Attraction and retention: the role of mobility in educational pathways and human capital development. This project will examine the factors that attract and retain school leavers and tertiary graduates in cities, towns and rural areas of non-metropolitan Victoria. It will increase understanding of how spatial mobility shapes young people's transition through higher education to adulthood and guide regional development policy to enhance human capital.
Evaluating the effectiveness of fire safety programs in emergency services management. Measuring the effectiveness of fire safety programs is critical to minimising economic costs, optimising resource utilisation and mitigating risk to individuals of injury and death. This project will be the first study to develop a methodological framework that integrates geographical, statistical and temporal analyses for their evaluation.
Identifying and testing the decision-making factors related to 'smart industries' choice of location. Australia is moving towards becoming the smart country. As a result industry restructuring, realignment and relocation become central concerns. This research is directed towards industry relocation with a focus on the newly emerging 'smart industries' with a test case examination of the Brisbane City Council economic region. The research will investigate, identify and test the quantitative an ....Identifying and testing the decision-making factors related to 'smart industries' choice of location. Australia is moving towards becoming the smart country. As a result industry restructuring, realignment and relocation become central concerns. This research is directed towards industry relocation with a focus on the newly emerging 'smart industries' with a test case examination of the Brisbane City Council economic region. The research will investigate, identify and test the quantitative and qualitative criteria used by 'smart industry' companies in their location decision making. Outcomes will include a Masters of Philosophy thesis, a tested and validated test instrument for industry practitioners, three seminars, a conference paper and a number of international journal articles.Read moreRead less
Equitable local outcomes in adaptation to sea-level rise. The project clearly falls within the priority goal of responding to climate change and variability in being about responding to sea-level rise. It is of direct benefit to rural communities in Gippsland that are vulnerable to sea-level rise, and the project has been identified as a priority research need by the Gippsland Coastal Board, local governments in Gippsland, and the Victorian Government, all of whom are partners in this project. T ....Equitable local outcomes in adaptation to sea-level rise. The project clearly falls within the priority goal of responding to climate change and variability in being about responding to sea-level rise. It is of direct benefit to rural communities in Gippsland that are vulnerable to sea-level rise, and the project has been identified as a priority research need by the Gippsland Coastal Board, local governments in Gippsland, and the Victorian Government, all of whom are partners in this project. The guidelines produced will contribute to improved decision making about adaptation nationally and internationally, and the project's intellectual outcomes will be of interest and values to researchers working in Australia and abroad.Read moreRead less
Rip currents: an evidence based approach to managing the greatest beach hazard. For the first time, an understanding of the action of swimmers caught in rip currents will be linked through interviews with rip current survivors and measurements of swimmer response and rip flow. This project will provide information that will improve existing rip current education and assist in reducing the unacceptably high drowning toll on Australian beaches.
Mapping the Political Ecology of the Edible Birds’ Nests Trade in Indonesia. This study examines the origins and impacts of the rapidly emerging edible birds’ nests (EBN) trade for rural livelihoods and ecologies in Southeast Asia. A high-value Chinese delicacy, the EBN trade has surged across rural Indonesia and beyond. In partnership with the WWF and Tropenbos, our pioneering study investigates how rural producers negotiate the uneven social, economic and environmental influences of the EBN co ....Mapping the Political Ecology of the Edible Birds’ Nests Trade in Indonesia. This study examines the origins and impacts of the rapidly emerging edible birds’ nests (EBN) trade for rural livelihoods and ecologies in Southeast Asia. A high-value Chinese delicacy, the EBN trade has surged across rural Indonesia and beyond. In partnership with the WWF and Tropenbos, our pioneering study investigates how rural producers negotiate the uneven social, economic and environmental influences of the EBN commodity chain in the threatened Heart of Borneo, Indonesia, and the major urban trading centres of Jakarta, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The project offers novel insights into the trade’s sustainability across rural and urban regions of Asia and informs policy for poverty reduction and environmental management in the region.Read moreRead less
Enhanced agency response strategies through modelling geo-temporal characteristics of emergency services calls. Understanding the timing and geographic distribution of emergency calls to agencies such as Fire, Police and Ambulance, is critical to improving emergency response and developing effective preventive strategies. In turn, improved response and prevention strategies can help save lives and minimise economic costs. This project uses advanced geographic and statistical methods to analyse f ....Enhanced agency response strategies through modelling geo-temporal characteristics of emergency services calls. Understanding the timing and geographic distribution of emergency calls to agencies such as Fire, Police and Ambulance, is critical to improving emergency response and developing effective preventive strategies. In turn, improved response and prevention strategies can help save lives and minimise economic costs. This project uses advanced geographic and statistical methods to analyse fire incidents and develop the evidence base necessary to inform effective response and prevention strategies. The project will critically assist emergency fire response, but will also provide a case study that can be adapted for other kinds of emergency response.Read moreRead less
Going for gold: safe livelihoods for informal gold miners in South and Southeast Asia. Informal gold mining by the rural poor is transforming contemporary rural Asian economies. This project will focus on the community level, and on mineral-rich tracts in South and Southeast Asia, to explore how the livelihoods of the rural poor are changing in response to high gold prices.
Housing Assistance and the Life Course: Understanding the Impact of Policy Alternatives. Australian governments are confronted by increasing pressure to assist low-income and vulnerable households gain access to affordable and appropriate housing. Over 100,000 Australians are homeless and 1.3 million households experience housing stress. This project will answer the question, what form of housing assistance generates the best outcomes for both vulnerable individuals and society as a whole? It d ....Housing Assistance and the Life Course: Understanding the Impact of Policy Alternatives. Australian governments are confronted by increasing pressure to assist low-income and vulnerable households gain access to affordable and appropriate housing. Over 100,000 Australians are homeless and 1.3 million households experience housing stress. This project will answer the question, what form of housing assistance generates the best outcomes for both vulnerable individuals and society as a whole? It does so through interviews with low income home purchasers, private tenants and public tenants. The research will strengthen Australia's social fabric by helping governments make better decisions around housing assistance to vulnerable groups. Read moreRead less
The impacts of land ownership change on rural social and economic change. This project aims to develop a comprehensive framework for explaining how and why rural land is changing hands, what this means for the ways we understand socio-economic change in rural Australia, and how it can inform best-practice rural and regional decision making by public, private and community sector interests. The project will generate a unique, research-ready database that will detail every land transaction in rura ....The impacts of land ownership change on rural social and economic change. This project aims to develop a comprehensive framework for explaining how and why rural land is changing hands, what this means for the ways we understand socio-economic change in rural Australia, and how it can inform best-practice rural and regional decision making by public, private and community sector interests. The project will generate a unique, research-ready database that will detail every land transaction in rural NSW over a period of ten years, and analyse these data in light of complementary datasets and a series of in-depth interviews with land-owners and key stakeholders. The project expects to transform national understanding of rural land-ownership change, and promote best practice decision making.Read moreRead less