Managing urban trees. Managing urban trees. This project aims to explore the effects of different urban tree types and plantings on people and wildlife in Melbourne, Moreland and Ballarat so they can better plan their future urban forests. Local governments spend millions of dollars planting and maintaining urban trees every year. Research provides little guidance to these land managers when making critical decisions in a rapidly changing social and physical environment. This project will combin ....Managing urban trees. Managing urban trees. This project aims to explore the effects of different urban tree types and plantings on people and wildlife in Melbourne, Moreland and Ballarat so they can better plan their future urban forests. Local governments spend millions of dollars planting and maintaining urban trees every year. Research provides little guidance to these land managers when making critical decisions in a rapidly changing social and physical environment. This project will combine tree inventory data with new information on the social and ecological effects of trees (e.g. human well-being, bird diversity). This research is expected to guide future tree management decisions that have better social and environmental outcomes for Australia’s cities.Read moreRead less
Renewing the compact city: economically viable and socially sustainable approaches to urban redevelopment in a complex multi-stakeholder environment. This project will investigate a key challenge facing city planners in Australia over the next 30 years: how to renew older areas of multi-unit housing, providing not only economically but also socially viable solutions within a market context and enable all players -developers, policymakers and residents - to benefit from the coming city redevelopm ....Renewing the compact city: economically viable and socially sustainable approaches to urban redevelopment in a complex multi-stakeholder environment. This project will investigate a key challenge facing city planners in Australia over the next 30 years: how to renew older areas of multi-unit housing, providing not only economically but also socially viable solutions within a market context and enable all players -developers, policymakers and residents - to benefit from the coming city redevelopment.Read moreRead less
Urban Accessibility Re-Shaped - Transport disadvantage and urban socio-spatial change. The project directly addresses 'National Research Priority 2: Promoting and Maintaining Good Health - Strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric' by assisting governments to solve problems of communities' poor access to employment and services. Good urban accessibility is crucial to achieving good economic, social and environmental outcomes from land-use and transport planning in Australian cities. ....Urban Accessibility Re-Shaped - Transport disadvantage and urban socio-spatial change. The project directly addresses 'National Research Priority 2: Promoting and Maintaining Good Health - Strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric' by assisting governments to solve problems of communities' poor access to employment and services. Good urban accessibility is crucial to achieving good economic, social and environmental outcomes from land-use and transport planning in Australian cities. The project will assist state and local government's to address unmet and often unidentified community needs. The project will be of immense national importance in providing new methodologies to assess urban access employment and services. Internationally this project will mark Australia as a producer of high quality urban research.Read moreRead less
Improving the physical understanding, numerical simulation and forecasts of severe storms and precipitation events over major Australian cities. This strategic research project will improve our physical understanding and numerical simulation of severe storms over major Australia cities, which underpins future improvements in the forecasts of such storms. It will add to the capability of households, local government and industry to better prepare for major rainfall, hail, wind and flood events.
An Integrated Large Scale Urban Model and Spatial Decision Support System Simulating Growth and Evaluating Sustainability Outcomes for Southeast Queensland. A large scale urban model and spatial decision support system will be built for the South East Queensland region, Australia's third largest metropolis. GIS and visualisation are used to integrate diverse datasets to simulate real time growth and development patterns over the next 20 years. Population, housing, economic development and jobs g ....An Integrated Large Scale Urban Model and Spatial Decision Support System Simulating Growth and Evaluating Sustainability Outcomes for Southeast Queensland. A large scale urban model and spatial decision support system will be built for the South East Queensland region, Australia's third largest metropolis. GIS and visualisation are used to integrate diverse datasets to simulate real time growth and development patterns over the next 20 years. Population, housing, economic development and jobs growth forecasting models are integrated with a jobs-housing-balance and urban form model to simulate growth and development scenarios that meet multi-criteria sustainability and urban planning objectives. The internet accessible decision support system provides an improved evidence base for developing SEQ to enhance the Smart State Strategy.Read moreRead less
Evaluation of Performance-Based Planning under the Queensland Integrated Planning Act 1997. The project will undertake an evaluation of performance-based planning in Queensland, examining the application since introduction of the Integrated Planning Act in 1997. The project aims to assess how performance-based planning has been adopted in Queensland; evaluate national, international literature and empirical experience with the application of this planning method; develop a set of measurement cri ....Evaluation of Performance-Based Planning under the Queensland Integrated Planning Act 1997. The project will undertake an evaluation of performance-based planning in Queensland, examining the application since introduction of the Integrated Planning Act in 1997. The project aims to assess how performance-based planning has been adopted in Queensland; evaluate national, international literature and empirical experience with the application of this planning method; develop a set of measurement criteria drawn from policy and scholarly literature that have evaluated performance-based systems; contribute to the international social scientific understanding of performance-based planning; and enhance the partner organisation's ability to assess its key policy and regulatory frames to improve their data handling and analytical capacities.Read moreRead less
Adaptive ecotyping of the toxic cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii to predict its invasive capacity. We change the world while other organisms adapt to these new conditions. Cyanobacteria (blue green algae) increasingly dominate water bodies that were previously free of these harmful blooms. To minimise the spread of these algae, this project will study the genetic basis that determines how rapidly they can evolve and adapt to a changing planet.
In situ remediation in mine site rehabilitation. In situ remediation in mine site rehabilitation. By enhancing and guiding abiotic and biotic processes of soil development, this project aims to accelerate the in situ remediation of bauxite residue (alumina refining tailings). Over 7 gigatonnes of tailings are produced globally every year, comprising complex mineral assemblages at extremes of pH and salinity with minimal biological activity. This project will build detailed knowledge on the chemi ....In situ remediation in mine site rehabilitation. In situ remediation in mine site rehabilitation. By enhancing and guiding abiotic and biotic processes of soil development, this project aims to accelerate the in situ remediation of bauxite residue (alumina refining tailings). Over 7 gigatonnes of tailings are produced globally every year, comprising complex mineral assemblages at extremes of pH and salinity with minimal biological activity. This project will build detailed knowledge on the chemical, physical, and biological properties of bauxite residue and apply this to develop field-scale in situ remediation strategies. This research will also advance understanding of soil development and primary succession of microbial communities in extreme, anthropogenic environments such as those presented by tailings.Read moreRead less
Unravelling the cycling of nitrogen along a subtropical freshwater-marine continuum using a multi-isotope, multi-tracer and modelling approach. This project will significantly advance our understanding of the sources, cycling and pathways of nitrogen along a sub-tropical catchment-river-estuary. As such, the findings from this research will have direct implications to the management, rehabilitation and protection of waterways (including biodiversity) in Australia.
Living in a high carbon dioxide world: impacts on freshwater phytoplankton populations from elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide. This project will investigate likely changes in phytoplankton populations in reservoirs that will be caused by increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the next century. The project will provide water supply managers with the necessary information to plan future strategies for water treatment and operating procedures.