Urban trees and green space provide valuable ecosystem services to urban communities. Improving the urban forest is central to many strategies that seek to mitigate urban heat, reduce air and water pollution and provide human-nature connections.
We seek to co-design our research with local government, industry, and the community so that our research impacts are locally and globally relevant. The measurement and modelling of ecosystem processes in the urban landscape is central to our research method. Driving change in the design and management of urban forests and green space for climate change adaptation and community resilience is our aim.
Contact
For enquiries, please email Stephen Livesley - sjlive@unimelb.edu.au
Academics and researchers in the UrbanFORCCE research group.
Academic staff
Graduate researchers
Theresa Lam
Simon Mkasimongwa
Patricia Torquato
Rebecca Du
Current Projects
Past projects
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This project explored the relationships between urban trees, the people that live near them and the wildlife that use them for habitat and resources. It was a close collaboration with the City of Melbourne, City of Merri-bek and Ballarat City Council and led to new insights into how local community view and value their urban forest.
We took a mixed-methods approach combining social research and ecological research methods at the same sites, at the same time. A true socio-ecological research framework. We measured what people think, and what wildlife does, before and after trees are removed from an urban landscape (park or street)
There were hundreds of intercept surveys or people in the parks and streets of interest, thousands of online panel surveys of residents throughout Greater Melbourne and regional centres (Ballarat, Geelong, Bendigo).
We combined these with ecological surveys of birds, possums, bats and ‘plasticine caterpillars’ 😉 to understand how their behaviour and numbers changed with tree removal from a site.
This is one of the most successful ARC Linkage projects I have been involved with and the vast number of outputs associated are testament to that – as is the way this has help our local government partners better manage community expectation and satisfaction with trees in their neighbourhoods.
Jess Baumann (RA) up a ladder in University Square tending to her plasticine caterpillars
Researchers: Livesely SJ, Ordonez CB, Kendal D, Threlfall C, Fuller R, Hochulli D, Van der Ree R, Davern M, Baumann J and Sonkilla C.
Research institutions: University of Melbourne, University of Tasmania, University of Queensland and the University of Sydney.
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Aquarevo is a residential development in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne as a partnership between Villawood and South East Water. There are more than 450 homes that that all embrace cutting-edge, water-sensitive and energy-efficient principles. The main demonstration home is the Aquarevo home, an 8-start energy efficient property. South-east water enlisted Stephen Livesley, Kerry Nice and Paul Cheung to develop smart irrigation technology based upon climate and soil sensor technology. In addition, we were tasked with installing and quantifying the cooling benefits of misting a small courtyard.
This project not only involved community engagement within the Aquarevo estate, but also the local Lyndhurst Primary School where Paul installed a second (control) climate station to monitor non-smart irrigation of green space.
The learnings from this project and the larger PhD project of Paul Cheung have led to a water sensitive residential landscape guideline developed by the CRC Water Sensitive CIties and Southeast Water.
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This project seeks to understand the cooling effects of an irrigated green roof and solar reflection or shading from surround skyrise buildings. It was started by a City of Melbourne Demonstration green roof project that again had to pivot in response to COVID 19 access issues. In January 2022 we set up an intensive one-month measurement campaign – in the height of summer. Sky Park is near Southern Cross Station in the Melbourne Quarter, Docklands. Sky Park is an elevated green roof above Collins Street covering nearly 2,250 m2 and set to increase in size as development continues.
The solar reflection that Sky Park receives at certain times of day in summer may lead to human thermal discomfort, but the construction of a new high-rise tower may offset this with greater shading. This will be studies through a repeat measurement campaign in January 2024.
Researchers: Andrea Pianella, Stephen J. Livesley, Christopher A. Jensen, Paul Cheung
Find a supervisor
The following staff are available to supervise honours and masters research in the Urban Forests for Resilient Communities, Climate and Environment (UrbanFORCE) research group.
Professor Stephen Livesley
My research focuses on quantifying the many benefits of urban forests, from climate, runoff, biodiversity habitat and pollution reduction.
Project topics:
- I research the impact of trees, green space and water on the urban energy balance and microclimate cooling.
- I study new ways to integrate water-sensitive urban design with urban trees for canopy cover, runoff reduction and pollution benefits.
- I incorporate urban soil science into many of my projects as the soils and substrates in our cities are central to many ecosystem functions.
Dr Paul Cheung
Paul Cheung is a Research Fellow in Urban Microclimates. His research focuses on optimising the cooling benefits of blue-green infrastructure in public and private urban spaces through design and management interventions to improve human thermal comfort and the climate resilience of cities.
Project topics:
- Measuring and modelling the cooling benefits of irrigating urban green spaces, and understanding the cooling mechanisms of irrigation.
- Understanding the spatial extent and magnitude of park cool island effect.
- Quantifying the cooling and stormwater benefits of blue-green infrastructure in private residential spaces.