Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments (SPE)

Description

The Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments (SPE) focuses on understanding the creation of healthy, resilient, sustainable, and intelligent urban spaces, considering current climatic and ecological crises. This world-leading research institution extends its insights into UWE Bristol’s planning and built environment curriculums. As a multidisciplinary centre, it delivers high-impact research, collaborating with academic, industrial, governmental, NGO, and civil society partners.

The SPE carries out challenge-driven research, contributing to planning theory, policy, and practice through three interrelated themes. It also influences ethical debates in planning practice and education. The Centre's research addresses how the planning, design, and governance of urban environments can both benefit and harm health and wellbeing. The aim is to understand how these factors affect social and health inequalities.

The first research theme, 'Healthy Places,' examines topics such as designing spaces for healthy lifestyles, sustainable neighbourhood design, green infrastructure, urban regeneration, inclusive design, and community-led housing, among others. The second theme explores resilience of places amidst complex challenges such as climate change, population change, and economic crises. This is done both domestically and internationally, using different research frameworks to provide meaningful analysis and guidance. Topics under this theme include European policy for sustainable cities, urban regeneration, renewable energy, climate change resilience, and the food-energy-water nexus.

The third theme, 'Smart Cities,' confronts the challenges of managing cities by using smart technology and data. The Centre collaborates globally to develop and evaluate smart city solutions. Research under this theme includes urban management, open governance, and stakeholder engagement in planning and governance.

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

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University affiliation(s)

University of the West of England, Bristol
Bristol