumed compared to those without PV.
Our team comprised Dr Gary Deng and Professor Peter Newton.
Contact
Professor Peter Newton
This project aimed to overcome barriers and develop opportunities for precinct building owners and energy and water utilities to transition to low carbon decentralised energy and water infrastructures. It used Broadway in the Sydney CBD as a living laboratory, attempting a socio–technical transition involving multiple stakeholders. This was a two-year project (2014–2016) funded by the CRC for Low Carbon Living (CRC RP2018) and involving researchers from our centre as well as AECOM and Flow Systems.
Through this project, we aimed to provide knowledge to bring lower carbon, energy and water solutions to communities in Australia’s cities. We specifically aimed to identify and understand the economic, stakeholder, regulatory and technical barriers to transitioning existing communities to low carbon energy and water solutions and devise viable pathways for stakeholders to successfully transition. We sought to empower stakeholders within communities by providing them with the data and processes they need for change. These transitions have not been successful to date, and research is urgently needed to improve our knowledge and enable the delivery of precinct efficiencies with infrastructure.
The team comprised Professor Peter Newton, Roger Swinbourne (AECOM, Project Leader) and Dan Hilson (Flow Systems).
Contact
Professor Peter Newton
This three-year project (2009–2012) aimed to understand the factors contributing to the contemporary pattern of escalating urban consumption in Australia. It was funded by the Australian Research Council as a Discovery Project.
This project was the first study that aimed to quantify how much of Australia’s total consumption is designed into our cities and housing and how much is related to an individual’s discretionary behaviour and the sets of attitudes and values that drive it. Based on an extensive sample survey of Melbourne households, multi-level modelling was used to apportion total consumption (energy, water, urban travel, housing space and domestic appliances) across individual and household factors (such as lifestyle and socio-economic position) versus contextual factors (such as dwelling, urban location and technology).
Our team comprised Professor Peter Newton (Project Leader), Professor Terry Burke and Professor Denny Meyer, collaborating with Associate Professor Maryann Wulff (formerly Swinburne and Monash universities).
Contact
Professor Peter Newton
This project examined the manner and rate at which a green economy is emerging in Australia in order to identify strategies that will best facilitate the adoption of sustainable technologies and practices. It was a three-year project (2012–2015) funded by the Australian Research Council as a Discovery Project and involved researchers from our centre and Curtin University.
The research objectives involved examining:
The strength of the innovative base in green technology in Australia as a platform for the growth of a green economy — is there a critical mass of enabling S&T apparent? In which industries and sectors? Is there an obvious technology roadmap?
The geography of the green economy — each previous techno–economic transition saw fundamental changes to urban structure (Brotchie et al., 1987; Newman et al., 2009). How are the new green industries and jobs best classified? What transformations in locations of jobs and industries are likely to characterise a green economy? How will the empirical information emerging from this study stimulate thinking around a theory of industry location and patterns of investment within a green economy?
The process of greening organisations across key sectors of Australian industry and understanding the engines of the green economy at a firm and sectoral level – where are the green industries? What are the barriers to transition? What is the size and significance of the green economy to the nation? How green is the supply chain for each industry cluster? What are the principal sources of ‘green’ investment for each industry?
This was a collaboration between Professor Peter Newton (Project Leader) and Professor Peter Newman from Curtin University’s Sustainability Policy Institute.
Contact
Professor Peter Newton
This project investigated the processes required to create an effective development model capable of delivering more affordable and sustainable medium-density housing through the regeneration of greyfield precincts in Australia’s capital cities, with a particular focus on Melbourne. It targeted the middle suburbs as the key areas of investigation for new urban infill policy. This two-year project (2010–2011) was funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and involved researchers from our centre as well as Monash and RMIT Universities.
Our work involved conducting investigative panels as well as related research to pioneer a transitions management model. The panels were:
Investigative Panel 1 — Exploring why? Where? Who? How?
Investigative Panel 2 — Design, construction and viability
Investigative Panel 3 — Community, finance and governance
Investigative Panel 4 — Mapping a new precinct development model
Our team comprised Professor Peter Newton (Project Leader), collaborating with Professor Shane Murray (Monash University) and Professor Ron Wakefield (RMIT).
Contact
Professor Peter Newton
This project addressed the fragmented approach to precinct design assessment by undertaking an extensive review of the state of existing methods and tools, and proceeding to develop a detailed functional specification for precinct design and assessment tools and databases that could be used as a blueprint by the CRC for Low Carbon Living’s Program 2: Low Carbon Precincts. It was an 18-month project (2012–2013) funded by the CRC for Low Carbon Living (CRC LCL RP2001).
The research scope included:
A literature review of national and international precinct assessment methods and tools
A review and comparison of national and international LCA and costing principles, methods and databases
Developing a functional specification for precinct design and assessment methods and software tools.
The team comprised Professor Peter Newton (Project Leader), collaborating with David Marchant, John Mitchell and Jim Plume (all from University of NSW), Seongwon Seo (CSIRO) and Rob Roggema (consultant).
Contact
Professor Peter Newton
This project has delivered an online knowledge hub to share authoritative, concise and accessible information about low carbon living (LCL) in the built environment.
The project has:
aligned existing Australian and international LCL resources for industry practitioners, policymakers, researchers and the public
formed an evidence base for policymakers and practitioners who are promoting low carbon living
provided a collaborative research platform for the CRC Nodes of Excellence, other universities, industry partners and government agencies
provided an ongoing legacy of the CRC for Low Carbon Living
The BuiltBetter solution is now online and available for you to use. To include your content or find out more about the project, please contact our project manager.
Contact
Michelle Zwagerman (Project Manager)
+61 3 9214 5739
mzwagerman@swinburne.edu.au
Project leads
Dr Peter Graham
+61 3 9214 3801
pmgraham@swinburne.edu.au
Amanda Lawrence
Our publications
Our other research programs
Contact the Centre for Urban Transitions
There are many ways to engage with us. If your organisation is dealing with a complex problem, get in touch to discuss how we can work together to provide solutions. Call us on +61 3 9214 5286 or email cutransitions@swinburne.edu.au.