Australian Smart Environmental Observatory

Monitoring to Shape Future Cities

ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) - $1,696,463 Total Funding

The Australian Smart Environmental Observatory is a multi-year project funded through the ARC’s LIEF 2026 scheme. Led by UNSW with partners from University of Sydney, RMIT, University of Canberra, NSW DCCEEW and WSROC, it provides state-of-the-art infrastructure, data and evidence to enable new research on the interconnected challenges of urban overheating, air pollution and noise and light exposure that face the future of Australian cities.

Background

As Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, it is vital to ensure our cities are resilient to and prepared for a changing climate. The interconnected challenges of urban overheating, air pollution and noise and light exposure pose considerable health, economic, environmental and social risks for our cities. It has never been more critical for researchers and policymakers to understand the magnitude of these challenges, their local effects in different urban settings and the effectiveness of different mitigation options and the interactions between them.

Robust and reliable environmental data monitoring of urban vulnerability is fundamental to understanding the complexity and distribution of these challenges and the ways of addressing them. A lack of accurate environmental data and insufficient understanding of locally interconnected urban challenges often lead to poorly designed policies and mitigation strategies that are ineffective, and potentially costly to implement.

Aim & Scope

The Australian Smart Environmental Observatory (AuSEO) provides state-of-the-art infrastructure, data and evidence to enable new research on these interconnected urban challenges and better planning and policy making across Australian cities. The AuSEO consists of 14 resilient city hubs as physical infrastructure, along with cloud databases and a centralised sharing platform as digital infrastructure.

Each resilient city hub is a localised network of integrated environmental sensors that will monitor a diverse range of factors influencing the vulnerability of that location. Each hub responds to the specific characteristics and vulnerabilities of a particular location in relation to extreme heat, air pollution, noise exposure, light pollution and indoor air quality in representative buildings.

The AuSEO will establish a network of 14 resilient city hubs across NSW, Victoria and the ACT to monitor environmental exposures over time, helping to shape and deliver climate-resilient cities.

Key Benefits

Helping cities act earlier and invest more effectively: the AuSEO will reveal where environmental risks are greatest, enabling governments and communities to intervene before problems become more severe and costly.
Protecting people from multiple environmental hazards: integrated monitoring will improve our understanding of how heat, air pollution, noise and other exposures affect people simultaneously, supporting interventions that improve health, comfort, wellbeing and resilience.
Testing what works in real urban environments: continuous localised data will allow planners, policymakers and industry to assess the effectiveness of urban greening, building upgrades, cooling strategies and other resilience measures.
Turning environmental data into shared public value: open and accessible datasets will support new research, improve public-sector decision-making and enable organisations across Australia to develop new tools, services and solutions.
Building lasting national capability: the AuSEO will strengthen collaboration between universities, government and industry while developing the interdisciplinary expertise needed to manage Australia’s emerging urban climate challenges.