Alan March

Professor of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne
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.

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.