Staff Profile
Dr Marco Amati
| Room: | E8A 319 |
|---|---|
| Phone: | +61 2 9850 6975 |
| Fax: | +61 2 9850 7972 |
| Email: | mamati@gse.mq.edu.au |
Profile
I studied initially as an environmental scientist in the UK and Ireland. I then moved to Luxembourg to complete a series of internships with international organizations such as Eurostat and the EIB. Although I have always been interested in the science behind environmental problems it was during this time that I first became interested in planning. My job involved contributing to a report on the land cover and land uses in different European countries and my boss assigned me the task of reviewing planning systems. I came across a paper written by Makoto Yokohari, a Japanese academic whose work intrigued me. I wrote to him and as we exchanged emails it occurred to me that he would make a great PhD supervisor. I had sworn that I wouldn't go back to university after my Masters and I had envisaged my career going in a completely different direction, but somehow the challenge of studying planning in Japan was as attractive to me as it was unusual. A year and a half later I was on my way to the University of Tsukuba thanks to a Japanese government scholarship and Makoto's support. I spent 5 years learning Japanese and completing my doctorate there, looking at how urban growth controls work in Japan and the UK.
After Tsukuba I moved to Massey University and taught planning in New Zealand for two and half years. I studied urban growth control around Christchurch and the wind farm debate in Palmerston North. I lectured on natural resource planning and took students on field trips to engage with Maori aspects of land use planning.
Research Interest
Halting or shaping urban growth remains one of the great challenges for planners and can be a powerful tool to reduce energy use and carbon dioxide emissions. My main area of research has been on green belts, one of the most widely used tools to prevent sprawl. During my PhD I became aware of the difficulties that Japanese planners had encountered when they tried to impose a green belt around Tokyo. In the UK, on the other hand, green belts had remained in place for more than fifty years. I set out to understand the reasons for this and examined the implementation of the London green belt and the debate that currently rages about its reform. Through my work I also became interested in issues of citizenship in planning, the actions of environmental groups and the role of successful planning projects in constructing planning as a discipline. This has allowed me to string an eclectic publications trail together which is largely about green spaces.
Teaching
Selected publications
- Amati, M. (2008 forthcoming in June) (Ed.) Urban green belts in the 21st Century London: Ashgate.
- Amati, M. (2007) A comparative study of the establishment of the green belt in London and Tokyo, in Kuroda S. (ed) Toshi kukan no sai kousei, Tokyo: Senshu Daigaku Shuppan Kyoku: 143-169
- Amati, M. and Parker, G. (2007) Containing Tokyo's growth: The effect of land ownership changes on the green belt in Japan, 1943-1970 in Miller, C. and Roche, M. (eds.) Past Matters: Heritage and Planning History Case Studies from the Pacific Rim, London: Cambridge Scholars Press: 172-194
- Amati, M. and Yokohari, M. (2007) The establishment of the London green belt: reaching consensus over purchasing land, Journal of Planning History 6 (4), 311-337.
- Amati, M. (2007) Dismantling an icon: debates surrounding the reform of the London green belt, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management (special issue on green belts) 50, 5, 579-594.
- Amati, M. and Yokohari, M. (2006) Temporal changes and local variations in the functions of London's green belt, Landscape and Urban Planning 75, 1-2, 125-142
- Yokohari, M. Amemiya, M. and Amati, M. (2006) The history and future directions of greenways in Japanese new towns, Landscape and Urban Planning 76, 1-2, 210-222.
- Amati, M. Lafortezza, R. Yokohari, M. and Sanesi, G. (2006) Il sistema delle green belt londinesi: problematiche e prospettive in vista di una riforma, Estimo e territorio 3, 38-46 (in Italian)
- Yokohari, M. and Amati, M. (2005) Nature in the city, city in the nature: case studies of the restoration of urban nature in Tokyo, Japan and Toronto, Canada, Landscape and Ecology Engineering, 1, 53-59
- Amati, M. and Yokohari, M. (2004) The actions of landowner, government and planners in establishing the London green belt of the 1930s, Planning History, 24 (1-2), 4-12.