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
Living with Urban Heat: Becoming Climate-Ready in Social Housing . This project aims to address liveability in rapidly warming cities by focusing on the role that social practice plays in complementing technical and infrastructural cooling solutions. This project expects to generate new knowledge about equitable heat adaptive practices. It does so by working with culturally diverse social housing residents using an innovative blend of participatory action research and transition design. Expected ....Living with Urban Heat: Becoming Climate-Ready in Social Housing . This project aims to address liveability in rapidly warming cities by focusing on the role that social practice plays in complementing technical and infrastructural cooling solutions. This project expects to generate new knowledge about equitable heat adaptive practices. It does so by working with culturally diverse social housing residents using an innovative blend of participatory action research and transition design. Expected outcomes of this project include practical, low-cost cooling strategies that can be implemented now, along with increased social input into planning for the hotter urban future. This should provide significant benefits, such as enhanced civic capacity to generate society-wide climate readiness. 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
Improving long term forecasts of tree growth in carbon farming projects. Australia is taking action to limit global warming, including use of "carbon farming" to capture CO2 using trees as natural carbon sinks. Limited knowledge on the growth rate of Mulga trees, a primary carbon sink, hampers our partner organisation’s ability to maximise carbon stores. The aim of this proposal is to use dendrochronology to inform novel predictive models for growth of mulga trees that will reduce uncertainty in ....Improving long term forecasts of tree growth in carbon farming projects. Australia is taking action to limit global warming, including use of "carbon farming" to capture CO2 using trees as natural carbon sinks. Limited knowledge on the growth rate of Mulga trees, a primary carbon sink, hampers our partner organisation’s ability to maximise carbon stores. The aim of this proposal is to use dendrochronology to inform novel predictive models for growth of mulga trees that will reduce uncertainty in carbon removal forecasts. The expected outcome will be significant and benefit our partner organisation and other agencies by providing improved forecasting of tree growth that will inform their decisions for investment in carbon farming and nature repair markets.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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100755
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$462,948.00
Summary
Developing phytosystems for the biofiltration of air pollutants . This project aims to develop, evaluate and apply a range of biotechnology driven solutions for the use of phytosystem biofilters designed for air purification. The findings of the project will demonstrate the fundamental mechanisms behind botanical air pollutant biofiltration, apply systematic technological development against a range of air pollutants, and provide strategies to deploy the technology. With a transdisciplinary appr ....Developing phytosystems for the biofiltration of air pollutants . This project aims to develop, evaluate and apply a range of biotechnology driven solutions for the use of phytosystem biofilters designed for air purification. The findings of the project will demonstrate the fundamental mechanisms behind botanical air pollutant biofiltration, apply systematic technological development against a range of air pollutants, and provide strategies to deploy the technology. With a transdisciplinary approach utilising techniques new to this discipline, the project will substantially advance the fundamental science underlying this novel and highly valuable area of air-bioremediation technology, and will create a much stronger economic driver for this Australia-led innovation.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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100305
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$434,042.00
Summary
Unravelling the pathways of methane production and oxidation in mangroves. This project addresses a long-standing conundrum of why high methane emissions are sustained in saline coastal wetlands by identifying and quantifying methane production and oxidation processes in mangrove ecosystems. Using a novel combination of cutting-edge instrumentation for greenhouse gases, radiocarbon/stable isotope analysis, this project will generate a first complete picture of the mangrove methane cycle, to accu ....Unravelling the pathways of methane production and oxidation in mangroves. This project addresses a long-standing conundrum of why high methane emissions are sustained in saline coastal wetlands by identifying and quantifying methane production and oxidation processes in mangrove ecosystems. Using a novel combination of cutting-edge instrumentation for greenhouse gases, radiocarbon/stable isotope analysis, this project will generate a first complete picture of the mangrove methane cycle, to accurately quantify, for the first time, Australia’s contribution to global coastal mangrove emissions. The outcomes will establish currently lacking fundamental understanding of wetland methane cycling, advance global biogeochemical models, and improve strategies for natural climate solutions of coastal wetlands in Australia.Read moreRead less