Mr Guy Barnett: urban ecology for city planning and design

Mr Guy Barnett's research is helping urban planning and design professionals integrate ecological knowledge into everyday practice.

• 8 September 2009 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Mr Guy Barnett is a Research Scientist at CSIRO working on integrating ecological knowledge with planning and design for urban sustainability.

Less than five kilometres from the centre of Australia's capital city, Canberra, is a 'brown field' site, East Lake, that has been identified as a future home for 9000 people.

CSIRO researchers, led by Mr Barnett, are working with the Australian Capital Territory Government to plan for the site's sustainable urban renewal.

Mr Barnett is also investigating the influence of urban neighbourhood dynamics on human health, by linking the fields of landscape ecology with spatial epidemiology.

Background

Mr Barnett joined CSIRO in 1995, after graduating with First Class Honours from the Australian National University for research on the role of farm forestry for ameliorating dryland salinity in the Lachlan Catchment of Central New South Wales.

Since joining CSIRO, Mr Barnett has worked on wildlife surveys, predictive vegetation modelling, and on indicators of mine site rehabilitation success.

Since 2003, he has worked on ecological approaches to urban sustainability.

Academic qualifications

Mr Barnett has been awarded a Bachelor of Science (Resource and Environmental Management) with First Class Honours from the Australian National University, Canberra in 1994.

Achievements

Mr Barnett's has produced more than 40 scientific papers, book chapters, technical reports and conference presentations.

His research awards and achievements include:

• Visiting scientist, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm, Sweden, 2007
• Visiting scientist, Beijer Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, 2003
• Keynote speaker at 'Regional Futures' workshop, Wisconsin, USA, 2002  
• International Working Group, NCEAS, Santa Barbara, USA, 2000
• Recipient of CSE Chief's Award for Outstanding Research Contribution, 1997
• First Class Honours, Australian National University, 1994.

Mr Barnett's other areas of involvement include:

• Member of the Resilience Alliance, a multidisciplinary international research consortium that aims to provide novel solutions to managing resilience and coping with change in complex social-ecological systems, 2000 to present
• Manuscript reviewer for international journal Landscape and Urban Planning, 1997 to present.

Find out more about the East Lake sustainable urban renewal project.