Are proposed land-based sinks for greenhouse gases resilient to climate change and natural variability? One strategy to reduce the scale of future climate change is to enhance the storage of carbon in vegetation and soils. Evidence suggests carbon stored in vegetation and soils is itself vulnerable to climate change, placing this stored carbon at risk; this project will assess this risk to advise on the reliability of using terrestrial systems as carbon sinks.
Weather, climate & geological risks: derivative pricing & risk management. This project aims to create new mathematical models and approaches for the fair valuation and hedging of financial derivatives, tackling funding for climate change adaptation and catastrophic disaster risk management. Businesses use derivatives to strategically mitigate financial losses from adverse climate conditions and geological hazards. Expected outcomes are improved models for weather variables and hazard risk asses ....Weather, climate & geological risks: derivative pricing & risk management. This project aims to create new mathematical models and approaches for the fair valuation and hedging of financial derivatives, tackling funding for climate change adaptation and catastrophic disaster risk management. Businesses use derivatives to strategically mitigate financial losses from adverse climate conditions and geological hazards. Expected outcomes are improved models for weather variables and hazard risk assessment; richer methodology from the fusion of mathematical techniques, data analysis and earth sciences perspectives; and quantitative solutions to pressing societal concerns. Significant benefits also include highly qualified personnel training and international collaboration on common multidisciplinary research priorities.Read moreRead less
Adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating for buildings . This project aims to develop an adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating technology suitable for the for the reduction of the energy consumption in buildings for the mitigation of the urban overheating in the built environment. The project expects to generate new knowledge in this area to exploit adaptive strategies in the development of future cooling and heating solutions for buildings. Expected project outcomes consist of th ....Adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating for buildings . This project aims to develop an adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating technology suitable for the for the reduction of the energy consumption in buildings for the mitigation of the urban overheating in the built environment. The project expects to generate new knowledge in this area to exploit adaptive strategies in the development of future cooling and heating solutions for buildings. Expected project outcomes consist of the establishment of the new adaptive daytime radiative technology for use on building envelopes to support cooling requirements in hot weather and heating needs under cold conditions. This should lead to significant benefits for the Australian building and construction industry. Read moreRead less
Bushfire analytics: optimisation of fuel reduction. Bushfires are an integral part of the Australian ecosystem. However, their severity has been worsening rapidly over the past decade. This project aims to develop a principled and scalable methodology for optimising fuel treatment planning to reduce the potential for severe bushfires. This project expects to generate new knowledge in bushfire fuel management using a groundbreaking combination of mathematical modelling techniques and state-of-the ....Bushfire analytics: optimisation of fuel reduction. Bushfires are an integral part of the Australian ecosystem. However, their severity has been worsening rapidly over the past decade. This project aims to develop a principled and scalable methodology for optimising fuel treatment planning to reduce the potential for severe bushfires. This project expects to generate new knowledge in bushfire fuel management using a groundbreaking combination of mathematical modelling techniques and state-of-the-art optimisation methods. The expected outcomes should provide significant benefits to our nation's ability to respond and adapt to the impacts of environmental change on biological systems and urban and rural communities.Read moreRead less
The Coal Rush and Beyond: Climate Change, Coal Reliance and Contested Futures. Globally, coal extraction and burning is booming. The burning of coal has released unprecedented quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and exacerbated anthropogenic climate change. This inter-disciplinary project investigates the 'coal rush' in sociopolitical terms, asking how it can be superseded. This project seeks explanations of why new coal mines and coal-fired power stations are constructed, investiga ....The Coal Rush and Beyond: Climate Change, Coal Reliance and Contested Futures. Globally, coal extraction and burning is booming. The burning of coal has released unprecedented quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and exacerbated anthropogenic climate change. This inter-disciplinary project investigates the 'coal rush' in sociopolitical terms, asking how it can be superseded. This project seeks explanations of why new coal mines and coal-fired power stations are constructed, investigate social conflicts centred on new coal facilities, and analyse what social factors may enable transition from coal. Specific sites, national contexts and transnational connections will be compared to develop a nuanced understanding of dependence on coal, and how it may be overcome. Read moreRead less
