ASEAN+3 Free Trade Agreement and Its Impact on Australia-Vietnam Trade. The ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and Korea) free trade agreement endorsed by ASEAN Leaders in 2001 poses a serious trade diversion threat to Australia's goods and services trade to ASEAN and North Asia (reaching $33.9b and $85.0b respectively in 2001, see DFAT 2003). No research on this has been done or reported. The project, with Vietnam Institute for Trade collaboration, uses new analytical and empirical approaches to investigate ....ASEAN+3 Free Trade Agreement and Its Impact on Australia-Vietnam Trade. The ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and Korea) free trade agreement endorsed by ASEAN Leaders in 2001 poses a serious trade diversion threat to Australia's goods and services trade to ASEAN and North Asia (reaching $33.9b and $85.0b respectively in 2001, see DFAT 2003). No research on this has been done or reported. The project, with Vietnam Institute for Trade collaboration, uses new analytical and empirical approaches to investigate this FTA and its implications to Australia's trade to a major ASEAN country, namely Vietnam, where 2002 trade reached $2.8b and Australia's global companies (eg. ANZ, Telstra, RMIT) currently have large operation.Read moreRead less
Human capital accumulation and economic growth: A multi-country general equilibrium model. The project seeks to explain the interaction between policies that affect human capital investment and the consequences of that investment for economic growth. Specifically it aims to incorporate recent developments in the theory of economic growth, and in particular a schooling sector that produces human capital, into a multi-country and multi sector model. This will overcome limitations of the current st ....Human capital accumulation and economic growth: A multi-country general equilibrium model. The project seeks to explain the interaction between policies that affect human capital investment and the consequences of that investment for economic growth. Specifically it aims to incorporate recent developments in the theory of economic growth, and in particular a schooling sector that produces human capital, into a multi-country and multi sector model. This will overcome limitations of the current state of growth theory, associated with the high level of aggregation used in growth models - such as the effects of sector specific research subsidies research, and the effects of education subsidies on the growth of human capital specific sectors.Read moreRead less
Watching migrating whales: ensuring the sustainability of a growing whale-watch industry. Whale-watching is a huge growth industry, contributing $270 million to Australia in 2003. Yet most whalewatching targets species listed under the EPBC Act 1999 as species slowly recovering from massive overexploitation. Current protection measures are historical (ie best-guess) rather than scientific in origin. We will assess the scientific basis for these protection measures by experimentally manipulating ....Watching migrating whales: ensuring the sustainability of a growing whale-watch industry. Whale-watching is a huge growth industry, contributing $270 million to Australia in 2003. Yet most whalewatching targets species listed under the EPBC Act 1999 as species slowly recovering from massive overexploitation. Current protection measures are historical (ie best-guess) rather than scientific in origin. We will assess the scientific basis for these protection measures by experimentally manipulating tour boat behaviour, and by determining the economic feasibility of the industry. By doing so we will increase the long-term sustainability of the industry, a valuable tourist industry for regional Australia.Read moreRead less
Working with recovery: Future proofing our rivers against floods & droughts. It's happening! Rivers in coastal NSW are showing signs of recovery. 25 years of improved management has increased the structural and vegetative roughness of river channels. Getting the ‘fibre’ back into rivers has impacted most positively on flood hydrology, but less so on riparian vegetation quality. This project aims to understand how river recovery occurs, its impact on flood flows and test new techniques to improve ....Working with recovery: Future proofing our rivers against floods & droughts. It's happening! Rivers in coastal NSW are showing signs of recovery. 25 years of improved management has increased the structural and vegetative roughness of river channels. Getting the ‘fibre’ back into rivers has impacted most positively on flood hydrology, but less so on riparian vegetation quality. This project aims to understand how river recovery occurs, its impact on flood flows and test new techniques to improve vegetation quality. It will investigate where corridors of recovery are, where to prioritise rehabilitation and the cost:benefit of working with recovery. This will benefit public policy, improve flood and drought risk analysis, and change decision-making and rehabilitation practice - essentially future proofing our rivers.Read moreRead less
Shaping a sunburnt country: fire, climate and the Australian landscape. Fire shapes Australia’s landscape, biodiversity and resources. This project aims to quantify the recent history of fire intensity and severity using several novel proxies in the fire-prone landscapes of south-eastern Australia. Calibration of these new proxies to recent wildfires will be used for a better characterisation of fire regimes. This research will be applied to sedimentary archives to investigate how fire regimes h ....Shaping a sunburnt country: fire, climate and the Australian landscape. Fire shapes Australia’s landscape, biodiversity and resources. This project aims to quantify the recent history of fire intensity and severity using several novel proxies in the fire-prone landscapes of south-eastern Australia. Calibration of these new proxies to recent wildfires will be used for a better characterisation of fire regimes. This research will be applied to sedimentary archives to investigate how fire regimes have evolved over the past 100 years. The outcomes will inform debates about the relationship between climatic variability and fire severity, and this will contribute to increase the preparedness of natural resource management to potential future climate and land-use scenarios.Read moreRead less
Mega spatial-scale, multi time-scale, ensemble assessment of climate change driven coastal change in South Eastern Australia. Climate change driven variations in mean sea level, storm surges, and waves will change the world's coastline. This project will, for the first time, develop innovative modelling methods to quantify the integrated impact of these climate drivers on coastal erosion along Australia's most developed and populated coastline: Sydney to Brisbane.
