Sareh Moosavi

University of Melbourne | MSD

Dryland rivers (wadis in Arabic) are characterised by high levels of flow unpredictability due to their severe dry-wet hydrological regimes. In the Arabian Peninsula, recent attention has focused on revitalising the socio-ecological values of wadis by rejuvenating them as linear public parks. In this paper, we review the key hydro-ecological charac...

The role of Design Experimentation has been increasingly recognized in dealing with uncertainties inherent in Nature-based Solutions and designing performative systems.The term Design Experimentation has been widely used in Design Research scholarship. However, there is no agreed common definition and criteria to clarify what it entails in terms of...

Cities are complex sociotechnical systems, of which buildings and infrastructure assets (built stocks) constitute a critical part. As the main global users of primary energy and emitters of associated greenhouse gases, there is a need for the introduction of measures capable of enhancing the environmental performance of built stocks in cities and m...

Cities (built environments) produce a significant proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions, making a significant contribution to climate change. They are home to the majority of the world’s population and economic activity yet face increasing risks from climate change impacts. Thus, it is critical that those involved in producing and managing...

Cities must transform in order to address the challenge of climate change and to achieve societal ambitions such as the sustainable development goals. However, a key impediment to achieving transformation is underdeveloped understandings of how key actors and sectors within the built environment work together to achieve goals. This paper addresses...

Urbanisation continuously imposes pressure on coastal brownfield sites. At the same time, climate change and associated consequences on coastal environments make these sites less secure for human habitation. Converging stresses make the renewal process of these sites challenging, to the extent that they are often perceived as wicked problems. Sever...

Sustainability literacy should be embedded in built environment higher education. We explored the contribution of interdisciplinary studios to students’ sustainability literacy. We ran a studio with Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture students, focused on a coastal brownfield renewal in Victoria, Australia. Studio activities and assessments w...

Climate change presents an existential threat to the sustainability of cities and their societies, and must be adequately addressed. Urban environments (cities) are responsible for the creation of a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions which are the source of climate change. Cities have been increasingly the focus of action to address cli...

Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have recently gained traction as integrated approaches that can address societal challenges by simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits. Among the benefits of NBS, their capacity to address urban water challenges – such as inland and coastal flooding –while providing ecological benefits has be...

Well-designed urban planning policy can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to anticipated climate change impacts. However, there has been limited analysis of the extent to which urban planning policy documents addresses climate change adaptation and or mitigation. There is a need to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit warming...

Regenerative development is one of the critical pathways or processes towards an ecological worldview and a built environment in synergy with the natural environment. This vision aims to restore and support environmental, social and economic flows from a systems perspective. While regenerative development has been discussed in theory and applied to...

Wadi Hanifah is an award-winning rehabilitation project in Arriyadh, Saudi Arabia. The ‘story’ of the design process is unfolded through an in-depth investigation and analysis of the project. An in-depth investigation of the design process, including unpredictable events during the design and implementation phase, external disturbances that changed...

Sea-level rise poses major challenges to coastal landscapes and communities. Sustainable adaptation to sea-level rise has been a growing concern for coastal management authorities, engineers, ecologists, urban planners and designers. A shift from ‘coastal armoring’ and hard engineered ‘defense systems’, to ecologically informed infrastructures has...

The design opportunities made possible through leveraging dredging infrastructure have been a point of interest for designers, academics and government bodies. Sea level rise, increased storm surge frequency and intensity caused by climate change mean that the 80% of the world’s population living in coastal communities face the effects of land loss...

The built environment is responsible for significant environmental impacts. It is therefore a central research area to balance ecological and built systems and allow them both to thrive. While the majority of previous and existing attempts have targeted minimising environmental impacts, regenerative development goes beyond reduction and aims to res...

A positive vision for the future of humanity can be the basis for a needed change, a vision of opportunity, abundance and the potential for thriving. Regenerative development can provide a pathway towards this vision. Case studies are beginning to show that when applied, the concepts underpinning regenerative development can accelerate a transition...

In the Middle East today, there are strong tensions between global and local aspirations in landscape architectural projects. Modernism, introduced to major cities in the Middle East, led to design approaches that are detached from local context, some adopting a tabula rasa attitude to site or inspired by Western models with little adaptation. Ambi...