Dr Alan March is Professor in Urban Planning. He undertakes research and teaching in the area of urban planning and disaster risk reduction, including bushfire.
Alan has twice won the Global Planning Education Network prize for Best International Planning Paper (2007, 2011). His teaching includes disaster risk reduction, urban design, planning law and planning theory subjects, and he was awarded a Faculty teaching prize in 2007. Alan has successfully supervised over 80 student theses encompassing a range of urban design and planning research topics. He has successfully supervised eight PhD theses to completion. Alan was an Associate of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and has been the Leader of the research theme Risk Resilience and Transformation & and of Cities and Towns.
He was previously Director of the Bachelor of Design degree that spans the Faculties of Architecture, Building and Planning, Engineering and Victoria College of the Arts; and was also previously Director of the Bachelor of Environments.
Alan has an undergraduate degree in urban and regional planning from Curtin University, where his mentors included Professor Jean Hillier and Professor David Hedgcock. Alan received a scholarship for his Masters and studied at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK under the supervision of Professor Patsy Healey. After returning to practice in Australia he undertook a PhD at the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Professor Nicholas Low. Alan was awarded the Planning Institute of Australia (Victoria) Cutting Edge Teaching and Learning prize in 2013 and was named Planner of the Year in 2016. In 2017 he received a National Planning Institute of Australia Commendation for Planner of the Year.
Alan has practised since 1991 in a broad range of private sector and government settings and has had roles in statutory and strategic planning, advocacy, and urban design. He has worked in Western Australia, the UK, New South Wales and Victoria. Alan's early career included projects as diverse as foreshore protection plans, rural to urban subdivision approval and design, the Mandurah Marina and Urban Design Guidelines for the Joondalup City Centre. In England, he has worked in brownfield and inner city redevelopment, including land assembly and urban regeneration projects. Alan has extensive experience in inner city redevelopment projects in Melbourne since 1996.
Alan's publications and research include examination of the practical governance mechanisms of planning and urban design, in particular the ways that planning systems can successfully manage change and transition as circumstances change. He is particularly interested in the ways that planning and design can modify disaster risks, and researches urban design principles for bushfire. His current work also considers the ways that urban planning is seeking to establish new ways to spatialise urban management.
Please see: http://plandemos.com
Find out more about Alan March's experience
Alan March's highlights
FEATURED Journal article
Urban planning: historical changes integrating bushfire risk-management in Victoria
Read moreAlan March's selected work
Projects
Displaying the 13 most recent projects by Alan March.
Project Types
5
Internal Research Grant
4
Research Contracts
4
Research Grant
Scholarly Works
Displaying the 104 most recent scholarly works by Alan March.
News
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Honours, Awards and Fellowships
Tertiary Bushfire Course Melbourne University $100,000 in first round
Climate Change Adaptation: Suitability Indices of Human Settlement Fire Vulnerability $192,000
Institutional Resilience in Bushfire Prone Areas: Learning from Experience $50,000
Benefits of the Wildfire Management Overlay $15,000
Urban Design Principles for Reducing Bushfire Risk $40,000
Professional Teaching and Learning $40,000
Adjunct Researcher and Fellow, Global Risk Forum, Davos, Switzerland
Credentials
Positions
Professor - Urban Planning
Architecture, Building And Planning
Certified Practising Planner
Planning Institute of Australia
Education
URBAN PLANNING
University of Melbourne
TOWN & COUNTRY PLANNING
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
URBAN & REGIONAL PLANNING (Distinction)
Curtin University of Technology