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Professor Peter Newton holds a research appointment in the Institute
for Social Research at Swinburne
University of Technology. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books on cities, planning and sustainability. Prior to joining Swinburne in December
2006, Peter held the position of Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO,
where he led the Urban Systems Program; and since 2001 had been Program
Director, Sustainability, in the CRC for Construction Innovation. He is a member of the Sustainable Urban Development Program in the CRC for Spatial Information scheduled for commencement in January 2010.
Research Interests
- Sustainable built environment
- Urban futures
- Technological change and urban systems
- Urban transition (energy, greyfields, housing)
- Determinants of urban consumption
- Spatial reporting, sustainability reporting
Current Research Activities
- The sustainability of cities (Peter was the author of the
2001 and 2006 Australian
State of Environment: Human Settlements Reports for the
federal government. He has recently completed a book, Transitions: Pathways to More Sustainable Development in Australia, published in 2008 by CSIRO Publishing and Springer Publishers (Dordrecht).
- The determinants of resource consumption and the ability
of behaviour change, technology and urban design to reverse an alarming
trend of unsustainable consumption (project leader of a $220,000 ARC Discovery grant commenced in 2008).
- Urban greyfields redevelopment– a fundamental
sustainability challenge for cities involving Swinburne, the Department of
Planning and Community Development and several municipalities in eastern
Melbourne (article here)
- Sustainable built environment – Technology, Design and Process Innovation in the Built Environment, presents key outcomes from 6 years of
CRC research, published by Taylor & Francis in 2009.
- Strategic urban planning and development processes. Peter
was commissioned by DSE in December 2006 to audit the Melbourne 2030
strategy; he also has articles appearing in the 2007 edition of the
journal Environment and Planning (article here) and The
Environmental Design Guide (article here).
- A range of invited positions on national and state committees
(e.g. Banksia Foundation; Federal Action Agenda for
the Built Environment Design Professions; International Council for Building
and Innovation Research; Chair of the Scientific Committee for the 2008
International Conference for Sustainable Building - SB08 Site).
- Hybrid buildings – a joint project with the Australian and Victorian
state governments and ARUP on the cost efficiencies of this new class of residential
building/precinct (energy efficient shell and appliances plus distributed generation) (report here)
Publications and Other Research Outputs
 Go to Swinburne Research Bank
Video Presentations
Postgraduate Supervision
Current Students
Claire Merlo (Finding ways to develop cost effective sustainable housing in Australia)
Mark Singer (Climate change impacts and adaptive strategies for social housing communities)
Christina Ting (Towards sustainable living in Australia’s multicultural society: An exploration of cultural and linguistic differences)
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