Associate Professor Barry Croke

Education

From 28-29 October Associate Professor Barry Croke facilitated a student challenge hackathon 'Planet Hack' in collaboration with Dulwich College, Beijing. This inaugural hackathon – a collaborative effort between Dulwich College Beijing, Australian National University and Education in Motion – saw nearly eighty senior school students spend two days working to learn more about the globally important issue of extreme weather events. In small research groups, students were challenged to come up with a novel solution to prepare for and respond to flooding, a theme revealed to them during the opening ceremony – presented by Prof Barry Croke of ANU and Mr Yosef Karasik of DCB.

Students investigated, ideated, prototyped and presented their solutions to the ever-growing problem of flooding. Amplified by climate change, floods are an increasing threat to humanity and will only continue to grow in frequency in the coming years. Fully aware of the gravity of this issue, students developed their ideas for preventative measures, early response systems and disaster relief. Whilst working on their projects, students had a chance to attend two up-skilling workshops and receive real-time feedback from Prof Croke, a leading expert in hydrological modelling and flooding.

Media

• Why does Kambri flood so often?, ANU Observer, 5 November. 
• Third La Nina raises questions over how flood prepared the ACT is, The Canberra Times, 20 November (paywall).

 

Dr Andrew Ross

Research highlights

• Ross, A.,  Benefits and Costs of Managed Aquifer Recharge: Further Evidence, Water, 14(20), p.3257.
• Ross, A., Evans, R. and Nelson, R., Risks related to groundwater in the Murray Darling Basin, Australasian Journal of Water Resources, p.1-16.
• Pavelic, P., Hoanh, C.T., D’haeze, D., Vinh, B.N., Viossanges, M., Chung, D.T. and Ross, A., Evaluation of managed aquifer recharge in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 44, p.101257.
• McLaughlin, D., Ayres, A., and Ross, A., The evolution and impact of groundwater production regulation in Texas, Environmental Defence Fund Economics Discussion Paper, EDF, New York.

 

Dr Caitlin Byrt

Research highlights

Bowerman, Byrt, Roy, Whitney, Mortimer, Ankeny, Gilliham, Zhang, Miller, Rebetzke and Pogson, Potential abiotic stress targets for modern genetic manipulation, The Plant Cell.

•  “Research into crop yield and resilience has underpinned global food security, evident in yields tripling in the past five decades. The challenges that global agriculture now faces are not just to feed 10+ billion people within a generation, but to do so under a harsher, more variable and less predictable climate, and in many cases with less water, more expensive inputs and declining soil quality.”

Outreach

“Crop hydraulic engineering using aquaporins” invited talk for the “Designing and modelling crops for a hotter and drier world” symposium, within the Sustainable Agrifood Systems Theme, at the TropAg Conference, Brisbane, 2 November 2022.

Climate change and food security in the Asia-Pacific” panel event run by the ANU Biology Society and ANU College of Asia and the Pacific Student’s Society 2 August 2022 with Dr Steven Crimp, Professor John McCarthy, and Dr Fiona Lynn. In this panel, we discussed the various issues affecting food security around our region, in particular factors such as pollution, extreme weather events, lab technologies and even cultural habits. 

Dr Caitlin Byrt, Dr Steven Crimp, Professor John McCarthy, and Dr Fiona Lynn at “Climate change and food security in the Asia-Pacific” panel event. Photo supplied by Caitlin Byrt.

 

Professor Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

Media 

• Pakistan floods do nothing to dampen climate change, East Asia Forum, 23 September.
• The climate crisis is already devastating communities, Policy Forum, 20 September.

 

Jason Alexandra

Research highlights

Climate adaptation options for the 2026 MDB Plan: opportunities for managing climate risk, The Australasian Journal of Water Resources.

• This paper explores options for climate-adaptive water allocation in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin. The 2026 revision of the Basin Plan may provide significant opportunities for proactive climate risk mitigation, but this depends on rigorous evaluation of policy options. 

 

Professor Katherine Daniell

Research highlights

Daniell, K.A., Feldman, H., Shaw, F. (2022) Cybernetic water governance? Investigating the role of digitalisation in navigating Australia’s water and climate systems towards and beyond the SDGs, CECAR9, 22 Sept 2022, Goa, India (presented online).

• This paper investigates Australia's current reporting on SDGs 6, 13 and 14 and investigates a range of cybernetic considerations that could enhance Australia's contributions and systems of monitoring and governance related to water, climate and marine systems.

Sin-ampol, P., Daniell, K. A. & Colvin, R. M. (2022). Social Identities and Unequal Vulnerabilities under Structural Transition to Community-based Flood Risk Governance in the Yom River Basin. In A. Drogoul, E. Espagne, L. H. T. Phuong & S. Lagrée (Eds.) Inequalities and environmental changes in the Mekong River Basin (pg. 53–84). France: AFD Editions.

• This book chapter outlines how social identities and vulnerabilities are formed and experienced as a result of a specific form of community-based flood risk management in Thailand.

Daniell, K.A. (2022) Locked-In learning systems? Transformation and regression potential in Australasia’s waterscapes and beyond, Australasian Journal for Water Resources, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 159-161, 

• This editorial reflects on extreme events at a global level and discusses three paradoxes challenging our water futures.

