Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0989062
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$450,000.00
Summary
Airborne hyper-spectral scanning for advanced monitoring and assessment of vegetation and water properties. The proposed infrastructure will give Australian researchers the most advanced capabilities available world-wide in airborne remote sensing of the environment. By combining hyper-spectral scanning, with full wave-form resolving Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), microwave scanning and sythetic aperture RADAR, flown simultaneously on the most cost-efficient and technologically advanced re ....Airborne hyper-spectral scanning for advanced monitoring and assessment of vegetation and water properties. The proposed infrastructure will give Australian researchers the most advanced capabilities available world-wide in airborne remote sensing of the environment. By combining hyper-spectral scanning, with full wave-form resolving Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), microwave scanning and sythetic aperture RADAR, flown simultaneously on the most cost-efficient and technologically advanced research aircraft, it will be possible to assess and monitor a wide range of parameters not accessible to airborne methods before.Read moreRead less
Dynamics of woody vegetation and water in the central Pilbara - understanding and managing for environmental change. The development and application of technologies and knowledge for enhancing sustainable management of semi-arid environments are of high priority and significant economic, social and environmental benefit. The value of iron ore exports from the Pilbara is expected to grow by nearly 30% in the next year, while the projected production of iron ore over the next 4 years is expected t ....Dynamics of woody vegetation and water in the central Pilbara - understanding and managing for environmental change. The development and application of technologies and knowledge for enhancing sustainable management of semi-arid environments are of high priority and significant economic, social and environmental benefit. The value of iron ore exports from the Pilbara is expected to grow by nearly 30% in the next year, while the projected production of iron ore over the next 4 years is expected to be valued in excess of 60 billion dollars. However, continued and rapid expansion in the development of these resources is contingent on environmental oversight and adoption of an adaptive management approach. This research will thus make a major contribution to understanding the Pilbara ecosystems that provide tremendous economic wealth for all Australians.Read moreRead less
Multi-Objective Optimal Operation of Urban Water Supply Systems. In recent past, there has been a significant shift away from development of new water resources to optimal operation of existing reservoir systems. This project aims to develop a decision support framework to determine optimum operating rules of existing reservoir systems that consider a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, with a strong focus on decision analysis of alternative operating rules. The results of the ....Multi-Objective Optimal Operation of Urban Water Supply Systems. In recent past, there has been a significant shift away from development of new water resources to optimal operation of existing reservoir systems. This project aims to develop a decision support framework to determine optimum operating rules of existing reservoir systems that consider a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, with a strong focus on decision analysis of alternative operating rules. The results of the project will enable water planners to manage their urban water systems efficiently and effectively under a range of long term and short term planning conditions including droughts, while reducing associated environmental impacts.Read moreRead less
Finding lost dust storms: re-evaluation of the last 20 years of meteorological records to advance wind erosion mapping in Australia. The Dust Event Database (DEDB) at Griffith University is the only long term (1960 - present) record of wind erosion in Australia. It is used in many studies of the impact of dust on the terrestrial, atmospheric and marine environments as well as in studies of urban and regional air pollution and environmental health. Through this project, the revision of the DEDB w ....Finding lost dust storms: re-evaluation of the last 20 years of meteorological records to advance wind erosion mapping in Australia. The Dust Event Database (DEDB) at Griffith University is the only long term (1960 - present) record of wind erosion in Australia. It is used in many studies of the impact of dust on the terrestrial, atmospheric and marine environments as well as in studies of urban and regional air pollution and environmental health. Through this project, the revision of the DEDB will provide new knowledge on these impacts of wind erosion processes and will inform environmental policy through its contributions to the Caring for Our Country Program, the national State of the Environment, and the Australian Centre for Rangeland Information Systems.Read moreRead less
Change ecology - gaining broad-scale, timely biodiversity knowledge in a time of uncertainty. Australians are confronted daily with the consequences of changes wrought by human over-exploitation of natural resources. Our capacity to track and respond to change is very limited and slow. Thus, rapid deterioration of ecologically important aspects is detected late and is not reflective of the general state because knowledge is derived from small-scale measurements that are difficult to generalize. ....Change ecology - gaining broad-scale, timely biodiversity knowledge in a time of uncertainty. Australians are confronted daily with the consequences of changes wrought by human over-exploitation of natural resources. Our capacity to track and respond to change is very limited and slow. Thus, rapid deterioration of ecologically important aspects is detected late and is not reflective of the general state because knowledge is derived from small-scale measurements that are difficult to generalize. We will build a capacity for providing large-scale knowledge of vegetation condition and flow-on effects on biodiversity, which also will allow us to make informed assessments of the ecological consequences of some existing (climate change, drying) and imminent (biofuel plantings) drivers of change.