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National Environmental Science Program
March 2022 update
March has been a month of celebration for the National Environmental Science Program (NESP). International Women’s Day gave us an occasion to appreciate the women of NESP. From hub, theme and project leaders, to researchers in the field, PhD students, office staff, Indigenous collaborators and facilitators, steering committee members and citizen scientists, the program draws on some of Australia’s most passionate and talented women in environmental and climate science, and the disciplines that support and promote their work.
We commend Professor Veena Sahajwalla, Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub Leader and New South Wales (NSW) Australian of the Year 2022, who was a finalist for the 2022 NSW Woman of Excellence Award for her work with the UNSW SMaRT Centre. The award recognises women who have excelled in their chosen fields, affected lasting change and inspired others.
We also celebrated the legacy of our phase-1 hubs by releasing a series of impact snapshots:
- Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub
- Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub
- Marine Biodiversity Hub
- Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub
- Threatened Species Recovery Hub
- Tropical Water Quality Hub.
And while we are celebrating, congratulations go to Steve Dwyer for being named Territory Natural Resource Management Ranger of the Year. Steve is a senior district ranger in the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission. He and his team trialled a new Gamba Grass fire management approach at Mary River National Park, to protect the savanna woodlands from this high-impact invasive species.
Monitoring and research by the Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub found increases in tree cover of up to 110% at previously gamba-dominated sites, and the regeneration of important savanna tree species. This is the first documented case in northern Australia where tree decline in gamba-invaded sites has been reversed. The work led by Steve is an outstanding contribution to one of the biggest challenges for biodiversity conservation across the north.
Read on to discover what the phase-2 hubs have achieved recently.
Hub highlights
Resilient Landscapes Hub
Regional planning approaches
Regional planning considers future land use and facilitates conversations between stakeholders who might want to see land used differently. However, a diversity of different planning approaches and final plans means that selecting an appropriate planning approach and final plan depends on the specific context.
The Resilient Landscapes Hub Socioeconomic insights for resilient landscapes project team has summarised 4 key regional planning approaches and the ways in which these approaches interact with statutory obligations, how and when planners can use them, and available methods and decision-support tools to use. The 4 approaches are:
- regional land use planning
- regional threat abatement and species protection planning
- cumulative impact assessment
- coastal zone planning.
Overall planning objectives often immediately inform which planning approach is the best one to choose, but the researchers have also developed a draft decision tree to help navigate when and where these regional planning approaches might be best used.
Planners can often use site-based or single-intervention planning approaches. However, where multiple complicating factors exist, regional approaches with more sophisticated analyses and longer or larger stakeholder engagement processes are warranted.
Hub researchers will work with research-users to test and refine the regional-planning decision tree during the next round of projects by using it to identify the most suitable plans for different regions. This will also help ensure that hub research delivers practical and transferable solutions to environmental problems.
Marine and Coastal Hub
Roadmap to guide large-scale marine and coastal restoration
Large-scale restoration is essential to ensure coastal protection and climate resilience in Australia’s marine and coastal systems. A new report from the Marine and Coastal Hub provides a roadmap for overcoming the main hurdles preventing restoration efforts from reaching their full potential.
Hub researchers from James Cook University and CSIRO found the key issue is collaboration between all stakeholders to co-design projects from project initiation. In particular, Traditional Owner groups need to be involved from the start to the end, including with the ongoing maintenance of restored sites.
The roadmap identifies opportunities to generate fit-for-purpose permitting processes to reduce costs and delays in project planning and establishment. Acknowledging the full lifecycle costs of a restoration project is also critical, with the report finding that many restored sites were not maintained or surveyed after completion.
There are many co-benefits of restoration, such as supporting fisheries, carbon sequestration and nutrient filtration. Restoration also creates green jobs and provides social benefits to communities.
The hub’s roadmap can inform a national strategy to cohesively guide research and investment in the future, to help secure these benefits and underpin effective restoration initiatives.
Climate Systems Hub
Changing ocean conditions leading to drier winters and springs
In a land of drought and flood, climate variability seems like a normal part of life in Australia. But our weather is largely driven by shifts in ocean temperatures, called ‘climate drivers’. The Climate Systems Hub is working to better our understanding of these drivers and how they are changing in our warming world.
The most well known climate driver is ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation). ENSO shifts between El Niño, where warm waters move away from Australia in the Pacific Ocean, and La Niña, which sees warm moisture-bringing waters move closer to Australia. La Niña is currently linked to wet conditions over much of eastern Australia.
But recent research from the hub shows these moisture-bringing conditions are becoming rarer. Every Australian city is projected to have more drought years before the end of the century if emissions continue on current projections. For example, Perth can expect 60% of years between 2010 and 2099 to have less than 10% of its usual rainfall.
Australia’s other climate drivers are also being impacted by climate change, which is expected to intensify dry conditions in southern Australia. Hub researchers are continuing to learn about the current and future state of these drivers. Read more in this recent summary report.
Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub
Hub tackles brand new research program
Under the leadership of UNSW SMaRT Centre Director Professor Veena Sahajwalla, the Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub has been in start-up phase and is finalising scoping projects through its first research plan.
The hub has developed a significant number of projects for its 2022 research plan to help communities better manage waste and be more sustainable. Extensive co-design of projects and engagement with stakeholders across government, industry and community groups has been underway right across the country.
The hub has launched its new website, as well as Twitter and LinkedIn channels you can follow for the latest updates. It has also produced an overview video to help explain the hub’s role.
As part of the hub’s stakeholder engagement, Veena and other leaders have been undertaking extensive discussions and interactions promoting the work of the hub, which you can discover more about in news posts on the new website.
Keep up to date
Stay in touch and find out more about the interesting work happening across the Australian Government’s agriculture, water and environment portfolios: