Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures Program

Building on RMIT University’s research strengths in urban research, the new Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures (SURF) program is dedicated to tackling the many challenges facing cities in an era of climate change.

As Jeb Brugman puts it in his recent book ‘Welcome to the Urban Revolution’: “Success in a world being organised into an urban system requires the ability to design, govern, and manage cities toward strategic ends”. RMIT urban researchers recognise that this ability will be founded upon policies and practices suited to a sustainable future, based on evidence from cutting edge research projects.

Research focus

The growing environmental footprints of cities are intensifying the consumption of natural resources, implying the need for significant reconfiguration of the social and technical dimensions of the urban realm.

Additionally, there is growing socio-spatial inequality and problems of social exclusion, increasing the likelihood of urban social conflict. In addressing these challenges the program is organised around six overlapping themes.

Cities in transition

Responding to the challenges of climate change will require major transformations in the way city regions are planned, built, governed and managed. Focusing on ‘hot spots’ such as housing, mobility and infrastructure systems, this theme identifies the forms of economic, governance and market structures required for equitable, low-carbon transitions.

Social change

Adapting to the challenges of climate change will involve significant changes in the way we live, work and interact with city regions. This theme explores opportunities to facilitate social change that move beyond the current focus on individual resource consumption and behaviour to consider why and how people consume within a broader socio-technical context.

Learning cities

The notion of a ‘learning city’ proposes that individuals are able to engage in new ways of thinking together to address problems such as climate change. Building on the existing knowledge and capacity of the city, this theme explores opportunities for developing education and training programs and partnerships in innovation systems and sustainability.

Urban metabolism

Understanding urban metabolism and ‘closed loop’ city region systems enables holistic methods of measuring, assessing and modelling the environmental performance of cities. Drawing on tools such as life cycle assessment and eco-footprinting, this research theme views the city as a dynamic system, where the environmental impacts of products and services are assessed from raw materials extraction and processing through to end-of-life.

Sustainable business practices

Commerce is presented with a unique set of challenges in responding to the effects of climate change and developing more sustainable business practices. This theme addresses issues of sustainable logistics, procurement and supply chain management, sustainability indicators and reporting, ethical governance and finance, corporate social responsibility, and carbon accounting and management.

Urban built environments

With growing demand for affordable and sustainable housing and infrastructure, the built environment is both obdurate yet also in a state of rapid change. Avenues for research include methods of sustainable construction management and procurement, retrofitting for climate change, and life cycle assessment modelling and tools that measure the environmental performance of buildings.

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