One of the most environmentally destructive impacts that people have is also one of the greatest triumphs of modern civilization—the city. Richard Fuller was recently awarded an ARC Future Fellowship to conduct a global comparative analysis of the ecological impact of cities and examine how they can be designed to lessen their environmental impact. Commencing in December 2012, the award, totalling $670,000, will run for four years and further intensify the research focus of the lab. Understanding the ecological impacts of urbanisation is an increasingly urgent problem.

This project will study more than 1000 cities across the world to discover how we should build our cities into the future to achieve economic and social growth in a way that causes minimal environmental harm.