Dr. Nayomi Kankanamge
University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Title: From Plans to Presence: Using Virtual Reality to Transform Urban Planning Practice, Participation, and Resilience
Abstract:
Virtual Reality (VR) is rapidly transforming how cities are planned, communicated, and experienced. Traditional urban planning relies heavily on two-dimensional drawings, static models, and technical documents that often limit understanding, participation, and trust among stakeholders. This paper explores how immersive technologies, including VR, Augmented Reality (AR), and the broader Extended Reality (XR) ecosystem, can bridge the gap between expert-driven planning and lived urban experience by enabling planners, decision-makers, and communities to enter proposed futures before they are built. Drawing on recent advances in urban informatics, digital twins, social media analytics, and crowdsourced data, the study demonstrates how immersive environments move beyond visualisation toward interactive, data-driven urban decision-making. Through VR and location-based AR, planning proposals and environmental data can be overlaid onto real urban spaces, allowing stakeholders to evaluate heat exposure, walkability, accessibility, disaster impacts, and public space performance at human scale. The paper highlights practical applications of immersive technologies in urban design review, disaster preparedness, participatory planning, and co-design with vulnerable communities. It also discusses current challenges, including cognitive load, accessibility, ethics, and the integration of XR into everyday planning workflows. By reframing immersive technologies as both technical and social tools, this work argues for a shift from representational planning to experiential planning, where urban futures are not just drawn, but lived, tested, and improved collaboratively.
Ultimately, VR, AR, and XR offer urban planners’ powerful platforms to enhance transparency, inclusivity, and resilience in city-making, providing a roadmap for embedding immersive technologies into planning practice to support smarter, more human-centred, and more sustainable urban development.
Biography:
Dr Nayomi Kankanamge is a Lecturer in Urban Design and Town Planning at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She is an urban planner and researcher dedicated to integrating advanced technologies into urban planning practice to create smarter and more resilient cities. She has nearly ten years of experience in academia and obtained her PhD from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2022. Her recent research focuses on the innovative use of urban big data and cutting-edge technologies, including crowdsourced data, gamification, and AR to enhance urban design, disaster preparedness, and community engagement. She has successfully secured competitive research projects and has been recognised with the QUT Faculty of Science and Engineering High Achievers Award and the prestigious QUT Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award. Dr Kankanamge is an expert in integrating emerging technologies into urban planning practice to make cities more inclusive and resilient. She has authored over 50 high-quality peer-reviewed publications and actively supports professionals and students in contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through research, teaching, and industry collaboration.