How can we deliver improved health outcomes through best practice urban planning processes and policies?
Healthy Liveable Cities is offering an exciting new short course ‘Integrating Health and Planning’ in July 2019
The session aims to draw on the collective knowledge of participants to build models of cycling behaviour into the Melbourne Activity Based Model (MABM).
Associate Professor of Human Geography Russell Hitchings from University College London discusses how the idea and the experience of outdoor environments can unsettle patterns of everyday life.
THIS EVENT HAS NOW CLOSED. TO ACCESS SPEAKER PRESENTATIONS, CLICK HERE. Creating healthy liveable cities is an international priority for health and the environment. The NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Healthy, Liveable Communities is hosting healthy and active living events with international leaders in their field including Professor James (Jim) Sallis, Professor Billie […]
Join us for this informal networking event hosted by the Planning Institute of Australia for the presentation of A Scorecard and Priority Recommendations for Melbourne – a new report measuring Melbourne’s true liveability progress.
In the seminar, guest speaker Tiina Laatikainen, MSc, Doctoral Student at Aalto University, Finland, will introduce the SoftGIS method and its various research as well as planning practice applications.
By 2050 Australia’s urban population may double, increasing pressure on transport, congestion, infrastructure and housing affordability. Planning that creates compact, pedestrian-friendly and inclusive cities can overcome these challenges. Globally, liveable cities are recognised as part of the solution to chronic disease and health inequities. However, there is a gap between the aspirations of liveability and […]
What can Melbourne and Bangkok learn from each other to improve liveability and wellbeing for their residents?
Can video games like SimCity help smart city design? Dr Claire Boulange explains how planning can be playful to build healthy liveable cities for all.
More than 75% of the population of Australia’s largest cities continue to live in suburbs. The implications include reduced opportunities for physical activity, social interaction, access to public transport & high motor vehicle dependency.
Pioneering RMIT research that delivered the first true measurement of liveability in Australia’s capital cities has been recognised with a top planning award.
Parking is a fiery issue in Australian cities. That’s because cars dominate our cities, supported by decades of unbalanced planning decisions favouring space for cars over other land uses or forms of transport.
Creating ‘liveable’ urban environments is seen as an important way of improving the health and wellbeing of the residents in our towns and cities.
Train station precincts with more shops and apartment blocks are key to getting residents walking, a new report has found, with stations in Melbourne’s north and south-east ripe for redevelopment.
As Melbourne grows, we need to better plan how we build healthy, equitable and liveable cities. Here four RMIT researchers talk about how their work is helping deliver better cities.
Recent studies show Melbourne’s and Sydney’s fast-growing outer suburbs lag behind other parts of the city in access to urban design, employment and amenities and services that foster liveability.
Denser and more walkable suburban developments keep chronic diseases at bay and deliver lifetime economic and health gains of $4,500 for every resident, new research shows.
Denser and more walkable suburban developments keep chronic diseases at bay and deliver lifetime economic and health gains of $4,500 for every resident, new research shows.
With the Victorian Government releasing 50,000 housing lots for 12 new suburbs on Melbourne’s urban fringe, how can we ensure new areas like these are liveable and thrive?
Australian kids are at risk of becoming a backseat generation with more than a third of primary schoolchildren not walking or riding to school despite living nearby, new research shows.
A new report measuring Brisbane’s liveability progress has found its residents have the worst access to public transport in Australia.
RMIT urban academics and students have been recognised at the Awards for Planning Excellence – Victoria for their leadership in planning.
The benefits of cycling and walking are many and well-known. Here, our experts provide their insights on how to get Victorians moving.
Melbourne’s growing population is as topical as ever. Here, our experts provide their insights on the critical challenges that affect the liveability of Victorians.
Here our experts share everything you need to know about how policymakers can make Melbourne more liveable, improve our liveability, reduce commuter crushes and increase housing affordability.
Stimulating and positive environments early in life provide optimal foundations for children’s ongoing development into adulthood. This in turn makes a difference to the productivity of society at large.
The question of which city is the most liveable is an annual hot topic. Competition is fierce, especially between Melbourne and Sydney.
A new report measuring Melbourne’s liveability progress calls for a redistribution of employment across the city to reduce commute times, ease traffic congestion and encourage more physical activity.
These rankings are based on The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index, which “assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions”.
There is over 30 years of research on how aspects of the built environment can be shaped to support health and wellbeing. Despite knowing better, we are still building neighbourhoods without public transport, good parks and footpaths.
With Australia’s population reaching 25 million this month, the liveability of our cities has become critically important for our national prosperity and sustainability.
A new report measuring Sydney’s liveability progress has found that the city is struggling to meet its public transport targets, but other Australian capitals should aim to replicate its ambitious policies.
Researchers are investigating how to improve apartment design policy to enhance the mental health of residents.
Dr Cecily Maller’s new book challenges how we create healthy liveable cities and calls for planners and urban policymakers to integrate ways for humans to live better with nature and other life forms.
Our research on the liveability of regional cities in Victoria has identified an important element: liveability in these areas requires fast, reliable and frequent rail connections to capital cities.
Dr Hannah Badland from RMIT Centre for Urban Research has been awarded the prestigious Thinker in Residence by the Australian Health Promotion Association for her contributions to health promotion.
Almost a third of Australian children experience some form of disadvantage that can have a lasting impact on their development, a new study of more than 5,000 children released today has found.
This third edition of our dedicated Centre magazine The Urban Observer, is testament to the strength of our research effort. This issue reports a remarkable volume of thinking and analysis across a diverse array of topics.
A new report measuring Perth’s liveability progress has found that despite the city’s improvements, it is struggling to meet its targets for policy implementation.
Australia’s population has grown by 3.8 million over the last decade. Of the capital cities, Melbourne has grown the fastest – close to 1 million newcomers in the ten years to June 2016.
We know what makes for healthy and liveable communities, which in turn produces massive payoffs. But we often lack comprehensive policies and frameworks to deliver on the promise.
Research collaborators from the University of Western Australia and RMIT studying the impact of the design of 73 housing developments on residents’ wellbeing have won a prestigious award.
Public transport is a marker of a city’s liveability and an important social determinant of health.
RMIT has hosted delegates from Bangkok Metropolitan Government, with the University’s urban experts helping guide innovative solutions for livability challenges facing the Thai capital.
Billie Giles-Corti knows what makes cities liveable. And she says we need to work together to design better urban spaces for everyone.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellows are researchers with an excellent track record who can make a significant contribution to RMIT's research priority areas.
This year, RMIT University had the pleasure of welcoming Distinguished Professor Billie Giles-Corti to RMIT’s Enabling Capability Platform (ECP) as the Urban Futures Director.
Cities are home to more than just people. We also need to accommodate the critters and plants who live in them.
I believe in the strong correlation between physical space and social behaviours and I believe that buildings and artefacts are not only environmental modifiers but social modifiers. As Winston Churchill said: “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us."
Summer brings out the heliophobe in many of us. It’s manageable if you live in a house that stays cool when shut up tight.
