Dr Awais Piracha is a Sydney-based researcher and trainer in the areas of sustainable urban development and use of spatial analysis/techniques in land use and transport planning. Awais was trained as a civil/environmental engineer as well as a town planner. He has served at University of Western Sydney as urban planning academic since 2003. He currently serves as Director Academic Programs for Geography, Urban Planning, and Heritage and Tourism at that institution. He previously worked as a researcher with the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Bangkok and University of Dortmund Germany. In his professional career spanning over two decades, Awais has participated in numerous projects as urban planning spatial analyst. Some of his recent work is: Establishing City Planning Labs in large Indonesian cities, The World Bank (2015-16); Developing methodologies for measuring unmet transport needs in Western Sydney, Transport for NSW Australia (2014-15); Evaluation of 2049 strategic plan and 2030 comprehensive plan for Jiangbei Region, Nanjing, China – Nanjing Urban Planning Bureau (2013-14); The impact of delivery systems on homelessness in the Nepean/Blacktown Region – Western Sydney municipalities Australia (2012-13).