Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100922
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$408,490.00
Summary
Foresight: Anticipatory decision-making in water resource management. Long-term planning is vital to secure Australia’s water resources in the face of environmental disruption. This project aims to contribute to sustainable and equitable water management by examining the efficacy of anticipatory decision-making approaches. Qualitative research will be used to examine how scientific knowledge is used or contested in water reform within the Murray-Darling Basin. Intended outcomes include improved ....Foresight: Anticipatory decision-making in water resource management. Long-term planning is vital to secure Australia’s water resources in the face of environmental disruption. This project aims to contribute to sustainable and equitable water management by examining the efficacy of anticipatory decision-making approaches. Qualitative research will be used to examine how scientific knowledge is used or contested in water reform within the Murray-Darling Basin. Intended outcomes include improved capacities to plan for future change and establishing anticipatory decision-making within Australian natural resource management. This should provide significant benefits based on an integrated approach to science and decision-making that addresses trade-offs between stakeholders to identify shared action pathways.Read moreRead less
Sustainable Australian food production within secure global supply chains. This project aims at exploring future pathways for the Australian food system to remain secure under future disruptive changes, environmentally and socially sustainable, and able to offer healthy food choices. It will reveal the connections among food supply chains, diets and human health, and portray a food system that achieves public health and sustainability goals while positioning Australia securely into the global su ....Sustainable Australian food production within secure global supply chains. This project aims at exploring future pathways for the Australian food system to remain secure under future disruptive changes, environmentally and socially sustainable, and able to offer healthy food choices. It will reveal the connections among food supply chains, diets and human health, and portray a food system that achieves public health and sustainability goals while positioning Australia securely into the global supply chain network. These goals will be achieved by creating the Australian Food Lab, which will provide a collaborative research platform for environmental scientists, economists, public health experts, and food industry representatives for investigating issues pertaining to the future of our food system.Read moreRead less
Improving the potential of biodiversity offsetting to reconcile development and conservation: will good environmental outcomes counterbalance the bad? Attempts to reduce conflict between development and conservation are increasingly reliant upon environmental offsetting: generating an environmental benefit to compensate for environmental damage elsewhere. However, whether different offset approaches can achieve their goal of ‘no net loss’ of biodiversity is unknown. By building simulations of th ....Improving the potential of biodiversity offsetting to reconcile development and conservation: will good environmental outcomes counterbalance the bad? Attempts to reduce conflict between development and conservation are increasingly reliant upon environmental offsetting: generating an environmental benefit to compensate for environmental damage elsewhere. However, whether different offset approaches can achieve their goal of ‘no net loss’ of biodiversity is unknown. By building simulations of the long-term biodiversity consequences (both intended and unintended) of current offset approaches, This project aims to test how each approach and associated sources of uncertainty influence the long-term persistence of biodiversity. It will identify limitations of biodiversity offsetting, shed new light on the most effective approaches, and help develop global standards for offsetting biodiversity loss.Read moreRead less
Enhancing and evaluating stakeholder engagement for improved water outcomes. Stakeholder engagement, widely recognised as essential in successful water governance, remains ad hoc both in practice and as a research theme. Using a detailed analysis of a complex evolutionary case of stakeholder engagement in water management in the Murray-Darling Basin (1900- 2020), this project aims to develop new approaches to measure the structure and form of socio-culturally derived stakeholder engagement syste ....Enhancing and evaluating stakeholder engagement for improved water outcomes. Stakeholder engagement, widely recognised as essential in successful water governance, remains ad hoc both in practice and as a research theme. Using a detailed analysis of a complex evolutionary case of stakeholder engagement in water management in the Murray-Darling Basin (1900- 2020), this project aims to develop new approaches to measure the structure and form of socio-culturally derived stakeholder engagement system, to improve socio-economic and environmental benefits from water. The expected output is a new diagnostic tool for evaluating stakeholder engagement that can be taken up by governing bodies. The expected benefit is more inclusive, equal, and adaptive water governance through more effective stakeholder engagement.Read moreRead less
Developing Ecosystem Services Economies for northern Australia. The project aims to advance economic opportunities for Indigenous communities across Northern Australia by developing culturally appropriate ecosystem services economies. The project will offer new alternatives for collectively addressing chronic Indigenous socio-economic issues and pressing environmental issues. Expected outcomes include a co-developed ecosystem services economies business model with a toolkit, involving Indigenous ....Developing Ecosystem Services Economies for northern Australia. The project aims to advance economic opportunities for Indigenous communities across Northern Australia by developing culturally appropriate ecosystem services economies. The project will offer new alternatives for collectively addressing chronic Indigenous socio-economic issues and pressing environmental issues. Expected outcomes include a co-developed ecosystem services economies business model with a toolkit, involving Indigenous and business stakeholders, for establishing innovative enterprises across northern Australia. Key benefits include new ecosystem services-based enterprises; sustainable land sector development; jobs in remote locations; improved well-being of Indigenous peoples; and better environmental management. Read moreRead less
