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 […]

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 […]

PhD Opportunity: Beyond green facades – integrating natural ecologies and the built environment

PhD Advertisement Title: Beyond green facades – integrating natural ecologies and the built environment Description: This PhD challenges the status quo of ‘green’ architecture by addressing critical research gaps in the fields of natural ecology and the built environment to develop ecologically-driven architectural/landscape/urban design. By integrating ecological knowledge and understanding, designers can produce urban environments […]

From ‘day of the species’ to ‘protecting species every day’

In April, I attended an art exhibition that helps people visualize the biodiversity crisis in Australia. ‘Day of the Species’ is a community art project with contributions from 200+ artists. As a contributing artist, you get to learn about and draw Australian biodiversity under protection by the EPBC Act. As a viewer, you can see […]

Enhancing biodiversity in cities through design

This article is republished from Cities People Love under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. An interview with Professor Sarah Bekessy Sarah Bekessy is a sustainability and urban planning academic at RMIT University in Melbourne and a leading voice in Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design (BSUD).  We interviewed Sarah to understand more about the […]

ICON at #VicBioCon21

By Katherine Berthon and Marco Gutiérrez Last month ICON Science was a proud sponsor of the 2021 Victorian Biodiversity Conference (VicBioCon). ICON researchers also helped organise and presented at the conference. It was the first time the conference was held entirely online, and, despite some website updates during a tea break, the whole train ran […]

Invertebrate use of rooftops in Melbourne

Green roofs are a peculiar kind of designed habitat. In already highly urbanised areas, where there is large pressure on efficient land use, green roof retrofits are a key strategy to bring back nature without losing building capital. While green roofs are known to have many economic and social benefits, such as stormwater retention and […]