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing landscapes for biodiversity: From predictive modelling to future scenarios. Many landscapes around the world have been effectively denuded of natural vegetation, causing precipitous declines in native biodiversity. Mitigation of such effects in the near/medium-term future requires substantial ecological advice. We will employ our skills developed in modelling distributions of species across landscapes based on terrain, soils and climate to assess alternative landscape-reconstructi ....Reconstructing landscapes for biodiversity: From predictive modelling to future scenarios. Many landscapes around the world have been effectively denuded of natural vegetation, causing precipitous declines in native biodiversity. Mitigation of such effects in the near/medium-term future requires substantial ecological advice. We will employ our skills developed in modelling distributions of species across landscapes based on terrain, soils and climate to assess alternative landscape-reconstruction scenarios. This links use of existing data sets for initial modelling, a validation phase for testing model reliability and for refining models, and a subsequent GIS-based modelling phase in which alternative options for reconstructing landscapes are evaluated for their effectiveness in sustaining landscape-scale native biodiversity.Read moreRead less
Planning for the adaptive management of wetland rehabilitation; Kanyapella Basin Case Study. Australia's ephemeral wetlands are being lost or degraded primarily through drainage. There is a pressing need to conserve the ecological character of remaining systems, and rehabilitate degraded ones. Rehabilitation is invariably constrained by water availability, community expectations and uncertainty about ecosystem responses to different water regimes. This project applies the adaptive management mod ....Planning for the adaptive management of wetland rehabilitation; Kanyapella Basin Case Study. Australia's ephemeral wetlands are being lost or degraded primarily through drainage. There is a pressing need to conserve the ecological character of remaining systems, and rehabilitate degraded ones. Rehabilitation is invariably constrained by water availability, community expectations and uncertainty about ecosystem responses to different water regimes. This project applies the adaptive management model to wetland rehabilitation. Adaptive management addresses uncertainty through experiments integrated into the rehabilitation process. It uses monitoring, and information feedback loops to inform current management actions. A generic model for the adaptive management of wetland rehabilitation will be developed which will predict responses to different re-wetting scenarios.Read moreRead less
Synthesising prior information for ecological research and management. While using existing information to design studies and compare results, ecologists rarely use existing information in their analyses. We will combine the results of previous ecological studies to summarise the existing information. We will test how well the traits of plants and animals can be predicted from previous research, and the benefit of this existing information for environmental management. By taking advantage of the ....Synthesising prior information for ecological research and management. While using existing information to design studies and compare results, ecologists rarely use existing information in their analyses. We will combine the results of previous ecological studies to summarise the existing information. We will test how well the traits of plants and animals can be predicted from previous research, and the benefit of this existing information for environmental management. By taking advantage of the wealth of previous ecological research, our project can save time and money for ecological research by scientists and environmental management by federal and state agencies. This will fundamentally change the way that ecology is conducted.Read moreRead less
Indicators of river condition: are they useful for environmental management? Indicators, that can be used to measure the condition of rivers, are an important part of environmental management but there has only been limited evaluation of their role and performance. Using the Index of Stream Condition (ISC) as an example, this project will explore the use of indicators in management tasks including: 1) assessing current condition; 2) detecting change; 3) providing early warning of a critical chan ....Indicators of river condition: are they useful for environmental management? Indicators, that can be used to measure the condition of rivers, are an important part of environmental management but there has only been limited evaluation of their role and performance. Using the Index of Stream Condition (ISC) as an example, this project will explore the use of indicators in management tasks including: 1) assessing current condition; 2) detecting change; 3) providing early warning of a critical change; and 4) priority setting. Through links with Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the outcomes of this project will improve indicator selection and use by catchment managers.Read moreRead less
Preserving freshwater biodiversity: predictions to manage the effects of suspended sediment and salinity. Natural resource managers wish to minimise deleterious effects of suspended sediment and salinity on biodiversity but do not have adequate knowledge to do so. Increases in salinity and sediment are recognised as the major threats to freshwater biodiversity in Australian rivers. This research will lead to greatly enhanced information on the relative impacts of rising salinity and sediment on ....Preserving freshwater biodiversity: predictions to manage the effects of suspended sediment and salinity. Natural resource managers wish to minimise deleterious effects of suspended sediment and salinity on biodiversity but do not have adequate knowledge to do so. Increases in salinity and sediment are recognised as the major threats to freshwater biodiversity in Australian rivers. This research will lead to greatly enhanced information on the relative impacts of rising salinity and sediment on freshwater biodiversity and aid predictive modelling and scenario testing; enabling managers to make informed choices between various management actions. The project addresses several national research priority goals and it will result in significant national and community benefits by protecting freshwater biodiversity from salinity and sediment.Read moreRead less