In the news: Ensuring equitable access to nature in cities
Catch our own Sarah Bekessy on the Inclusive Agenda podcast. Sarah discusses her recent work on ensuring equitable access to nature in the city for vulnerable communities. Click here
Finding space for nature in cities: the considerable potential of redundant car parking
Written by Tom de Aizpurua Major cities can play a vital role in creating biodiversity gains through Nature Based Solutions (NBS). Finding space in dense and heavily congested urban environments is difficult, but research conducted at ICON Science shows that remodelling redundant car spaces to make way for green space could solve many city issues, […]
Why we should shatter Melbourne’s concrete creeks
Written by Tom de Aizpurua Our connection to nature continues to change over the years, for better or worse. Only in the 1960s did engineers and town planners decided to tame some of Melbourne’s vital rivers and streams with concrete to reduce the flood risk throughout the city, with the idea to protect neighbouring communities […]
Enabling Biodiversity Inclusive Design
In the day and age of the biodiversity emergency, architects, landscape architects, urban designers and even engineers are looking for answers to the question “How do we design for biodiversity?”. The ‘Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’ specifically calls for the rise of biodiversity inclusive urban areas (See Target 12, Convention on Biological Diversity 2022). Biodiversity Inclusive […]
Integrating biodiversity as a non-human stakeholder within urban development.
We call this, biodiversity inclusive design. Check out our paper for more information! References
Examining connection to nature at multiple scales provides insights for urban conservation
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 […]
The vast majority of Melburnians want more nature in their city, despite a puzzling north-south divide
When we were asked to survey people in Melbourne about their relationship with nature, little did we know our findings would reinforce a well-known cultural divide between those living north and south of the Yarra River. Residents of neighbourhoods to the south were overall less connected to nature. But perhaps a more important finding was that people in Melbourne […]
Practical Solutions for Regenerating Natural Systems in our Cities
Recently, myself and another PhD Student in the ICON Science lab attended an event at the MPavillion initiative. The MPavillion is an annual celebration of architecture and design in Melbourne, coordinated by the Urban Design Forum. Specifically, it focuses on creative collaboration for community art and wellbeing. Each year since its inception in 2014, the […]
How Alone Australia can help us understand and appreciate our place in nature
More than a million Australians have tuned in to Alone Australia, SBS’s highest-rating series for 2023 to date. What is it about this program that’s got us so hooked? And what can it tell us about our own relationships with nature? The series started with ten contestants dropped off in a remote area of lutruwita/Tasmania. The aim is […]
If the budget ditched the Stage 3 tax cuts, Australia could save every threatened species – and lots more
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 our land and waters. Achieving these goals requires a lot of money. So how does last night’s federal budget stack up? […]
