Research consortium members. Front row, from left: Dr Nisha Rakhesh (Western Sydney University), Professor Michelle Leishman, Professor Lesley Hughes and Leigh Staas (Macquarie University). Back row, from left: Professor Ian Anderson, David Thompson and Professor David Ellsworth (Western Sydney University).

Macquarie is taking part in a new $10 million-dollar research consortium that will help drive the movement to greener, more liveable cities.

Led by Professor Michelle Leishman, the consortium will see Macquarie collaborating with Western Sydney University, the New South Wales Government and Horticulture Innovation Australia. Both Dr Linda Beaumont and Dr Rachael Gallagher from Macquarie have also assisted with this proposal.

As a plant ecologist, Professor Leishman works with colleagues and industry to raise awareness of the fundamental importance of plants, the benefits they provide and to help drive the movement to sustainable green cities.

“There is increasing evidence that green space is not only important for people’s well-being, but it is important for reducing the effects of air pollution and extreme heat effects, as well as having significant biodiversity values,” Professor Leishman says.

“If we can find ways to enable more green space in our cities, then it is a win for people.”

Developed through Horticulture Innovation Australia’s Green Cities fund, the extensive research project is expected to be completed in 2021. It will deliver a host of outputs including new research on plant water efficiency and heat stress, case-study demonstration sites and a website which makes it easier to select plant species across the country based on future climate predictions.

Professor Leishman says urban researchers and plant ecologists have a key role to play in better understanding which, where and how urban plants can best provide health, wellbeing and liveability outcomes both now and in the future.

“Increasing urban greenspace is not just a matter of more trees and more plants, we must be strategic in what we plant, and where we plant,” she says.

“This research will ensure that urban plantings take into account the aesthetic value of different plants, their performance in urban environments, their suitability for different types of environment in cities, and their capacity to cope with climatic changes in the future.”

Professor Leishman says it is important to spread the word that there are alternatives to concrete jungles, that we can create green liveable cities that improve people’s lives, and that green liveable cities can be the default rather than the exception.