Optimising community-based climate change adaptation in the Pacific Islands. Optimising community-based climate change adaptation in the Pacific Islands. This project aims to evaluate community level climate change interventions in the Pacific to provide guidelines for better practice. The effects of climate change—rising sea levels, more droughts, and more frequent and intense storm activity—have been particularly concentrated in tropical areas such as the Pacific Islands. In response, interven ....Optimising community-based climate change adaptation in the Pacific Islands. Optimising community-based climate change adaptation in the Pacific Islands. This project aims to evaluate community level climate change interventions in the Pacific to provide guidelines for better practice. The effects of climate change—rising sea levels, more droughts, and more frequent and intense storm activity—have been particularly concentrated in tropical areas such as the Pacific Islands. In response, interventions to adapt to a diversity of impacts have accelerated at the community level across the region, but there has been no analysis of their long-term effectiveness in reducing livelihood and resource vulnerability to climate change.Read moreRead less
Enabling social innovation for local climate adaptability. Climate variability and change is likely to be felt most acutely at the local scale in Australia. This is where inter/national and State policies are translated into practices to prepare for, and adapt to, anticipated impacts of heatwaves, bushfires and floods. This project will investigate tensions and potentialities between risk-based assessments by local governance agencies and innovations by local groups and Non-Government Organisati ....Enabling social innovation for local climate adaptability. Climate variability and change is likely to be felt most acutely at the local scale in Australia. This is where inter/national and State policies are translated into practices to prepare for, and adapt to, anticipated impacts of heatwaves, bushfires and floods. This project will investigate tensions and potentialities between risk-based assessments by local governance agencies and innovations by local groups and Non-Government Organisations. The research will utilise an innovative mixed-methods approach to investigate and to analyse the strategies and experiments of adaptation practices. It aims to develop new ways of identifying and implementing practical, local, adaptive responses that are contextually relevant, socially innovative and capacity building.Read moreRead less
Evaluating Community Consultation: Criteria and Tools for Assessing Processes and Outcomes. Planning agencies are expected to include community consultation as an element of the decision-making process. Past research has focussed on developing effective consultation techniques. Little research attention has been given to guidelines for evaluating consultation activities. The proposed project will contribute fundamental knowledge on evaluation of consultation programs. It will do this through ....Evaluating Community Consultation: Criteria and Tools for Assessing Processes and Outcomes. Planning agencies are expected to include community consultation as an element of the decision-making process. Past research has focussed on developing effective consultation techniques. Little research attention has been given to guidelines for evaluating consultation activities. The proposed project will contribute fundamental knowledge on evaluation of consultation programs. It will do this through assessing a major regional planning exercise (SEQ 2021). It will develop and test comprehensive evaluation criteria and tools. The project will result in ready-to-use evaluation materials for SEQ 2021, and for other planning and decision-making authorities in Australia, representing a significant breakthrough in evaluation research and practice.Read moreRead less
Linking social science and ecology to understand the vulnerability of coastal societies to changes in coral reef resources. This project will examine how vulnerable communities in Australia and across the Indo-Pacific are to the impacts of climate change on coral reefs. Key outcomes will include: vulnerability assessments in 30 communities, new insights into the conditions that foster adaptations that erode reef resilience; and research training for three PhD students.
How can communities sustainably manage coral reefs? This project is relevant to the National Research Priority: An Environmentally Sustainable Australia. Key outcomes will include:
- a better understanding the most effective co-management arrangements for coral reefs;
- an evaluation of whether Australia's co-management models have the design principles associated with long-term success; and
- new insights into the socioeconomic environments under which co-management may be an effecti ....How can communities sustainably manage coral reefs? This project is relevant to the National Research Priority: An Environmentally Sustainable Australia. Key outcomes will include:
- a better understanding the most effective co-management arrangements for coral reefs;
- an evaluation of whether Australia's co-management models have the design principles associated with long-term success; and
- new insights into the socioeconomic environments under which co-management may be an effective management option.
