Urban environment – SILVIA TAVARES

Urban Design Solutions for Ameliorating Urban Heat Island Effect in Townsville, Queensland

Along with Professor Karine Dupre from Griffith University, and in collaboration with Townsville City Council, we are undertaking a research project investigating urban microclimates in Townsville (Queensland, Australia).

Implementation of the New Urban Agenda on a local level: An effective methodology for human-centred urban design

In 2018 David Sellars and I, along with Planz Town Planning, Milford Planning, Cairns Regional Council, Townsville City Council, Richard Briggs, and Chuck Wolfe, as our Fulbright expert, organised and hosted an Urban Thinkers Campus, a UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign initiative (I wrote about it here and here).

We recently reported our engagement method in a publication in the Journal of Urbanism, as per abstract below.

Urban design and planning policy to mitigate heat-related health risks

A recent USC media release featured one of my PhD students’ work. Ryan McNeilly Smith has been working in the BASC Lab for just over one semester. He is investigating what urban planning and design policy for heat and urban climates may look like in Queensland.

Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Public Spaces through a Systems Modelling Approach

Even though we have had already a few publications out of our Urban Design and Town Planning in response to COVID-19 project, I realised I failed to publish here about this one. This paper came out a while ago in the Special Issue 2020: A Year without Public Space under the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BASC Lab on the news

USC has recently published a media release about the Bioclimatic and Sociotechnical Cities (BASC) Lab which is led by Dr Nicholas Stevens and myself, and is part of the university’s School of Law and Society and the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems.

The BASC Lab is focused both on teaching and research, and will help us to enhance a human-centred approach to urban design and town planning by considering the many factors of the physical environment that impact on people.

Urban Heat: Mapping temperature in Ipswich

Professor Karine Dupré and I are undertaking a survey to enhance the understanding of Urban Heat Islands (UHI) on the Ipswich (Queensland, Australia). The information provided about local areas within Ipswich will be considered in steps to reduce UHI through urban design and other methods.

Special Issue Call for Papers: Human Factors and Ergonomics in Cities, Urban Design and Development

This special issue will highlight how the scientific legacy of the HFE discipline has and can continue to contribute to exploring the complex design and development of our cities and towns.

The Integration of Safety Values and Measures in the Design of Resilient Public Spaces / A Integração de Valores e Medidas de Segurança no Projeto de Espaços Públicos Resilientes

For a few years now I’ve had the goal of publishing at least one article per year in Portuguese, my mother tongue. In 2020 I had the great pleasure of publishing an article in the Projectare journal, which is published in my alma mater UFPel. Read more…

Urban design policy recommendations for mitigating the human health risks associated with heatwaves

Ryan McNeilly-Smith and I are undertaking a research project on how urban design solutions can assist in mitigating the human health risks associated with extreme heat events. Read more…

Two recent book chapters published in the book ‘Architecture in Millieu Tropical’

In October 2019 I have the great honour of being a keynote speaker at the conference ‘Architecture in Millieu Tropical: Construire le Paysage, entre Pratique et Recherche’ which took place at ENSAM (École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Montpellier) in La Réunion. Read more…

Urban designer with a background in architecture, urbanism, and building and city science. Brazilian national. Senior Lecturer in Urban Design and Town Planning at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Affiliate member of PIA and registered architect and urbanist in Brazil.

Passionate about interfaces between urbanism, landscape and architecture. Interested in providing evidence through research to produce public open spaces that are thermally comfortable and economically effective, while promoting the good health of users and the natural environments that surround them.

For more information see the 'about' page on the menu above.

All opinions and points of view expressed in this website are my own and do not reflect employer or colleagues' opinions.