Daniell, K.A. Feldman, H., Shaw, F. (2022) Understanding languages and perspectives: a first step to a cybernetic approach to water governance? Proceedings of the Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium 2022, 29 Nov – 2 Dec, Brisbane, Australia (accepted).

• This conference paper looks at the complexity of the Murray-Darling Basin governance and suggests that consideration of languages and how to support communication across a variety of them in the Basin could support a more cybernetic (interconnected and systemic) form of governance

Public policy initiatives

• Director and Board Member, Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust
• National Committee on Water Engineering (Engineers Australia); Editor, Australasian Journal of Water Resources
• Expert advisory panel member, Watertrust Australia
• Rivers Committee, Initiatives of the Future of Great Rivers
• President, Australian-French Association for Research and Innovation (AFRAN)

Outreach

• Presentations on 'The History and Future of Policy Analytics' and 'Cybernetic water governance and digitalisation' at the Water Policy Innovation Hub workshop, Montpellier, 1 Jul 2022
• Invited opening speaker for ‘Metrology and Water systems’ workshop speaking on ‘Metrology and Water Systems – Cybernetic histories: revolutions and evolutions', AFRAN France hub event (online). 9 May 2022
• Invited panellist on ‘The Future of Flooding’, a speculative futures panel discussion, Insitute for Water Futures, ANU, Canberra, 9 Sept 2022.
• Involvement in the 10th International Session of the Initiatives of the Future of Great Rivers on “Living with Rivers 2022”, to discuss the future of integrated management of the Rhone River and how rivers can learn from one another & book launch of ‘La terre à soif’ (Erik Orsenna) which includes two extracts of my writing about living through extreme events in Australia, Lyon, 26-28 October.
• Moderator for ‘Provocations’, an interactive live academic event on competing sustainabilities. First event with Cathy McGowan (former Independent MP) on democratic and sustainable futures, Fenner School of Environment and Society, 21 April 2022. Second event Prof Peter Greste (Journalist working for press freedom after being imprisoned in Egypt), 13 Oct 2022 (Joint School of Cybernetics and Fenner School of Environment and Society Event).

Awards and honours

Prof Katherine Daniell was awarded the honour of Chevalier, Ordre National du Merite (Knight in the Order of Merit of the Republic of France), for service to cooperation in research and innovation, including in water management. 

Prof. Daniell receives the insignia of Knight in the Ordre National du Mérite from French Ambassador, His Excellency Jean-Pierre Thébault. Photo by Andrew Meares (cybernetics.anu.edu.au).

 

Professor Robert Wasson

Research highlights

• Bray, J., Wasson, R.J., Srivastava, P., Ziegler, A.D. Floods and Debris Flows in Ladakh: Past History and Future Hazards. In Nusser, M. (Ed.). Environmental Change in Ladakh, Springer (part of a series entitled: Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research)(in press).
• Das, S., Sheth, A., Bansal, P., Chuah,C.J., Wasson, R.J. (2022). A statistical comparison of flood-related economic damage in Indian states with reflections on policy implications, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction , 72, 102835.
• Wasson, R.J. and Lam., D. Flood Hazards and Disciplinary Silos. In James, H. and Lukasiewicz, A. (eds.) (2022). Risk, Resilience and Reconstruction: Science and Governance for Effective Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery, Springer.
• Dongfeng Li, Xixi Lu, Desmond E. Walling, Ting Zhang, Jakob F. Steiner, Robert J. Wasson, Stephan Harrison, Santosh Nepal, Yong Nie, Walter W. Immerzeel, Dan H. Shugar, Michèle Koppes, Stuart Lane, Zhenzhong Zeng, Xiaofei Sun, Alexandr Yegorov, and Tobias Bolch (2022). High Mountain Asia hydropower systems threatened by climate-driven landscape instability, Nature Geoscience.
• Wasson, R.J., McCloskey, G.L., Lim, H.S. Palaeofloods and Worst-Case Floods in the Wet and Wet/Dry Tropics, and the Subtropics of Queensland: a Possibilistic Approach to Mitigation Stress Testing, WIRES Water (in press).

Outreach

Conference papers:

• Wasson, R.J. Quaternary research is essential for natural resource and environmental disaster policy. Keynote Address, 1st Indian Quaternary Congress, 19th January, 2022.
• Wasson, R.J. The promise and risk of development in the Himalaya, a place of very high potential enerrgy. A brief session on changing cliamte, seismicity, and potential disasters, Uttarakhand Himalaya, India. H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar, Uttarakhand. 2022.
• Wasson, R.J. Using the past to take responsibility for the future. Panel Discussion on the Future of Geoscience, International Geological Conference, March 20th, 2022.
• Wasson, R.J. Extreme Flows - Coastal Queensland. Queensland Government, Department of Science and Environment. 25th May 2022.
• Wasson, R.J. Hydroclimatic Extremes in N Australia over the Past Two millennia – an Update and Implications. James Cook University, 27th May 2022.
• Saynor, M.J., Wasson, R.J., Erskine, W., Lam, D. Holocene palaeohydrology of the East Alligator River, for application to mine site rehabilitation. Australian New Zealand Geomorphology Group Conference, Alice Springs, 26-30 September 2022.