These outcomes will promote the sustainable use of Australia's biodiversity by strengthening the capacity of co-management institutions. This project will also promote Australia's research capacity by providing research funds for one PhD student and one Honours student.
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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
Spatially Integrated Socio-Economic Analysis: Australia at the New Millennium. A new spatially integrated approach is used to analyse and evaluate the divides in Australian society at the new millennium, drawing on perspectives from three key disciplines in the social sciences - economics, human geography and sociology. Pathbreaking microsimulation and GIS based spatial modelling techniques are used to generate new synthetic variables by integrating ABS Census and survey data to enhance the unde ....Spatially Integrated Socio-Economic Analysis: Australia at the New Millennium. A new spatially integrated approach is used to analyse and evaluate the divides in Australian society at the new millennium, drawing on perspectives from three key disciplines in the social sciences - economics, human geography and sociology. Pathbreaking microsimulation and GIS based spatial modelling techniques are used to generate new synthetic variables by integrating ABS Census and survey data to enhance the understanding of patterns and improve explanation of differential outcomes in the well-being of both people and places. The new decision support systems we develop will better inform policy responses to address distributional equity, efficiency and competitiveness.Read moreRead less
Urban cultural policy and the changing dynamics of cultural production. This project aims to identify new directions for urban cultural policy by conducting international comparative research around the emerging nexus between the cultural industries and manufacturing. Policies that govern Australia’s cultural economy focus predominately on cultural consumption. This approach does not account for the changing dynamics of the cultural economy, particularly the emergent relationships with a complex ....Urban cultural policy and the changing dynamics of cultural production. This project aims to identify new directions for urban cultural policy by conducting international comparative research around the emerging nexus between the cultural industries and manufacturing. Policies that govern Australia’s cultural economy focus predominately on cultural consumption. This approach does not account for the changing dynamics of the cultural economy, particularly the emergent relationships with a complex urban manufacturing sector. As a result, many innovation, employment and urban development opportunities around cultural production are unrealised. The results of the project are expected to yield insights into urban industry dynamics and change how Australians conceptualise urban cultural policy.Read moreRead less
Strengthening economic resilience in Monsoon Asia. Sharing, reciprocity and resource pooling are at the frontline of recovery and relief when economic crisis or disaster hits Monsoon Asia. This research aims to shed light on cases where these economic practices have been innovatively harnessed to diversify livelihoods and build economic resilience. Working with contemporary Asian scholars, practitioners in the disaster field and a data set gleaned from multiple sources, including mid-20th centur ....Strengthening economic resilience in Monsoon Asia. Sharing, reciprocity and resource pooling are at the frontline of recovery and relief when economic crisis or disaster hits Monsoon Asia. This research aims to shed light on cases where these economic practices have been innovatively harnessed to diversify livelihoods and build economic resilience. Working with contemporary Asian scholars, practitioners in the disaster field and a data set gleaned from multiple sources, including mid-20th century tropical geography texts, the project aims to bring to the fore a regional landscape of diverse economic practices across Monsoon Asia. A cross-regional on-line knowledge community is expected to be formed to explore how this asset base might be mobilised towards more effective local development and disaster response.Read moreRead less
Modelling the Causes of Regional Disparities across Australia. This project aims to explain the changing patterns of regional economic performance across Australia between 2001-2011 in the context of two developments: major structural shifts in world trade and commodity prices spawning massive mining growth and negative exchange rate impacts elsewhere (for example, manufacturing); and the financial crisis ending the credit boom leaving east coast economies struggling. The resulting regional disp ....Modelling the Causes of Regional Disparities across Australia. This project aims to explain the changing patterns of regional economic performance across Australia between 2001-2011 in the context of two developments: major structural shifts in world trade and commodity prices spawning massive mining growth and negative exchange rate impacts elsewhere (for example, manufacturing); and the financial crisis ending the credit boom leaving east coast economies struggling. The resulting regional disparities have policy implications for education and skills training, housing affordability, infrastructure provision, and community sustainability. These issues will be investigated using a new functional economic regions geography and state of art spatial modelling tools supplemented by regional case studies.Read moreRead less