Sustainability

Collection of Irrigation Australia's 2013 Regional Conference papers fron Griffith NSW on the 28-30 May. Report LocationClick here to access the full report ....

The Alps, in the heart of Europe, are obviously an asset, but they also pose a serious challenge: some Alpine regions lag quite far behind economically, mainly because of the disadvantages of location. At the same time, their fragile ecological and cultural systems suffer from the unbalanced economic exploitation inherent in the "open access" pol ....

Analysis of uncertainty is often neglected in the evaluation of complex systems (such as predictive models in hydrology or ecology, or environmental processes). Decisions and actions based on such systems may be error-prone for a variety of reasons, including lack of information, input errors or data variability. Research in uncertainty addresses ....

Rural and farming populations in Australia have above average rates of premature morbidity and mortality through heart disease, cancer and suicide. The Sustainable Farm Families (SFF) project is designed to influence farmers' behaviours with respect to health, safety and wellbeing. This report presents the results of an economic ev ....

This paper reviews adaptation actions in climate change strategies by four urban Queensland coastal councils (e.g. Cairns, Gold Coast, Redland, and Sunshine Coast), and two community-based climate action plans for Bribie Island, and the Noosa Biosphere. The actions in these six plans are analysed for their adaptive response categories: Emphasisin ....

The controversial Murray-Darling Basin Plan is now law. To open this series on water in our special 'Sustainability and Environment' edition of Today we invited the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to report progress. Report Locationhttp://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=642225176371255;res=IELBUS ....

Almost six million people live within 50 kilometres of the NSW coastline. They and the rest of the NSW community plus the millions of domestic and international visitors enjoy the significant natural assets of the Marine Estate and generate billions of dollars each year for NSW and the Australian community. There are many varied commercial, ....

The final report of a project to develop a method for mapping regional capacity to adopt more sustainable natural resource management presents a framework for the characterisation of regional community capacity for sustainable resource management. The framework identifies ten elements of capacity that span human capital, produced e ....

Natural resource management (NRM) at the regional level is an essential step towards sustainability and the revitalisation of rural and regional Australia. There is, however, a critical need for improved NRM decision making processes and techniques if those goals are to be realised. This report explores the potential to use materia ....

This research looks at the barriers to sustainable development Squamish, BC., a costal town that is in transition from a resource to non-resource based economy. Smart growth guiding principles have been used to shape the transitional processes; most plans however have yet to be implemented. Action research was used to guide this thesis, ....

A blueprint for sustainable management in Australia outlines the challenges and opportunities faced, and provides a strategic framework for using the environment to drive the economy. The key initiatives explored include development of a national approach to sustainability reform, a long term commitment to land and water repair, en ....

A review of social and economic constraints to sustainable natural resources management (NRM) in the Burdekin Dry Tropics Qld identified a range of policy directions and actions to encourage wider adoption of sustainable NRM practices. In particular, the research identified the need to manage the social and economic pressures and d ....

The Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce has been charged with finding new opportunities for economic development in northern Australia based on water availability and sustainability. It is to report on the potential impact of new development on water balance and quality, the environment, existing water users and the broader community. It ....

The Northern Australia Irrigation Futures project has been established as a collaborative arrangement between the Australian, Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australian Governments to provide new knowledge, tools and processes, including an overarching framework, to support debate on irrigation related issues in Northern ....