Dear Colleagues

My last message was written as we were getting used to the impacts of the pandemic on our day to day lives at home and work.  And for many of us, our home and work lives now occur in the same place.  Some are thriving under these new arrangements; some are struggling and some of us enjoy it on some days but not on others.  In Queensland we have not experienced the severe lockdown impacts of our colleagues in Melbourne, but there is of course intense political debate about how best to respond in ways that balance the requirement to protect public health with the needs of business and employees.  Unfortunately, it looks as though the bipartisanship of the early stages and the commitment to basing policy decisions on the best available scientific evidence are beginning to fragment.  But those of us in the business of scientific research must continue to seek the truth in our research and then speak truth to power.

Australian universities have been badly hit by the current crisis and some of our underlying structural vulnerabilities exposed.  While Griffith University, like others, is carefully reviewing what we do and how we do it, we retain our commitment to supporting high quality research with social impact and the CRI will continue to support a wide range of research on cities, urban processes and the built environment.  As you will see elsewhere in this newsletter, we have been developing successful research grant applications and promoting our work successfully to a wide audience.  Our members continue to be recognised for their achievements and we are working increasingly in highly productive partnerships with others, both in Australia and internationally.  It’s especially pleasing also to see our PhD candidates completing their work with many moving on to become successful early career researchers and academics, at Griffith and elsewhere.

Finally, let me wish you all well in these difficult and turbulent times.  We are constantly looking to develop new projects that help us better understand some of this turbulence and its consequences and if you would think we might work together in this, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me or with any of our members, including Rosanna Jeffery, our Business Development Manager.

Best wishes and stay safe

Paul Burton
Director, Cities Research Institute

Johanna commented “Tonight was very special: my first work outing to Brisbane since covid-19 to receive one of the Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Awards. These awards are given to emerging science leaders who also excel in science communication. I was particularly proud that climate adaptation was recognised on par with cancer and immunology research as a serious topic of scientific importance.”

Johanna is also an ARC Decra Fellow 2019-2021, see more on her work here.

Professor Charles Sampford, (AEL), A/Prof Sacha Reid (Business, CRI), Prof Rodney Stewart, A/Prof Cheryl Desha, Prof Paul Burton (Sciences, CRI), Prof Keith Hampson, Prof John Phillimore (Curtin University), A/Prof Hazel Easthope, Prof Michael Ostwald (UNSW), Prof Kerry London (Western Sydney University), Ms Roxane Shaw (Professional Standards Council), Mr Nabil Yazdani (Department Of Mines, Industry Regulation And Safety), Mr Andrew Lumsden (Corrs Chambers Westgarth) awarded $540,750 for the project Constructing Building Integrity: Raising standards through professionalism (Partner Organisations – Professional Standards Council, Department Of Mines, Industry Regulation And Safety, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Department Of Housing & Public Works).

The Covid-19 pandemic has interrupted many of our projects. But perhaps none of our researchers has been as affected as much as Yiping Yan, a PhD student in our transport research team. In January, Yiping went home to visit her family in Hubei Province, China. That province went into the strictest lockdown and she was unable to go anywhere. Then the Australian borders closed.

Thankfully, our great friend Professor Pan Haixiao of Tongi University offered Yiping a Visiting Research Fellowship position at his lab in Shanghai, until the border is open again. Yiping travelled there, underwent another two weeks in quarantine, and is now flourishing. Tongji are ranked fifth in the world for research in transportation science and technology, so it's a fantastic place to be. The Institute is extremely thankful to Prof Pan and his team for their wonderful generosity and support to our student.

CRI PhD candidate Yiping Yan with Prof Pan Haixiao at Tongji University in Shanghai

Transport team collaborations with Tongji University

The Cities Research Institute hosted Tongji University PhD student Xiaorong Lin in our Nathan campus offices for most of 2019. We are pleased to report that Xiaorong was awarded her Doctorate in late June 2020 for her research of property value uplift around metro stations in Shanghai. Congratulations Xiaorong!

This photo shows Prof Pan Haixiao and Xiaorong celebrating her PhD graduation at the entrance to Tongji's prestigious Siping Road campus in Shanghai.

Final industry and research reports, along with two short videos are now available at the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (SBEnrc) project website.

SBEnrc Website

Short Video

Full Video

In this project, the need for a long-term, bi-partisan strategic approach was identified by government, industry and research partners. Research outcomes aim to help integrate activity across the public, private, and not-for-profit (NFP) sectors, to assist those delivering social and affordable housing sector assets and services to ‘get ahead of the game’ and to keep up with the changing needs for housing.

The network maps help position housing as an integral part of extended social, environmental and technology-based system in order to foster community understanding of the need for, and benefits of, a strong and effective housing system. Maps which have been developed for Queensland and Western Australia, and associated findings and recommendations can be used to inform housing policy making and delivery across Australia.

Core partners in this industry-driven research were the Western Australian Department of Communities, Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works, BGC Australia and Curtin and Griffith Universities.

For further details, please email Dr Judy Kraatz

Supply chains interrupted and panic buying during Covid-19

Paul Burton spoke with Jonathan Green from ABC Radio National's Blueprint for Living, about global supply chain, panic buying and food security during covid-19. Listen here 

Developing a Preliminary Causal Loop Diagram for Understanding the Wicked Complexity of the COVID-19 PandemicOz Sahin ^1,2,3,*,Hengky Salim ^1,2,Emiliya Suprun ^1,2,Russell Richards ^2,4,Stefen MacAskill ^1,2,Simone Heilgeist ^1,2,Shannon Rutherford ⁵,Rodney A. Stewart ^1,2 Cara D. Beal ^1,2,5 (Altmetric has tracked 15,711,095 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.)