Unlocking the anchors of soil organic carbon to manage climate change. Soil is the largest reservoir of terrestrial organic carbon. Most of the organic carbon in soils is preserved by association with minerals, however, the composition and stability of mineral-associated organic carbon remain poorly understood. The project will use novel and emerging techniques to discover the composition of organic carbon and stability of organic carbon present in mineral-organic associations in representative ....Unlocking the anchors of soil organic carbon to manage climate change. Soil is the largest reservoir of terrestrial organic carbon. Most of the organic carbon in soils is preserved by association with minerals, however, the composition and stability of mineral-associated organic carbon remain poorly understood. The project will use novel and emerging techniques to discover the composition of organic carbon and stability of organic carbon present in mineral-organic associations in representative Australian soils. Expected outcomes include new knowledge necessary for emerging global carbon cycling models and improve future climate projections. Read moreRead less
Smart materials for atmospheric water management and water harvesting. Fresh water is a scarce resource in many parts of the globe but uncomfortably over-supplied in other regions. Dehumidifying machines, such as air conditioners, are extensively used in humid climates to enhance human comfort, but with great energy costs. Likewise, the production of potable water in remote dry regions is energy intensive. We propose novel hyper-absorbent desiccating polymers combined into sorption-powered engin ....Smart materials for atmospheric water management and water harvesting. Fresh water is a scarce resource in many parts of the globe but uncomfortably over-supplied in other regions. Dehumidifying machines, such as air conditioners, are extensively used in humid climates to enhance human comfort, but with great energy costs. Likewise, the production of potable water in remote dry regions is energy intensive. We propose novel hyper-absorbent desiccating polymers combined into sorption-powered engines inspired by nastic movements in plants to develop extremely efficient dehumidifiers and water harvesting machines. These polymer actuators can help address the auto-acceleration of climate change caused by the increasing use of air conditioners and provide cheap, clean water for remote communities.Read moreRead less
Rhizosphere mediation of soil greenhouse gas fluxes with climate change. Increasingly extreme heat waves, droughts and floods contribute major uncertainties in predicting natural land-based climate change mitigation. This project will quantify current and future greenhouse gas absorption in a managed grassland ecosystem, and the new knowledge will contribute to carbon emissions offsets in climate change accounting schemes. We will conduct this research using a manipulative field experiment, cont ....Rhizosphere mediation of soil greenhouse gas fluxes with climate change. Increasingly extreme heat waves, droughts and floods contribute major uncertainties in predicting natural land-based climate change mitigation. This project will quantify current and future greenhouse gas absorption in a managed grassland ecosystem, and the new knowledge will contribute to carbon emissions offsets in climate change accounting schemes. We will conduct this research using a manipulative field experiment, controlled laboratory incubations, microbial gene analysis and mechanistic modelling to provide new insights into future potential climate change mitigation by soils.Read moreRead less
High quality copper-zinc-tin-sulphide absorber by one-stage reactive sputtering technology: a route to high efficiency/low cost thin film solar cells. International studies show that electricity from solar cells is one of the cleanest future energy sources, able to almost completely displace fossil fuels. This project, proposed to fulfil such a key role, targets greatly improved efficiency/cost ratio, by producing high quality CZTS thin film absorbers with a cost-effective fabrication technique.
Uncertainty in the social cost of carbon dioxide: control theoretic methods. This project aims to redevelop the most commonly used social cost of carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) modeling framework using the best available scientific data and state-of-the-art uncertainty quantification techniques, providing government and industry decision-makers with a robust tool to tackle a carbon-constrained future. This project will deliver improved, robust estimates of the SC-CO2, a proxy for a price on carbon emis ....Uncertainty in the social cost of carbon dioxide: control theoretic methods. This project aims to redevelop the most commonly used social cost of carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) modeling framework using the best available scientific data and state-of-the-art uncertainty quantification techniques, providing government and industry decision-makers with a robust tool to tackle a carbon-constrained future. This project will deliver improved, robust estimates of the SC-CO2, a proxy for a price on carbon emissions that is used by governments, businesses, and financial bodies. This will enable Australia to play a leading and proactive role in the international pursuit of significant and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.Read moreRead less