Regulatory design for water quality management in urban catchments. This project aims, through empirical research (i) to evaluate the effectiveness of current regulatory, quasi-regulatory and other policy strategies for water quality management in urban catchments (including total/integrated catchment management); (ii) to provide practical policy prescriptions concerning how through judicious regulatory and institutional design, those problems may be best addressed for the future; and (iii) adva ....Regulatory design for water quality management in urban catchments. This project aims, through empirical research (i) to evaluate the effectiveness of current regulatory, quasi-regulatory and other policy strategies for water quality management in urban catchments (including total/integrated catchment management); (ii) to provide practical policy prescriptions concerning how through judicious regulatory and institutional design, those problems may be best addressed for the future; and (iii) advance regulatory theory by developing a framework for understanding the relative effectiveness of different regulatory regimes in the context of urban catchment management. Its empirical focus is on the Swan-Canning river in Western Australia.Read moreRead less
A National infrastructure to manage land information. Australia is one of about 30 countries in the world capable of managing land transactions in reliable land registers. The administrative framework however is 150 years old, built according to a 19th century statutory model appropriate to a less complicated and slower land market. Now land information, and particularly the digital land parcel map, is Australia's most valuable but underutilised asset. The project will translate popular spatial ....A National infrastructure to manage land information. Australia is one of about 30 countries in the world capable of managing land transactions in reliable land registers. The administrative framework however is 150 years old, built according to a 19th century statutory model appropriate to a less complicated and slower land market. Now land information, and particularly the digital land parcel map, is Australia's most valuable but underutilised asset. The project will translate popular spatial technologies into national business tools to better manage land information for the government, community and private sectors.Read moreRead less
UNDER WATER: a comparative ethnographic analysis of water use and resource management in Queensland and Western Australia. Via ethnographic fieldwork in four watershed catchment areas, this comparative study examines how interest groups use and manage water resources. Working with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups, pastoralists, miners, farmers and fishers, it will provide comprehensive in-depth analysis of the ways in which people conceptualise, use and evaluate water. The study will inves ....UNDER WATER: a comparative ethnographic analysis of water use and resource management in Queensland and Western Australia. Via ethnographic fieldwork in four watershed catchment areas, this comparative study examines how interest groups use and manage water resources. Working with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups, pastoralists, miners, farmers and fishers, it will provide comprehensive in-depth analysis of the ways in which people conceptualise, use and evaluate water. The study will investigate different perspectives on water resource management and environmental issues, such as salinity. Its major objectives are to further understanding of human-environmental relations in contrasting settings. By elucidating various practices, needs and values, we will show how conflicts might be resolved and effective management of water resources ensured.Read moreRead less
The Amenity Principle: The causes, incidence and landuse planning implications of amenity-led rural settlement in Australia. This project will produce an 'amenity index' - a composite measure of a community's relative attractiveness to in-migrants for a substantial portion of the nation's ecumene. This index will aid in the development of more targetted approaches to rural planning and place marketing. Through the multi-state and multi-region nature of the fieldwork, the project will also draw t ....The Amenity Principle: The causes, incidence and landuse planning implications of amenity-led rural settlement in Australia. This project will produce an 'amenity index' - a composite measure of a community's relative attractiveness to in-migrants for a substantial portion of the nation's ecumene. This index will aid in the development of more targetted approaches to rural planning and place marketing. Through the multi-state and multi-region nature of the fieldwork, the project will also draw together a range of approaches used in managing the complex and often competing demands of amenity-inspired in-migration, thus making it a resource for innovative approaches to land use planning and management. Read moreRead less
Time and timelessness in Aboriginal societies as exemplified in Ngarinyin body-imagery. My project is an investigation of northern Kimberley trading practices, arguing against some pervasive views in the Aboriginalist literature which cast Aboriginal people and cultures as emphasising timelessness and de-emphasising human creativity. Kimberley trading/sharing practices, I suggest, show that exchanges (at various levels of formality) between groups and individuals are locally experienced as an ac ....Time and timelessness in Aboriginal societies as exemplified in Ngarinyin body-imagery. My project is an investigation of northern Kimberley trading practices, arguing against some pervasive views in the Aboriginalist literature which cast Aboriginal people and cultures as emphasising timelessness and de-emphasising human creativity. Kimberley trading/sharing practices, I suggest, show that exchanges (at various levels of formality) between groups and individuals are locally experienced as an active and ongoing participation in the creation of the bodies of kin and of the country itself. This is done in a way which actively participates in, rather than merely reproduces, the creative travels of the first ancestral beings. Phenomenology and psychoanalysis theoretically inform my approach.Read moreRead less
