Hayley's research and applied work focuses on interjurisdictional and collaborative forms of urban governance. She studies the drivers, dynamics and influences of collaboration in urban policymaking settings. In particular, she works on urban revitalisation programs and urban water management strategies (i.e. multi-jurisdictional river basin management, integrated water management plans, Blue Green Infrastructure projects). Most of her research involves comparative case studies with a focus on Australian and South American cities.

As the Coordinator of the Buenos Aires Life Lab (CONEXUS program, European Union Horizon 2020-2024), she currently works with policy makers, non-profit representatives, and researchers in co-creating Nature-based Solutions to support the uptake of sustainable urbanisation practices in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This program involves comparative study with Life Labs in Bogotá (Colombia), São Paulo (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Lisbon (Portugal), Barcelona (Spain) and Turin (Italy). This work on designing Nature-based Solutions to address flooding and stormwater quality problems in Buenos Aires has a comprehensive focus involving hydraulic engineering and landscape design as well as urban economics and governance dynamics. With this comprehensive approach, the research has been applied to address specific needs through strong partnerships with the public sector and funding arrangements with the Inter-American Development Bank and United Nations Environment Programme.

Together with Prof Helen Sullivan (The Australian National University) and Prof Brendan Gleeson (The University of Melbourne), Hayley recently completed a study (2015-2019) on collaborative governance practices in urban revitalisation in Central Dandenong, Melbourne as part of an international comparison on the influences of austerity (funder by the Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom). One of the key findings from this study was the way actors from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities helped to create an expanded sense of pluralism in collaborative settings and, in turn, productive settings for problem-solving relating to urban decline. Hayley and Helen are scaling-up the single Australian case study to examine this “ethic of cultural pluralism” in other Australian experiences of urban revitalisation.

Hayley has also taught over the last decade in planning programs in Melbourne and Buenos Aires, including subjects relating to social planning, urban planning theory, practice and governance.

She is an Associate Editor of the Collaborative Governance Database.

• Collaborative governance
• Interjurisdictional dynamics in federal systems
• The municipal level in urban planning
• Social policy in urban planning (inc. cultural diversity)
• Informality
• Comparative urbanism (focus on Australia and Argentina).

Most common approach: case study (comparative case study)

Methods of data collection:

• Delphi method
• Focus groups (in person, digital)
• Interviews
• Participant observation
• Policy analysis
• Basic statistical analysis

• "CONEXUS" project (funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 initiative) on collaborative design of Nature-based Solutions to common urbanisation problems across seven European and Latin American Cities (Hayley is the Coordinator of the Buenos Aires Life Lab).
• "Delivering Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) through Land-Value Capture in the Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires" funded by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (USA) through the program Research on Global Approaches to Land Value Capture (2019-2020)
• "Collaborative Governance under Austerity: an 8 case comparison" funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) (2015-2019).