Rate My Professor Alpana Sivam

Dr. Alpana Sivam is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Built Environment, College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities, at Adelaide University. She earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (1975-1979), a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from CEPT University (1980-1982), a PhD from the University of Melbourne (1996-1999), and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education from the University of South Australia (2007-2009). Her professional career includes roles as Joint Director (Planning) at the Delhi Development Authority, Government of India (1988-1994); Postdoctoral Fellow in Urban Studies at the National University of Singapore (2000-2002); Research Fellow at Swinburne University of Technology (2003); Senior Urban Designer and Senior Planner at Planning SA, Government of South Australia (2004-2007); and Lecturer followed by Senior Lecturer in Urban Design and Urban and Regional Planning at the University of South Australia (2007-present), now at Adelaide University. She also served as Research Degree Coordinator at the University of South Australia (2018-2022).

Sivam's research specializations encompass the intersections between architecture and urban planning, social and urban design in physical planning and development, sustainable and climate-resilient age-friendly neighbourhoods, housing and ageing, open spaces, mitigation of climate change in the built environment, housing policy and affordability in developed and developing countries, ageing's impact on built form, planning and social policy, urban public spaces across cultures, environmental and cultural sustainability, and architectural heritage. Her achievements include the 2018 Australian Awards for University Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, 2017 Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the University of South Australia, UniSA Chancellor’s Award for Community Engagement (2011), Senior Research Fellowship from the Asian Research Institute at the National University of Singapore (2011), and Endeavour Research Fellowship from the Australian Government (2011). Notable publications are 'Evaluation of Ecological Sustainability Criteria of Urban Green Spaces in Adelaide Metropolitan Area' (Teimouri et al., 2025), 'The role of spatial configuration in moderating the relationship between social sustainability and urban density' (Soltani et al., 2022), 'Resilience to heat in public space: a case study of Adelaide, South Australia' (Sharifi et al., 2016), and 'Social sustainability with Urban Green Space (UGS) planning' (Teimouri et al., 2019).