Projects
The Melbourne Centre for Cities fosters a vibrant, diverse community of researchers engaged in cutting-edge, multidisciplinary projects that generate impactful knowledge across four key themes: Connected Cities, Sustainable Cities, Leading Cities, and Equitable Cities.
Learn more about our current projects, listed according to their primary research themes, below.
Connected Cities
Planning and designing night-time economies for night shift workers in Australian Cities
Investigating the capacity of cities to engage in international relations
Delivering a monthly ‘map’ of greater Melbourne, providing a new way of seeing the city
Equitable Cities
Understanding how community networks influence the provision and governance of infrastructure and how this shapes urban resilience
Exploring the role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities
The Retrofit Lab is a Research and Innovation Laboratory activating the transition of Melbourne's buildings, infrastructure and landscapes for a healthy, sustainable, and resilient city
Sustainable Cities
Addressing critical data, innovation, and technology gaps to enable cities to take accelerated and ambitious climate action
Exploring how cities can recognise, protect, and create urban night environments that support biodiversity, health, and cultural meaning
Informing practice and policy on biodiversity in cities
Visibilising forgotten spaces through counter-mapping methods
Leading Cities
A multi-partner project strengthening collaborative climate action in the Asia-Pacific
Conducting a global survey of ‘city diplomacy’
All Current and Past Projects
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De-Lighting Urban Night Skies
Exploring how cities can recognise, protect, and create urban night environments that support biodiversity, health, and cultural meaning
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Bottom-Up Urban Resilience
Understanding how community networks influence the provision and governance of infrastructure and how this shapes urban resilience
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Cities and International Engagement Survey
Conducting a global survey of ‘city diplomacy’
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City Diplomacy
Investigating the capacity of cities to engage in international relations
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Innovate4Cities
Addressing critical data, innovation, and technology gaps to enable cities to take accelerated and ambitious climate action
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Justice for Multispecies Ecologies
Visibilising forgotten spaces through counter-mapping methods
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Map of the Month
Delivering a monthly ‘map’ of greater Melbourne, providing a new way of seeing the city
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Night Shift
Planning and designing night-time economies for night shift workers in Australian Cities
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Playbook for Urban Biodiversity
Informing practice and policy on biodiversity in cities
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The Retrofit Lab
The Retrofit Lab is a Research and Innovation Laboratory activating the transition of Melbourne's buildings, infrastructure and landscapes for a healthy, sustainable, and resilient city
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Urban Surfaces
Exploring the role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities
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Urban Act
A multi-partner project strengthening collaborative climate action in the Asia-Pacific
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Re-imagining Streets with Green Infrastructure
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Digital Estate for Zero-Carbon Building Portfolio
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Cities After Dark
Urban life doesn't stop when the sun goes down
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Cities and the UN
What place do cities have in the United Nations?
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City Networks
The networked frontier of city leadership
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City Resilience Strategies
City actions contributing to resilient urban futures
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Environment Politics Beyond Environment
How can environment politics go beyond the essentialist morality of ‘protecting nature’?
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Gig Cities
How are gig economy mobile apps changing our cities?
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Healthy City Leadership
Supporting the World Health Organization in driving healthy and sustainable urban governance
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Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality
Can we co-produce more equal cities?
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Innovation Infrastructure: Planning for Growth
The civilisation of human societies is underpinned by innovation
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Leading Cities
Is urban governance delivering on its promises?
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Promoting Urban Nature and Biodiversity Conservation
Cities play a critical role in combatting the dual biodiversity extinction and climate crises
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Science and the Future of Cities
A Nature Sustainability Expert Panel
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SDGs for Melbourne
Localising the SDGs: A Strategic Prioritisation Framework for City of Melbourne
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Student-City Policy Innovation
How can cities best work with young people to shape global energy transitions and climate action?
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Urban Migration
What powers do cities have to govern the inclusion of migrants and refugees?
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Urban Observatories
Leveraging urban data to shape cities
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Working Away
How working away is changing home
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Future of Orbost and District Project
Implementing the Latrobe Valley Authority’s (LVA) Smart Specialisation methodology for developing a roadmap for the future of the Orbost district
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Great Powers and Urbanisation Project
How is geopolitics being shaped in the ‘urban age’?
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SDGs Cities Challenge
A collaborative project contributing to the implementation of key urban Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets and indicators
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Comparative Imaginations
How do cities think of each other?
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From Garden City to Eco-Citadel: Global Greenbelts
History of municipal greenbelts in the UK, USA, and Australia
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Achieving Justice For Street Harassment
Developing victim-centred understandings of justice in response to street harassment
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Young Mayors
Backing young people who want to take an active role in their local community
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Linking UN-Habitat and Universities
Harnessing the potential of knowledge partnerships
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Tackling a global pandemic in Asian megacities
What policy lessons can be drawn from responses to global health shocks build inclusive and resilient cities?
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Project Night Justice
Building safer cities for women and gender diverse people
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Philanthropy and the City
What is the role of philanthropic institutions in the future of cities?
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Communities, kava, court orders: Ways of possessing the Pacific city
Possession is which fraction of customary law?
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Evidence to Action
A Framework for Evidence Building and Learning from Local to Global
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Actionable Research
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City of Melbourne Chair in Urban Resilience and Innovation
Fostering research and training in the field of city resilience and innovation.
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Digital Nomads
Exploring why people becoming Digital Nomads.
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Climate-Induced Displacement, Resettlement, Adaptation, and Resilience for Cities
A global initiative uniting scholars and practitioners to shape a research network on climate-induced displacement, resettlement, adaptation, and urban resilience.
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Disinformation in the City
What does rising disinformation mean for cities?
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Spatial Justice
Investigating legal, municipal and social responses to political protesters and to the visibly homeless in city streets