Improving Sub-national Population Forecasts. The aim of this project is to make significant advances in two related areas of regional, council area and local population forecasting, namely improving accuracy, and providing an indication of forecast uncertainty. Population forecasts often turn out to be far more inaccurate than users realise and fail to come with any information about reliability. Every year forecasts inform a wide variety of planning and policy development activities and influen ....Improving Sub-national Population Forecasts. The aim of this project is to make significant advances in two related areas of regional, council area and local population forecasting, namely improving accuracy, and providing an indication of forecast uncertainty. Population forecasts often turn out to be far more inaccurate than users realise and fail to come with any information about reliability. Every year forecasts inform a wide variety of planning and policy development activities and influence investment decisions worth billions of dollars. In order to increase the value of forecasts to users, this project aims to combine methods from a range of disciplines to devise more accurate ways of forecasting populations, and provide accompanying information on their likely error.Read moreRead less
Gambling-related harm in Northern Australia: A Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based spatiotemporal analysis of venue catchments. There is growing national concern about the impact of electronic gaming (poker) machines yet little is known about the effects of this gambling in rural and remote areas of Australia. We will develop a database to define the geographic distribution of gambling impacts, the nature of high-risk venues, and the characteristics, both spatial and social, of vulnerable ....Gambling-related harm in Northern Australia: A Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based spatiotemporal analysis of venue catchments. There is growing national concern about the impact of electronic gaming (poker) machines yet little is known about the effects of this gambling in rural and remote areas of Australia. We will develop a database to define the geographic distribution of gambling impacts, the nature of high-risk venues, and the characteristics, both spatial and social, of vulnerable communities. This will enable the design of much needed harm minimisation strategies and will provide regulatory bodies with insights into the capacity of local communities to absorb the impact of electronic gaming machine venues.Read moreRead less
Developing Robust Small Area Population Forecasts for Planning and Policy. This project aims to create more robust, detailed, and accurate small area population forecasts, and implement them in a sophisticated forecasting system for one jurisdiction in Australia, USA, UK and Canada. The project is significant as it expects to generate a suite of new and innovative methods, theory, and population forecasts that will be useful to researchers and planners both in Australia and overseas. Expected ou ....Developing Robust Small Area Population Forecasts for Planning and Policy. This project aims to create more robust, detailed, and accurate small area population forecasts, and implement them in a sophisticated forecasting system for one jurisdiction in Australia, USA, UK and Canada. The project is significant as it expects to generate a suite of new and innovative methods, theory, and population forecasts that will be useful to researchers and planners both in Australia and overseas. Expected outcomes include new forecasting methods, associated computer code, many open-access academic papers, and new international collaborations. More detailed and reliable population forecasts will bring substantial benefits to those planning our future infrastructure requirements (e.g. schools, hospitals, housing and transport).
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Causes and consequences of population turnover in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory experiences an extraordinarily high rate of population turnover. Approximately one quarter (compared to less than 10% for most other states) of the Territory's resident population in 2001 had lived somewhere else 5 years earlier. The research will examine the characteristics and causes of this turnover as well as its long-term implications for the composition and associated planning capacity of the N ....Causes and consequences of population turnover in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory experiences an extraordinarily high rate of population turnover. Approximately one quarter (compared to less than 10% for most other states) of the Territory's resident population in 2001 had lived somewhere else 5 years earlier. The research will examine the characteristics and causes of this turnover as well as its long-term implications for the composition and associated planning capacity of the NT population. Of particular interest is the effect of population transience on the establishment, maintenance, and continuation of knowledge systems, both desert and tropical.Read moreRead less
The demographic consequences of extreme weather events in Australia. This project aims to understand how extreme weather events are likely to affect Australians’ residential mobility choices, using machine learning techniques to provide the first overview of the impact of natural hazards on where Australians are likely to live in the future. Expected outcomes include an understanding of the influence of extreme weather events on changes in population numbers and composition. Expected benefits in ....The demographic consequences of extreme weather events in Australia. This project aims to understand how extreme weather events are likely to affect Australians’ residential mobility choices, using machine learning techniques to provide the first overview of the impact of natural hazards on where Australians are likely to live in the future. Expected outcomes include an understanding of the influence of extreme weather events on changes in population numbers and composition. Expected benefits include an understanding of how environmental drivers are influencing internal migration in Australia, enabling better planning for service provision and economic growth.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
