Urban Sustainability

CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems (CSE) conducts research and development across a range of landscapes, targeting social, economic and environmental sustainability.

The Water for a Healthy Country Flagship is a national research program addressing one of Australia’s most pressing natural resource issues – sustainable management of our water resources.

Tropical research in Queensland received a boost today with a ceremony to mark the start of construction of the A$32 million Australian Tropical Science and Innovation Precinct (ATSIP) at James Cook University in Townsville.

Climate adapted buildings and sustainable cities are the focus of CSIRO research to be presented at the World Sustainable Building Conference (SB08) in Melbourne next week.

Building sustainably for a changing climate is the objective at this year's World Sustainable Building Conference, Melbourne, September 21-25, 2008.

This project is identifying the biophysical, economic and social opportunities for remote communities relating to land management for greenhouse gas abatement, with a focus on fire management in tropical savannas.

CSIRO is improving the sustainability of Australia’s regions and communities.

Urban water research aims to use recycling and reclamation technologies to turn stormwater, wastewater and contaminated water into usable resources.

Australian Research Centre for Water in Society (ARCWIS) was established to assist Australian organisations and communities to make quality decisions in water and related issues. CSIRO is recognised for its expertise in the conduct and application of innovative social research for water resource management and other related issues of importance to society.

The decisions our developers and planners make today will have profound impacts on the places where we live and work in the future. In this podcast, CSIRO researcher Michael Ambrose talks about the potential the new website yourdevelopment.org has to assist in the building of a greener Australia. (3:12)

The Federal Government’s support for Australian-built hybrid cars, coupled with ever increasing fuel prices, are forcing Australians to think again about the way they move from A to B. In this podcast, David Lamb from CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship canvasses our options. (6.40)

The Gungahlin Homestead in the Australian Capital Territory, is an historic site in the north of Canberra that now serves as head office for CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.

Mr Michael Ambrose leads Your Development, a project which aims to develop sustainability guidelines for urban developers, utility providers and government departments for the delivery of sustainable suburbs.

This report details the Sustainable Communities Initiative’s activities and achievements from 2006 to 2008, provides valuable insights on cross-sector partnering in practice, and reflects on issues emerging from the SCI experience. (63 pages)

This report documents the performance and progress of the Sustainable Communities Initiative over its first year of operation - August 2006 to July 2007. (23 pages)