Integrating past ice sheet dynamics with palaeoclimate in the Weddell Sea sector to evaluate current and future change in Antarctica. This project will extend historical records of change and understand the complex linkages between Antarctic climate and ice sheet dynamics, thereby assisting in: (i) identifying the mechanisms of past and future ice sheet stability, and (ii) communicating the research outputs to the general public, helping scientific understanding.
Assessing absolute sustainability of global cities. The project aims to create a quantitative modelling framework for assessing the absolute sustainability of cities by combining global multi-region input-output analysis with the 'safe and just space' concept for human development. The model will allow assessment of the full supply chain environmental and social impacts of urban economic activities against biophysical planetary limits as well as social foundation thresholds defined in the litera ....Assessing absolute sustainability of global cities. The project aims to create a quantitative modelling framework for assessing the absolute sustainability of cities by combining global multi-region input-output analysis with the 'safe and just space' concept for human development. The model will allow assessment of the full supply chain environmental and social impacts of urban economic activities against biophysical planetary limits as well as social foundation thresholds defined in the literature. The project will advance sustainability science methodology and will greatly benefit worldwide initiatives for urban sustainability. Case studies on Australian cities will assess where interventions can be most practically, realistically and effectively implemented.Read moreRead less
Hydrological changes in Australia and the South Pacific. This project plans to use stalagmites from the South–West Pacific to generate continuous rainfall records for the last 2000 years. Stalagmites contain uncorrupted data that are not available in other archives, and provide unparalleled accurate chronologies. The spatial and temporal variations of the data may highlight the interplay of climate drivers, such as El Niño Southern Oscillation, and how they change the distribution of rainfall in ....Hydrological changes in Australia and the South Pacific. This project plans to use stalagmites from the South–West Pacific to generate continuous rainfall records for the last 2000 years. Stalagmites contain uncorrupted data that are not available in other archives, and provide unparalleled accurate chronologies. The spatial and temporal variations of the data may highlight the interplay of climate drivers, such as El Niño Southern Oscillation, and how they change the distribution of rainfall in the Pacific. This knowledge would increase our scientific understanding and enable better predictions of the recurrence of droughts and wet events in Australia.Read moreRead less
CoPlas: a Modelling Framework for the Simulation of Coevolving Landscape Processes in Australian Humid Environments. This project aims to develop a modelling framework to study the impacts of past and future human and climatic stresses on temperate humid environments. It will combine knowledge and modelling tools for hydrological, geomorphological, biochemical and vegetation processes. It is expected to will provide indicators to assess systems resilience to climate and human stress and to ident ....CoPlas: a Modelling Framework for the Simulation of Coevolving Landscape Processes in Australian Humid Environments. This project aims to develop a modelling framework to study the impacts of past and future human and climatic stresses on temperate humid environments. It will combine knowledge and modelling tools for hydrological, geomorphological, biochemical and vegetation processes. It is expected to will provide indicators to assess systems resilience to climate and human stress and to identify and prevent soil degradation and erosion at the catchment scale, for application for adaptive landscape and water resources management programs.Read moreRead less