The sustainability of the Hunter region's environment and economy will be the subject of a forum at the University of Newcastle this Friday.

The Tom Farrell Institute for the Environment will hold Sustaining a River and its Communities, the latest in a series of public forums.

Tom Farrell Institute Director, Professor John Rodger, said previous forums had focused on single issues such as water, waste, biodiversity and climate change. Friday's forum will combine all these issues and take a big picture view on sustaining the Hunter's economy, environment and social infrastructure.

"Our focus is on sustainability in the Hunter region, and by that I do not just mean environmental sustainability," he said.

"We tend to focus a lot on the natural world because that is the foundation which underpins everything else. But we must also consider economic and social sustainability because if they collapse we will have no economy and nothing to support society.

"If we are going to maintain our society with anything like the standard of living we have today, we have to find ways to reduce what we consume and use things that can be replaced."

The Forum will cover the topics social and economic systems, living systems, physical systems, and also propose a way forward.

Representatives from the Hunter Valley Research Foundation; the Catchment Management Authority; Tocal Agricultural College; and the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Environmental Management Strategy will join University of Newcastle experts in the fields of Indigenous history, geography and climate variability.

Media are welcome to attend the Tom Farrell Institute Forum on Friday 9 November between 9am and 3.30pm in CT202 at the Callaghan campus.