Planetary Health

Planetary Health

We’re forging new ground in the emerging field of Planetary Health, addressing the health of humanity in the context of dynamic social and environmental systems, including climate change and geopolitical challenges.

By combining insights from many disciplines, we’re advancing the ‘eco-social’ understanding of health, emphasising the critical importance of diverse perspectives in building resilience and creating solutions to problems that are impacting populations across the globe.

Our focus areas

Research units

Climate, Air Quality Research

Our team uses start of the art methods to model the impacts of climate change and pollution on human health in a range of geographic regions, informing planning for resilient health services about to meet the needs of our rapidly changing planet.

Head of Unit

Professor Yuming Guo

Healthy Active Cities

We’re transforming how people move. Using a whole-of-system approach, we’re working to make active transport easier, safer, and more accessible – creating healthy, liveable and thriving communities that support both population and planetary health.

Head of Unit

Associate Professor Ben Beck

Infectious Diseases Epidemiology

We use a One Health approach to advance the prevention and control of infectious diseases by creating new knowledge around prevalence, risk factors, and how climate change and urbanisation are pushing diseases into areas once considered safe.

Head of Unit

Professor Karin Leder

Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health

Our research helps governments, health services and communities understand the effects of air pollution, bushfire smoke, electromagnetic energy and other community-level exposures on human health, and informs prevention and management strategies.

Director

Professor Karen Walker-Bone

Centres and major initiatives

Health and Climate Initiative

This flagship initiative aims to improve the health and climate evidence base, and use it to advance evidence-informed preparedness, mitigation, and adaptation efforts; reduce waste in our healthcare system; and educate to enable change.

Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments

RISE is an ambitious research program working at the intersections of health, environment, and water and sanitation, trialling innovative and sustainable water and sanitation solutions in 24 informal settlements in Fiji and Indonesia.

Wiser Healthcare

This multi-institutional collaboration aims to support evidence-based sustainable healthcare for all by producing and translating high-quality research in areas such as reducing waste, overdiagnosis and overtreatment and carbon neutral healthcare.

Our courses

Visit our Professional Education page for a list of upcoming short course dates, including:

Our impact in action

New decision-making tool helps travellers move from Japanese encephalitis vaccination information to action

For many Australians heading overseas, travel vaccinations can sit at the end of a long to-do list, may cost hundreds of dollars and require repeat trips to the GP for multiple doses, and might not seem all that urgent or necessary, especially for a
Public Health and Preventive Medicine 5 June, 2026

Fuel crisis exposes Australia’s transport gaps, financial inequity and appetite for change

New research from Monash University researchers shows that almost half of Australians have changed the way they travel as a result of the fuel crisis, with those under financial hardship far more likely to seek alternatives.
Public Health and Preventive Medicine 1 June, 2026

Australia-first study predicts annual heatwave deaths could reach 6000 by 2100

The first study of the health impacts of increasing heatwaves predicts that almost 6000 Australians will die from heatwaves in the year 2100 under climate change, compared to around 250 deaths per year during 2016–19.
Public Health and Preventive Medicine 4 May, 2026

Study of over 46 million deaths globally reveals who is most at risk from non-optimum temperatures and which diseases are most affected

A large international study of the health impacts of cold and heat has just been published in The Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine journal, finding that 4.4 percent of deaths between 2000 and 2019 can be attributed to short-term exposure to
Public Health and Preventive Medicine 4 May, 2026

Over 15,000 Victorians attend hospitals every year because of climate-change related heat exposure, study finds

A Monash-led study of 460 communities and 6.3+ million hospital visits across Victoria has found that heat exposure was associated with significantly increased risks of hospital admissions and emergency department visits, particularly among women,
Public Health and Preventive Medicine 13 April, 2026
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