Social Network Analysis: Social Media, Peer Effects and the Environment. The aims of this proposal are to better understand the role of networks in different activities such as social media, education, crime and environment-friendly behaviour. The project expects to help inform the design and practice of policies for education and environmental authorities, police and media markets. Social networks are pervasive in Australia. The project tackles issues of criminal gangs in Australian cities, the ....Social Network Analysis: Social Media, Peer Effects and the Environment. The aims of this proposal are to better understand the role of networks in different activities such as social media, education, crime and environment-friendly behaviour. The project expects to help inform the design and practice of policies for education and environmental authorities, police and media markets. Social networks are pervasive in Australia. The project tackles issues of criminal gangs in Australian cities, the political system and environment-friendly behaviours. This project is at the frontier of work in the economics of networks, with expected outcomes to include new models and methods to better understand the impact of social networks. Benefits include clear policy recommendations to improve welfare in Australian society.Read moreRead less
Integrated Farm Modelling to Improve Resilience and Sustainable Prosperity. This project aims to improve farm resilience, farm management, and economic decision-making in Australia and internationally. It expects to generate new interdisciplinary knowledge to integrate our understanding of agro-ecosystems and innovative tools to assess their status and manage their operations more effectively. Expected outcomes include the ability to inform farmers, bankers, and land managers about the trade-off ....Integrated Farm Modelling to Improve Resilience and Sustainable Prosperity. This project aims to improve farm resilience, farm management, and economic decision-making in Australia and internationally. It expects to generate new interdisciplinary knowledge to integrate our understanding of agro-ecosystems and innovative tools to assess their status and manage their operations more effectively. Expected outcomes include the ability to inform farmers, bankers, and land managers about the trade-offs between resilience and efficiency on farms. This should provide significant benefits, including the ability to minimize financial risks to farmers and banks, allow better investment decisions, and achieve sustainable long-term outcomes for both private and public well-being.Read moreRead less
Investigating Innovative Waste Economies: redrawing the circular economy . Australia is facing a waste crisis and government and industry are promoting the Circular Economy as a solution. This project investigates innovative cultural and economic practices in three waste streams: single use plastics, organics and bulky household waste, to understand how they realise or redraw the circle. The project develops empirical evidence to advance thinking about how novel waste economies are organised and ....Investigating Innovative Waste Economies: redrawing the circular economy . Australia is facing a waste crisis and government and industry are promoting the Circular Economy as a solution. This project investigates innovative cultural and economic practices in three waste streams: single use plastics, organics and bulky household waste, to understand how they realise or redraw the circle. The project develops empirical evidence to advance thinking about how novel waste economies are organised and the cultural and social innovations they generate. Outcomes include national and international case studies of innovative waste economies, social learning events with industry stakeholders and academic publications. Key benefits provide evidence of how different waste practices enable more sustainable ways of living. Read moreRead less
A systemic environmental impact metric for companies and investors. Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) metrics are marketed as measures of environmental performance, but they often track exposure to environmental risk rather than generation of environmental impacts. This project aims to develop and test a science-based, systemic environmental impact score for corporate activities. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of cross-scale interactions in the Earth system and tools to assess a bus ....A systemic environmental impact metric for companies and investors. Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) metrics are marketed as measures of environmental performance, but they often track exposure to environmental risk rather than generation of environmental impacts. This project aims to develop and test a science-based, systemic environmental impact score for corporate activities. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of cross-scale interactions in the Earth system and tools to assess a business or investment’s systemic environmental impacts from activities including water extraction, deforestation and carbon emissions. These outcomes should provide benefits including improved business decision-making on impact mitigation, environmental quality, productivity and corporate environmental reputation.Read moreRead less
Socio-ecological models for environmental decision making. The success of efforts to solve environmental problems will hinge, at least partly, on human responses. Yet environmental decision analysis tools typically do not include social processes, due to theoretical and methodological obstacles including strong disciplinary divides. For the first time, this project will combine computational social science and ecology to develop a new approach to environmental decision science. Using case-studie ....Socio-ecological models for environmental decision making. The success of efforts to solve environmental problems will hinge, at least partly, on human responses. Yet environmental decision analysis tools typically do not include social processes, due to theoretical and methodological obstacles including strong disciplinary divides. For the first time, this project will combine computational social science and ecology to develop a new approach to environmental decision science. Using case-studies in the design of biodiversity markets, this project will provide concrete examples of how socio-ecological models can support management decisions. The use of socio-ecological models will represent a paradigm shift in environmental decision theory that will lead to more effective environmental management.Read moreRead less