Cost-effective integrated engineering and "community partnerships" solution to a latent water policy issue: private dam management and flood safety. Project aims to further develop an engineering model for cost-effective innovative flood safety design/review for private dams in Southeastern Australia and integrate this with community impact assessment. Together, this is a "community partnerships" solution to a significant water policy vacuum on private dam safety and flood policy. Expected outco ....Cost-effective integrated engineering and "community partnerships" solution to a latent water policy issue: private dam management and flood safety. Project aims to further develop an engineering model for cost-effective innovative flood safety design/review for private dams in Southeastern Australia and integrate this with community impact assessment. Together, this is a "community partnerships" solution to a significant water policy vacuum on private dam safety and flood policy. Expected outcomes: improved risk transparency for dam owners and State Government, minimising costs of failures, ie. loss of life, damage to public and private infrastructure and environment; giving owners an affordable and effective design/review procedure to better manage their dams, providing data on community responses and water law reform proposals consonant with international best-practice.Read moreRead less
DESIGNING LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT MODERN LAND MARKETS. Economies require successful land markets to generate wealth. Our land administration systems are expensive but essential infrastructure for land markets. However, since they were designed 150 years ago, the market has invented complex commodities: time shares, unit and property trusts, financial instruments, mortgage backed certificates, insurance products, options, corporate development instruments, vertical villages, and ....DESIGNING LAND ADMINISTRATION SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT MODERN LAND MARKETS. Economies require successful land markets to generate wealth. Our land administration systems are expensive but essential infrastructure for land markets. However, since they were designed 150 years ago, the market has invented complex commodities: time shares, unit and property trusts, financial instruments, mortgage backed certificates, insurance products, options, corporate development instruments, vertical villages, and more. The project will explain how modern land markets evolved and how land administration systems can be adapted to provide more efficient land trading and better support for trading in new complex commodities. Read moreRead less
Hybrid economic futures for remote Indigenous Australia: Linking poverty reduction and natural resource management. In the 21st century the Indigenous population of sparsely-settled Australia will increase rapidly. This population has historically experienced extremely low socioeconomic status. With land rights and native title, a significant ecologically intact estate, now over 20 percent of Australia, is under Indigenous ownership. This research will explore how enhanced Indigenous involvement ....Hybrid economic futures for remote Indigenous Australia: Linking poverty reduction and natural resource management. In the 21st century the Indigenous population of sparsely-settled Australia will increase rapidly. This population has historically experienced extremely low socioeconomic status. With land rights and native title, a significant ecologically intact estate, now over 20 percent of Australia, is under Indigenous ownership. This research will explore how enhanced Indigenous involvement in customary (non market) activities, natural and cultural resource management, and new industries can generate economic and social benefits for remote Indigenous communities that lack access to the market. National benefits will be generated from enhanced biodiversity conservation, and from cost savings associated with improved socio-economic status.Read moreRead less
Genetic evaluation of the diversity of the stygobitic fauna of the Pilbara, Western Australia. This study has two main aims, designed to help manage populations of the subterranean invertebrate fauna in an economically important region of Western Australia: 1) to provide phylogenetic and population genetic information on the structure of populations of amphipods and other groundwater fauna in the Pilbara, Western Australia, and 2) to investigate areas of the ecology of the fauna including respon ....Genetic evaluation of the diversity of the stygobitic fauna of the Pilbara, Western Australia. This study has two main aims, designed to help manage populations of the subterranean invertebrate fauna in an economically important region of Western Australia: 1) to provide phylogenetic and population genetic information on the structure of populations of amphipods and other groundwater fauna in the Pilbara, Western Australia, and 2) to investigate areas of the ecology of the fauna including response to changes in water chemistry. The genetic information will be used to gain an understanding of species diversity, distributions, and movement in order to help set conservation priorities in managing resources, habitats, and fauna. The ecological data will be used to study the effects of dewatering and changes in water chemsitry on morphology and survival.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0346702
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$193,000.00
Summary
High Performance Liquid Chromatography - Inductively Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-ICPMS). HPLC-ICP-MS is the most reliable cutting edge technology for speciation of metals and metalloids in biological and environmental matrices, and is essential for toxicological studies, which is a major aim behind NRCET's establishment. It will provide a very powerful utility to fill a badly needed knowledge gap for our research and serve the needs of both postgraduate students and postdoctoral fel ....High Performance Liquid Chromatography - Inductively Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-ICPMS). HPLC-ICP-MS is the most reliable cutting edge technology for speciation of metals and metalloids in biological and environmental matrices, and is essential for toxicological studies, which is a major aim behind NRCET's establishment. It will provide a very powerful utility to fill a badly needed knowledge gap for our research and serve the needs of both postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows. This technology will provide new opportunities in research. It will strengthen our linkages within Faculty of Heath Sciences and with our research partners in CQU, QUT and Griffith and enforce our strong national and international reputation.Read moreRead less