Our next New Horizons webinar provides the opportunity to hear from Dr Julian Bolleter, Co-Director at the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) at the UWA about the Australia's New Cities research project.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics projects that Australia's population could double by 2101. Moreover, the current pandemic will have a significant impact on how we plan cities and regions. With these transformative drivers in mind, New Cities research project displays findings from a national survey of planning experts and laypeople around Australia that examined future settlement patterns which could accommodate a doubling of the population.

In total, the team has received almost 300 responses from planners and over 1000 from community members. Collective judgement favours two possible settlement pattern scenarios – satellite cities orbiting the capital cities and mega-regions on both the east and west coasts strung along efficient regional rail. Conversely, proposals to compound population growth in Melbourne and Sydney were universally loathed. The research findings will set out the possible implications for current planning for population growth in Australia.

Julian said, "The project provides significant benefits to the community dialogue on issues of heritage, housing and environment."

Join our webinar as our presenter shares his insights and answers your questions during the Q&A session.