Identifying and learning from bright spots in coral reef governance. This project aims to solve the global problem of unsustainable coral reef fisheries by locating and learning from ‘bright spots’ in reefs. Bright spots are reefs in better condition than they should be, given the multiple drivers (e.g. markets and human population pressures) to which they are exposed. This project will use a global-scale analysis to identify bright spots, and field-based research to uncover the enabling social, ....Identifying and learning from bright spots in coral reef governance. This project aims to solve the global problem of unsustainable coral reef fisheries by locating and learning from ‘bright spots’ in reefs. Bright spots are reefs in better condition than they should be, given the multiple drivers (e.g. markets and human population pressures) to which they are exposed. This project will use a global-scale analysis to identify bright spots, and field-based research to uncover the enabling social, economic and institutional conditions. Understanding these enabling conditions should help to formulate policy levers for more sustainable reef governance in other regions.Read moreRead less
Induction of multiple environmental stress tolerance in Australian native species for land rehabilitation using benzoic acid derivatives. The aim of this project is to develop methods to induce abiotic (drought, temperature, salinity) and biotic (die-back disease) stress tolerance in Australian plants by simple treatment using signalling molecules (benzoic acid derivatives) for conservation and land rehabilitation. These molecules occur naturally in plants and non-toxic. Plant establishment in r ....Induction of multiple environmental stress tolerance in Australian native species for land rehabilitation using benzoic acid derivatives. The aim of this project is to develop methods to induce abiotic (drought, temperature, salinity) and biotic (die-back disease) stress tolerance in Australian plants by simple treatment using signalling molecules (benzoic acid derivatives) for conservation and land rehabilitation. These molecules occur naturally in plants and non-toxic. Plant establishment in rehabilitation programs are very low due to exposure to stress. Furthermore, the loss to agricultural and horticultural industries resulting from environmental stresses is very high. Outcome of the project is the availability of plants with multiple stress tolerance enhancing success of rehabilitation programs with flow-through benefits to horticultural and agricultural industries.Read moreRead less
Balancing Societies’ Priorities in addressing Emerging National and Global Environmental Challenges. Growing global demands for water, food and energy will continue to intensify land-use conflicts, contribute to carbon emissions, and exacerbate threats to biodiversity. Consumption needs to be balanced with environmental protection. This project aims to frame the issues of food security, rural development, carbon emissions and biodiversity loss from the perspective of ecological and economic theo ....Balancing Societies’ Priorities in addressing Emerging National and Global Environmental Challenges. Growing global demands for water, food and energy will continue to intensify land-use conflicts, contribute to carbon emissions, and exacerbate threats to biodiversity. Consumption needs to be balanced with environmental protection. This project aims to frame the issues of food security, rural development, carbon emissions and biodiversity loss from the perspective of ecological and economic theory. It will use cutting-edge analyses to assess the implications and trade-offs of alternative land-use and development scenarios that reflect key socioeconomic and environmental priorities in Indonesia. Based on these analyses, decision-support tools will be developed to help Indonesian policymakers reconcile these objectives to achieve more sustainable development.Read moreRead less
Nature futures: mapping pathways to prosperity for people and nature. Population growth, consumption and trade are direct socio-economic drivers of land use change and climate change, which determine where species can persist. The UN Sustainable Development Goals and national policies acknowledge the dependence of people on nature and the impact of socio-economic drivers on nature. However, few analyses of impacts on nature explicitly incorporate socio-economic drivers. Utilising a novel modelli ....Nature futures: mapping pathways to prosperity for people and nature. Population growth, consumption and trade are direct socio-economic drivers of land use change and climate change, which determine where species can persist. The UN Sustainable Development Goals and national policies acknowledge the dependence of people on nature and the impact of socio-economic drivers on nature. However, few analyses of impacts on nature explicitly incorporate socio-economic drivers. Utilising a novel modelling framework and high-performance computing we will integrate economic, land use and biodiversity models to evaluate: (i) policies and incentives for increasing national vegetation cover for carbon sequestration and habitat, and (ii) global risks to nature posed by land use change under future geopolitical scenarios.Read moreRead less
Water, carbon, and economics: resolving complex linkages for river health. By linking landscapes into our emerging low-carbon economy, this project will investigate how land management practices can be improved through payments for ecosystem services. With a focus on water and carbon, the main goal is to develop mechanisms to support integrated land and water management at the catchment scale.