Geography at Sydney is a wide-ranging discipline that engages with diverse knowledges about natural and social worlds through the perspective of space, place and the environment.
We work with communities, governments and other organisations at various scales to produce new knowledge that fosters a more socially and environmentally just world. In our research practice, we respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other Indigenous peoples as the first geographers.
Our research engages across diverse subdisciplines of human geography and physical geography. We engage with multiple sites and networks to conduct research locally and internationally, with a particular contribution to examining urban infrastructures, energy transitions, climate change and rural development, including throughout Asia and the Pacific. In our research, we co-produce knowledge and practice that informs decision-making and action, foregrounding democratic engagement and socio-spatial justice.
An economic geography perspective on climate transitions analyses the social and spatial relations, political opportunities, state, market and financial tools, and material needs for responding to cascading climate threats. Our research ranges from analyses of democracy in sustainable climate transitions, the politics of climate finance, and critical minerals exploration, mining and use.
Professor Neil Coe and Dr Lian Sinclair
Addressing the ongoing climate crisis requires decarbonisation of the global economy, which in turn relies on critical minerals. Critical minerals have both physical properties necessary for batteries, wind turbines, and other technologies, as well as geopolitical, environmental, regional and economic implications. Economic geography research into the construction and production of critical minerals is an important contribution to sustainable energy transitions in the context of the ongoing climate crisis.
Dr Sophie Webber and others
The economy is an increasingly significant terrain of climate politics. As climate change reshapes industries, economies, and policy landscapes, traditional climate agendas relying on private capital and market mechanisms are proving insufficient to drive a just transition. The climate debate is now focused on how climate change is, or should be, reshaping markets, industries and statecraft – and requires new methods and modes of analysis for understanding its outcomes and implications.
Associate Professor Amanda Tattersall and partners
The Real Deal project works with affected communities so they can negotiate community benefits from the opportunity of energy and economic transformation. Working in deep partnership with broad coalitions of affected community leaders and organisations in Gladstone, Geelong, Northern Rivers, the Hunter and Western Sydney, this project reframes how we think about “climate” to connect it with issues of daily life – such as housing, cost of living, and care. This reframing of climate in regions is explored in a series of community reports, that are available on the Real Deal website.
Rural production systems, agricultural transitions and regional development processes reshape the social and environmental relations of land and livelihoods. Our research examines these transformations in a variety of landscapes. It includes efforts within Australia and internationally to work with communities to promote self-determination and food security as part of efforts to decolonise agricultural systems.
Dr Rebecca Cross and others
Co-designing and disseminating knowledge with Gomeroi researchers in northern NSW, the project will develop recommendations for native grain production based through the study of four native grasses. It will enhance Indigenous partnership on Gomeroi Country and promote best-practice management of native grasslands and support the development of an Indigenous-led native grains industry.
Associate Professor Jeffrey Neilson and others
In 2023, the European Union issued a new anti-deforestation regulation (EUDR) to restrict imports of commodities associated with deforestation and forest degradation. This research is examining the impacts of EUDR on coffee value chains, smallholder livelihoods and environmental governance in Vietnam
The infrastructures of urban environments have long shaped the patterns and possibilities of urban development – from transport to telecommunications infrastructure. Our research in this area examines these infrastructural networks, as well as the organisational forms which facilitate socially just cities, bottom-up governance models, and sustainability transitions.
Professor Kurt Iveson and others
This project aims to critically examine the ways that land, labour, materials, finance and territorial authority are assembled and contested in the process of wiring and rewiring Australian cities for telecommunications connectivity. The project will generate new knowledge on how the wiring of Australian cities is achieved, the geographical and social impacts of the wiring process and insights into the making and materiality of infrastructure space. This will enable new approaches to identify and address on-going challenges of making space for telecommunications in crowded urban environments.
Professor Phil McManus and others
This project aims to uncover the extent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment on the rails across Australia, their experiences in and contributions to unions in the railways and to engage in truth telling regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander labour relating to the railway industry.
The linked climate and biodiversity crises require action. Our research aims to understand changing environments over short- and long-term time, and how we manage them through conservation/protection regimes. Spanning physical and human geography, our interests range from analysing long-term environmental change to expose ecological baselines, examining the role of environmental protection and conservation practices, and understanding how regulation might accommodate nature-based solutions and multi-species justice concerns in the context of systemic global change.
Associate Professor Jo Gillespie, Professor Dan Penny, Dr Rebecca Hamilton and others
A range of projects from our researchers are developing novel methodologies for improving biodiversity futures. Our interdisciplinary approach employs creating empirically rigorous historical baselines to inform future models for inclusive stakeholder engagement. Our work provides evidence-based, inclusive pathways toward achieving mandated biodiversity conservation targets, and supports potential policy changes for management authorities. These projects contribute to improved biodiversity outcomes and supports the social, environmental, and economic benefits of, for example, urban green and blue spaces. One example project is focused on the Botany Wetlands of inner urban eastern Sydney, Australia.
Dr Rebecca Hamilton, Professor Dan Penny and others
Our researchers use long-term environmental evidence preserved in lakes and wetlands, like fossil pollen, charcoal and sediments, to trace interactions between people, climate, fire and tropical ecosystems through time. We merge these data with archaeological data and oral and written histories to understand how people have shaped and are shaped by tropical environments through time. We work on a range of projects in this field, from understanding how Indigenous food production shapes biodiversity hotspots, to reconstructing the timing and drivers of urban ‘collapse’ in early-modern tropical cities, to tracing the impacts of European colonisation on people and ecologies.
Marine environments are essential for global biodiversity and climate regulation and provide food and other resources for billions of people worldwide. Using qualitative, quantitative, spatial modelling and remote sensing methods, our interdisciplinary research on blue geographies includes work on ocean sustainability and resilience, livelihoods related to marine and coastal environments, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and marine environmental management, mainly in Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific regions.
Associate Professor Eleanor Bruce, Dr Kevin Davies, Professor Elaine Baker, Dr Billy Haworth
The effectiveness of Marine protected areas (MPAs) in achieving biodiversity goals under Australia’s 30 x 30 commitment is preconditioned on the regulatory arrangements spatially assigned to different zone types. Currently Australia’s MPA database is not underpinned by the key regulatory information needed to accurately assess the level of protection provided by MPAs and support conservation planning. This project uses geospatial methodologies for mapping regulatory requirements within MPAs to critically evaluate Australia’s progress towards ocean conservation targets.
Professor Joshua Cinner, Dr Bess Ruff, Dr Bing Lin, Matt Clark, and others
Combining qualitative and quantitative research methods and theories from across the social sciences and ecology, this research program aims to understand the social and ecological systems which sustain resilient reefs. With a focus on ocean sustainability and resilience, this project seeks to learn from coral reef outliers that are doing well – ecologically and socially – despite difficult conditions, including over-fishing and climate changing oceans. The project will uncover local actions and governance systems with promise for conservation.
Dr Billy Haworth, Professor Elaine Baker, Associate Professor Eleanor Bruce, Professor Ana Vila Concejo and others
Marine environments in the South China Sea are important global biodiversity hotspots and essential for local coastal livelihoods. Yet, they are threatened by climate change, unsustainable fishing, pollution, tourism and regional territorial and resource disputes, among other pressures. Working with Australian and regional government partners, this project aims to investigate and support implementation of initiatives to better understand, monitor, make visible and sustainably manage marine resources and environments.
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