Boulton, C., A. Dedekorkut-Howes, M. Holden, J. Byrne. 2020. Under pressure: Factors shaping urban greenspace provision in a mid-sized city. Cities. 106. DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2020.102816

​Dedekorkut-Howes, A., D. Ay, and B. Demires-Ozkul. 2020. Two decades of planning for earthquake resilience in Istanbul, in The Routledge Handbook of Planning Megacities in the Global South. Deden Rukmana (ed.). Routledge. pp. 215-230

A live-streamed seminar co-hosted by CRI and the Urban and Environmental Planning group was presented by ARC Decra Fellow Dr Lisa Stafford.

Summary

How well do we really consider human diversity in planning cities and regions? As planners we speak about making just places, yet exclusion persists. This seminar will draw on Lisa’s research and lived, practice-based experiences to illustrate essential ways to disrupt ableism and help create sustainable inclusive communities for all.

The seminar seeks to open conversation and ideas exchange, as now more than ever is a critical opportunity for planners to come together to address and advocate for sustainable inclusive communities for all.

We had great attendance for our first virtual CRI Seminar Series and thank Lisa for her very insightful presentation and discussion. A video recording will be posted to the CRI News page very soon.

Critical Infrastructure Summit 2020

This year's summit takes place online with an event  scheduled for 2pm every Wednesday in September. All sessions are free and include: 

- Critical infrastructure state of play 
- Construct 2020
- Asset management for critical infrastructure
- Disaster management
- The future of infrastructure

More information and register here.

CRI recently held its first online event. This was the fourth online Griffith Sciences IMPACT event and was a great success with total attendees at 271 - our largest engagement so far!

Paul Burton moderated the discussion with panel members Madison Ruyrgrok from Place Design Group, Matthew Schneider, Gold Coast URBIS and Ben Howes from Cospaces.

Dr Rukuh Setiadi completed his PhD under the supervision of Paul Burton in 2015. Collaborations continue with Rukuh who is now working as a Senior lecturer at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning Diponegoro University. Rukuh visited CRI last year from which a co-authored paper has just been published with Paul Burton, Joerg Baumeister and Johanna Nalau titled Extending Urban Development on Water: Jakarta Case Study 

Further collaborative research opportunities are being explored.

What does it mean to be culturally capable when working with First Australians?


On July 30 2020, the CSIRO launched 'OUR KNOWLEDGE OUR WAY in caring for Country: Indigenous-led approaches to strengthening and sharing our knowledge for land and sea management'. As researchers, there are many mutually beneficial outcomes from enhancing opportunities for Indigenous peoples to apply their knowledge in research projects with respect to managing and caring for and Country. Griffith University Graduate Attribute #5 mandates that when working with First Australians, all staff (academic and general) and students (enrolled and graduates) must be able to demonstrate:

• an understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories, cultures and identities
• an understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples achievements and visions
• an ability to work skillfully and purposefully with First Australians and communities in professional contexts

The document shares "Best Practice Guidelines from Australian experiences" and is a useful resource to support individual, institutional and community-wide enhancement in the practice of Indigenous Cultural Capability. Read document here 

(CSIRO 2020, Department of Health, 2015, GU RAP, Australian Institute of School Leadership, Universities Australia, Indigenous Education and UA Cultural competencies 2011). 

Greg Kitson
PhD candidate - Indigenous Community Planning
CRI / School of Environment and Science

Mohammad Alipour, one of our PhD candidates in the school of Engineering and Built environment (supervised by Prof. Stewart)  is conducting a survey for his research on the adoption of battery and solar PV for South East Queensland homeowners. Mohammad is calling out for participants to take part in the survey. Please feel free to share to colleagues.

Survey description:

Griffith University in partnership with the University of Queensland is running an online survey about the adoption of battery energy storage system and solar power or photovoltaic (PV) system. This survey attempts to understand the decision of homeowners who reside in the South East Queensland area. The survey takes 6-8 minutes only, and if you are interested in renewable energy technologies, household behaviour, and energy autonomy, you may find the topic interesting.

The survey is anonymous and confidential. This research has received Griffith University Human Research Ethics Committee approval (GU Ref. No: GU ref no: 2020/418).

The survey can be accessed here

CRI 3MT Heats

Gaelle Faivre also took out first place in the CRI heats for this year's 3 Minute Thesis competition which is a virtual one, requiring students to present via a Youtube video. 

Gaelle presented on Understanding coastal processes in coral reef lagoon systems to improve risk assessment methods with current and future climate.

Benny Rousso's presentation was on Optimization of cyanobacteria bloom management through the use of optical sensors.

Yiping Yan who is currently based in China, presented on The hidden traffic impacts of private schooling. Yiping will take part in another 3MT later in the year therefore no link to her presentation.

Great work by all presenters!

About to submit his thesis for examination, Mark Bailey has co-authored an article with Dr Natalie Osborne that sheds light on the emotional negative impacts rural communities endure when mining operations occur close to town; included is a methodological contribution that scopes sensitive qualitative research design that is important when investigating communities already under duress. 

Extractive resources and emotional geographies: the battle for treasured places in the Gloucester Valley. 

The following links present the papers that Emad has published from his PhD project so far.

Carbon sequestration potential for mitigating the carbon footprint of green stormwater infrastructure 

Towards the inclusion of greenhouse gas fluxes in the carbon footprint of vegetated WSUD 

Carbon stocks and sequestration of stormwater bioretention/biofiltration basins 

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