Agencies that help people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness are struggling to house them because of the shortfall of social housing and intense competition for affordable rentals.
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Articles on Better Cities
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Installing chargers in existing apartment blocks can be complicated. So how can these challenges be overcome?
The 2014 Lacrosse fire was costly, but no lives were lost, unlike the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire that claimed 72 lives. Years later, more work is needed in four key areas to ensure buildings are safe.
Have you heard of the 3+30+300 rule for urban forestry? See how Melbourne and Sydney compare to New York, Denver, Seattle, Buenos Aires, Amsterdam and Singapore on trees, canopy and park proximity.
Your EV battery is much larger than a home battery. But until now, Australian drivers haven’t been able to run their homes off their cars – or sell power back to the grid. That’s about to change.
Months of hot and dry weather, with only 23mm of rain recorded over seven months, drove some species to seek food and water in the city.
The rapid growth of our capital cities is creating all sorts of problems. Dispersing growth across regional city networks could ease these growth pains and make our cities more sustainable.
Many Australians are involved in Buy Nothing groups that allow locals to ask for and give away unwanted stuff for free. They bring circular economy principles to life, but depend heavily on women.
Getting off gas at home is healthier, cheaper and better for the planet. Now the Electrify 2515 community pilot project promises to demonstrate household electrification at scale.
Simplistic comparisons are misleading. Calculations based on the mix of electric and fossil-fuelled cars actually on our roads show any difference in mass is too small to be significant.
Low-income households are attracted to more affordable housing in areas at higher risk of floods and other extreme events. But many then find they cannot afford soaring insurance premiums.
Successful programs overseas have been highly targeted, financially innovative and used planning systems and public land to provide essential workers with housing they can afford.
Reduced government incentives, the spreading of myths and concerns about used car values and fires have stalled what had been an increasingly rapid uptake of electric vehicles.
Rebates may well increase ownership but won’t overcome the main obstacles to riding e-bikes and e-scooters, which are lack of infrastructure and concerns about safety.
As well as the added costs of upgrades and options that the marketing glosses over, people need to consider five other sources of cost blow-outs when building a home.
A project in Melbourne’s Royal Park has proved city parks and streets can be used as sites for nature repair that help endangered ecosystems and species to survive.
We’re still waiting for Australian cities to ensure public venues are fully accessible – and when that happens it won’t just be people with disabilities who’ll be better off.
Urban mining recovers valuable resources from the vast amounts of waste cities produce.
The rapid shift in our electricity system calls for a huge increase in the workforce needed to construct, operate and maintain it. Urgent action on building up this workforce is needed.
Whether it’s electric two-wheelers or trucks, buses or bicycles, electric vehicles in India are hard to miss.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University
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Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research & Innovation, College of Design & Social Context, RMIT University
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Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
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Professor of Future Urban Mobility, Swinburne University of Technology
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Adjunct Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Housing Research, University of Adelaide
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Research Associate, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology
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Honorary Professor of Planning, The University of Queensland
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Alan Morris is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professor, Institute for Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology Sydney
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Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University
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Professor of Housing & Social Policy, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology
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Professor of Planning and Director of Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University
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Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
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Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University
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Adjunct Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia
