What’s new

News

Northsiders are more connected to nature than southsiders: study

01 June 2023

New research into Melburnians’ connection to nature is helping the City of Melbourne understand how to engage its community members in conservation efforts. The study, led by RMIT University in collaboration with the City of Melbourne and Queensland University of Technology, surveyed over 1,500 City of Melbourne residents and visitors on their connection to nature and found […]

News

New ARC project to help plan for urban nature

26 May 2023

Dr Holly Kirk has been awarded an ARC Early Career Industry Fellowships for her project “Spatial planning to implement biodiversity sensitive urban design (BSUD) across scales and contexts”.  With growing recognition of the benefits urban nature has for human wellbeing, developers, planners and designers are urgently seeking ways to enhance biodiversity within urban areas.   With […]

News

If the budget ditched the Stage 3 tax cuts, Australia could save every threatened species – and lots more

12 May 2023

Sarah Bekessy, RMIT University; Brendan Wintle, The University of Melbourne, and Rachel Morgain, The University of Melbourne The Albanese government has made bold environmental promises over the last year. Given the parlous state of nature in Australia, these commitments are important. The promises include ending new extinctions, fixing national nature laws and protecting 30% of […]

News

1 in 4 households struggle to pay power bills. Here are 5 ways to tackle hidden energy poverty

10 May 2023

One in four Australian households are finding it hard to pay their gas and electricity bills. As winter looms, energy price rises will make it even harder. Cold homes and disconnections resulting from energy poverty threaten people’s health and wellbeing.

Blog

Rebuilding a place to call home

04 May 2023

Sharing knowledge for the recovery of Ukraine Executive Summary This executive summary is from full report authored by Oleksandr Anisimov and Pavlo Fedoriv (New Housing Policy, UA), Oleksandra Tkachenko (UNUN), Julie Lawson (RMIT Centre for Urban Research) and Edwin Buitelaar (Utrecht University) and published by PBL, the Dutch government’s National Agency for Environmental Assessment. This […]

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Upcoming Events

Our Research

Past Projects

Democratic Urban Development in the Digital Age (DEMUDIG)

2019–2021

This international research project is examining citizens’ use of the Internet and social media to participate in urban development processes, and city governments’ efforts to engage and respond to citizens through these channels.

Current Projects

Optimising apartment design policy to equitably enhance mental health

2018 (ongoing)

This study will generate evidence on the key health enhancing design requirements that should be entrenched in the new Design WA Apartment Design Guidelines.

Past Projects

Innovative responses to urban transportation: current practice in Australian cities

2019–2020

This project investigates drivers and processes of change within Australian metropolitan transport systems to identify future options and directions for policy development.

Past Projects

Benchmarking, monitoring, modelling and valuing the healthy liveable city

2019–2022

Along with our Department of Health and South Australia Health partners, this project builds on our national liveability indicator work to improve understandings of the relationship between built environments, daily activities and travel choices.

Past Projects

Emergency volunteering 2030: Adapting the sector

2017–2020

This co-designed project is a collaboration with the University of Western Australia and key emergency management organisations for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre.

Current Projects

Representing Multicultural Australia in National and State Libraries

2018 (ongoing)

The project aims to investigate the representation of histories and cultures of migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in the National Library and select state library collections.

Past Projects

Early delivery of equitable and healthy transport options in new suburbs

2018–2021

The project will produce evidence and tools to assist both the public and private sectors provide transport options to residents of Melbourne’s new suburbs as soon as they move in.

Past Projects

Onsets not offsets for real biodiversity gains

2020–2022

This project will make conceptual and methodological advancements required to develop a working approach for onsets. Case studies in urban development and agriculture will highlight how the approach work s in practice.

Meet an expert

News

Meet the women helping to improve how we live in cities and with nature

05 March 2020

As our cities evolve, so too should our approach to building and planning our urban habitats. Here, six RMIT urban researchers share how their work is shaping how we live in our cities and with nature.

News

Meet Jodie Boyd: Expert in cultural history and policy

24 February 2020

What role do libraries have in the 21st century in shaping our national narrative? Dr Jodie Boyd explains how libraries are vital to preserving our story as a multicultural society.

News

Meet Tamzin Rollason: Expert in sustainable fashion

03 September 2019

Sustainable apparel is in vogue but is it the answer to fashion’s environmental footprint? Researcher Tamzin Rollason delves deeper into the eco-style trend.

News

Meet Mittul Vahanvati: Expert in housing and community resilience

23 May 2019

The homes we live in, and the homes we’re building, are not what we need in a changing climate. Dr Mittul Vahanvati explains what this means and what we need to change to support climate resilience in Australia.