The symposium will showcase prominent international, national and local speakers to address the challenges and discuss novel ways for Adelaide and other cities around the world to achieve green urban futures, from various lenses – policy and planning; trees and urban forests; social sciences and economics; built environment; public health and education.

The Greater Adelaide Metropolitan is a city in transition from a warm mediterranean to a semi-arid climate, and with its future climate projected to be increasingly hot and dry. The city is also still growing; the recently released draft of Greater Adelaide Regional Plan projects a population increase of up to 670,000 people over the next 30 years, requiring an additional 315,000 homes. This increase drives not only city densification but also sprawls to the north and south. The pressures from urban development, as well as an increase in extremely hot days in Adelaide, will potentially have catastrophic impacts on human health and adversely impact ecosystems and biodiversity.

These issues are, however, not only pertinent to Adelaide. Cities around the world are experiencing the same issues. It is therefore crucial to take impactful actions NOW to future-proof our cities against these changes, a quickly as possible.

This International Symposium on Green Urban Futures, to be held on 3-4 December 2025, will bring together national and international speakers to discuss novel ways to help Adelaide and other cities around the world achieve Green Urban Futures. The symposium will be followed by a Future Tree workshop on 5 December (by invitation only).

We invite anyone who is interested, or playing a role, in greening our urban environments to attend and participate in this important event, whether you are policy makers, planners, urban designers, developers, landscape architects and architects, horticulturists, arborists, plant biologists, social scientists, economists, public health specialists, and of course, community members.

Refer to our webpage here for further details about the program and list of speakers.