Prof Chris Pettit

Chris Pettit is the Director of the City Futures Research Centre, inaugural professor of Urban Science. He is Chair of the Board of Directors for CUPUM (Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management). He is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia’s National Plantech Working Group, and the NSW Government’s Expert Advisory Group for Planning Evidence and Insights.

Prof Pettit established the City Analytics Lab (CAL), a dedicated space designed to support collaborative city planning and user-centred design. He has led a number of city planning, property and Smart City projects including Value Australia - Sharpening our land and property decisions with Artificial Intelligence and the Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer (RAISE) Toolkit. Currently he is leading the Australian Housing Data Analytics Platform which has launch the National Housing Data Exchange and Colouring Australia Cities.

Prof Pettit’s expertise is in the convergence of the fields of city planning and digital technologies including Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Planning Support Systems (PSS). He has given numerous keynote addresses at conferences around the world and is on the editorial board for a number of journals including Computer Environment and Urban Systems, Over the last 25 years he has been conducting research and development in the use of digital tools to support what if? analysis and scenario planning of city futures. During this time he has published a number of books including “Real Estate and GIS” – Routledge, and over 200 academic papers.