There are bright spots among the world’s coral reefs – the challenge is to learn from them

Joshua Cinner (James Cook University) argues that investments that foster local involvement and provide people with ownership rights to their marine resources can help people develop creative solutions and defy expectations that reefs will just continue to get more degraded.

High-speed rail? At $200 billion we’d better get it right

Peter Newman (Curtin University) proposes some principles to make high-speed rail and urban development happen in a way that benefits Australian cities and towns.

Policies to make cities work better

Marion Terrill (Grattan Institute) proposes new approaches to infrastructure that will improve the productivity of our cities.

Greening cities makes for safer neighbourhoods

J. Morgan Grove and Michelle Kondo (United States Forest Service) explain that when under-served neighbourhoods are made more pleasant, it can result in a healthier sense of community. In turn, it makes those neighbourhoods less hospitable to criminal activity.