Future Urban Industry
Resilient industrial places
Connecting urban landscapes, spatial data and public life to inform industrial regeneration.
University of Auckland-led research · MBIE Endeavour Fund · 2025–2030 · Ongoing
Industrial areas support jobs, production and essential services. Their long-term success depends on how well buildings, infrastructure, natural systems and public spaces work together.
Future Urban Industry is a five-year research programme exploring how industrial areas can become more productive, resource-efficient and resilient while supporting biodiversity and community wellbeing. Led by the University of Auckland and funded through MBIE’s Endeavour Fund, the programme brings together researchers, councils, businesses and practitioners. Wiri, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, is a case study.
Our contribution
The Urbanist contributes urban landscape, GIS and remote sensing, environmental monitoring and public life expertise. We bring a planning and design perspective to the research, connecting spatial evidence and environmental conditions with how people use and experience industrial places.
Urban landscape and nature-based solutions: exploring how vegetation, water and public space can support biodiversity, climate adaptation and healthier working environments.
GIS and remote sensing: building spatial evidence to understand existing conditions, constraints and opportunities.
Environmental monitoring: connecting on-site measurements with spatial data to understand environmental conditions and track change over time.
Public life: considering how people move through, spend time in and use shared spaces within industrial areas.
Informing investment and change
Spatial evidence can help councils, businesses and landowners identify where investment could have the greatest value. Our contribution supports assessment of existing conditions, future scenarios, design responses and long-term monitoring.
We are exploring how landscape, water and infrastructure decisions can work together to reduce disruption, improve working environments and support more productive use of land. Working with nature is part of this assessment, alongside business needs, climate resilience and biodiversity.
The research is ongoing. Findings and recommendations will develop with the wider programme.
Research partnerships
We welcome opportunities to contribute to funded research programmes with universities, public agencies and industry partners. Our role is to help research inform practical decisions, investment and implementation through urban design, planning, landscape and spatial analysis.