Securing the essential: assisting Indigenous communities and their service providers to sustainably manage water and energy supply. The provision of water and energy supplies to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) communities is a critical challenge for service providers. This project uses a novel unobtrusive smart metering system, aligned with culturally appropriate consultation with ATSI communities, to reveal patterns of household water and water related-energy consumption. Si ....Securing the essential: assisting Indigenous communities and their service providers to sustainably manage water and energy supply. The provision of water and energy supplies to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) communities is a critical challenge for service providers. This project uses a novel unobtrusive smart metering system, aligned with culturally appropriate consultation with ATSI communities, to reveal patterns of household water and water related-energy consumption. Significantly, the research aims to identify effective behavioural and technological water and energy efficiency strategies in three remote ATSI communities in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia. A key outcome is to provide an adaptive evidence-based and community-driven handbook to facilitate the secure long-term supply and efficient use of energy and water resources in remote ATSI communities.Read moreRead less
Linking terrestrial–aquatic fluxes to rectify the Australian carbon balance. This project aims to rectify the Australian carbon balance by determining the amount of terrestrial carbon that is lost to streams and rivers across the country. Through a novel integration of high-resolution hydrochemical and gas measurements, remote sensing and machine learning algorithms, the project intends to generate new knowledge about the links between terrestrial carbon sequestration and aquatic carbon export. ....Linking terrestrial–aquatic fluxes to rectify the Australian carbon balance. This project aims to rectify the Australian carbon balance by determining the amount of terrestrial carbon that is lost to streams and rivers across the country. Through a novel integration of high-resolution hydrochemical and gas measurements, remote sensing and machine learning algorithms, the project intends to generate new knowledge about the links between terrestrial carbon sequestration and aquatic carbon export. Expected outcomes include a refined estimate of the net carbon sequestration potential across Australian biomes and seasons. This should provide significant benefits such as avoiding misalignment of greenhouse gas abatement policies and advancing carbon cycling models and predictions.Read moreRead less
Planning for sustainable development and biodiversity on Indigenous lands. This project aims to develop a new approach to participatory land-use planning for sustainable development and conservation, in partnership with the Tiwi Land Council. Planning for sustainable development is complex but vital to reconciling economic, social and conservation goals worldwide. The project will evaluate land-use scenarios, including Indigenous Protected Areas, with ecological and economic models that integrat ....Planning for sustainable development and biodiversity on Indigenous lands. This project aims to develop a new approach to participatory land-use planning for sustainable development and conservation, in partnership with the Tiwi Land Council. Planning for sustainable development is complex but vital to reconciling economic, social and conservation goals worldwide. The project will evaluate land-use scenarios, including Indigenous Protected Areas, with ecological and economic models that integrate Indigenous and scientific knowledge. Benefits will include new planning tools and improved understanding of trade-offs between goals, especially on Australia’s Indigenous estates.Read moreRead less
Call Out and Listen In: A New Way to Detect and Control Invasive Species. This project aims to use novel acoustic techniques to detect and capture invasive frog species to protect native species. Invasive frogs are an under-appreciated but serious ecological problem worldwide, because they are voracious predators and are often toxic to native species. Male frogs call to attract mates, and answer calls they hear. Using new acoustic technologies, these behaviours can be exploited to detect species ....Call Out and Listen In: A New Way to Detect and Control Invasive Species. This project aims to use novel acoustic techniques to detect and capture invasive frog species to protect native species. Invasive frogs are an under-appreciated but serious ecological problem worldwide, because they are voracious predators and are often toxic to native species. Male frogs call to attract mates, and answer calls they hear. Using new acoustic technologies, these behaviours can be exploited to detect species and attract gravid females for removal. This project aims to combine an early warning system (electronic listening) and trap (calling and catching), which can be customised to any invasive frog, and use it to detect and remove cane toads, especially in low density populations.Read moreRead less