 

Md Kamruzzaman

Research highlights

Facilitating learning for innovation in a climate-stressed context: insights from flash flood-affected rice farming in Bangladesh, The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension.

• Facilitation of learning enhances innovation through overcoming innovation barriers and supporting learning outcomes. However, little is known about how public Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) facilitate learning to help adapt to particular climate stressors. This article investigates the role of public EAS in facilitating learning to enhance innovation in a flash flood-affected farming context.

Outreach

Student Profile: Armed with information: Supporting farmers to adapt to flash flooding, ANU Institute for Water Futures (IWF).

 

Professor Stephen Roberts

Research highlights

• Amadio, Mattia and Essenfelder, Arthur H and Bagli, Stefano and Marzi, Sepehr and Mazzoli, Paolo and Mysiak, Jaroslav and Roberts, Stephen, 2022, Cost–benefit analysis of coastal flood defence measures in the North Adriatic Sea, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.

Image: Figure 2 in Cost–benefit analysis of coastal flood defence measures in the North Adriatic Sea. Components of the analysis for extreme sea level events: total water level is the sum of the maximum tide, storm surge and wind waves over mean sea level.

 

Professor Ian White

Research highlights

Report to UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP, August, 2022): Diversity, Remoteness, Variability and Resilience

• A report to strengthen the knowledge base of UNESCO IHP in the Pacific focussing on the hydrology, climatology, climate-drivers, human health, governance, water supply, water security, climate risks, adaptation options and cultural aspects of Pacific Islands and the opportunities for UNESCO IHP to improve assistance in the water and sanitation sectors.

Book Chapter in ‘The Pacific Islands, Environment and Society 2^nd Revised Edition’ Edited by M. Rappaport, (University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu): Physical Environment, Chapter 5. Island Hydrology and Fresh Water Resources. Ian White and Tony Falkland

• The chapter covers island hydrology, geology, and water resources and considers the ocean-atmosphere drivers of climate with emphasis on precipitation, evapotranspiration, island discharge and their spatial and temporal variability and impacts on island water balance. It deals with the projected impacts of climate change on island water resources and the available adaptation options and examines the threats

Published Proceedings of the 19th Annual Meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS 2022): Sea Surface Temperatures in the Nino Regions and Annual Precipitation in Equatorial Pacific Atolls. Ian White, Tony Falkland, and Farran Redfern

• IPCC projections for the central and western tropical Pacific indicate mean annual rainfall will increase as sea surface temperatures (SSTs) rise with global warming. Here, relationships between 12-month May to April precipitation (P_M-A) in two equatorial atolls, Tarawa, and Kiritimati in Kiribati, and 12-month May to April average sea surface temperature (SST_M-A) in the Nino regions surrounding the atolls are examined between 1950 and 2022. The only significant temporal trend found was for SST­_M-A in the Nino4 region surrounding Tarawa atoll. The extreme interannual variations in P_M-A due to frequent ENSO events mean that any trends in P_M-a in either atoll are not detectable. The large interannual variations in P_M-A are highly significantly correlated with SST_M-A in the Nino3.4 region and give trends for both atolls of over 1,000 mm/°C. This suggest that projected sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific of 2-3ᵒ by 2080-2100 may result in least a doubling of annual precipitation in the atolls. What remains unclear is the impact of increasing SST on the frequency and intensity of ENSO events, especially triple La Niña events, and the variability of annual precipitation.

Atoll Adaptation Pathways Climate Change, Monaco Workshop (Feb 2022)

• This is an international collaboration between France, Canada, UK, US, Australia, and Kiribati to identify adaptation pathways to climate change in atolls considering five Habitability Pillars: Land, Freshwater supply, Food supply, Settlements and infrastructure, and Economic activities and follows our published analysis of Risks to future atoll habitability from climate-driven environmental changes.

 

Dr Thong Tran

Research highlights

Dr Tran is a Research fellow (Human Geography) at School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, working on the ACIAR-funded project “Next generation agricultural extension: social relations for practice change”.

Dr Tran is also a primary investigator in the project entitled “Between vulnerability and resilience: Hydrosocial and agrarian transitions in the Mekong Delta from An Giang Province, Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia” with Dr Ming Li Yong, East-West Centre, the US in partnership with Asian Vision Institute, Cambodia, funded by Luce Foundation and NASA, July 2022-July 2026.

2022 publications include:

• Tran, T. A., Rigg, J., Taylor, D., Miller, M. A., Pittock, J., and Le, P. T. (2022) ‘Social memory in the Mekong’s changing floodscapes: Narratives of agrarian communities’ adaptation’, Human Ecology, 1–15.
• Tran, T. A., Tran, H. V., Pittock, J., and Cook, B. R. (2022) ‘Political ecology of freshening the Mekong’s coastal delta: Narratives of place-based land-use dynamics’, Journal of Land Use Science, 17(1), 471–486.
• Keovilignavong, O., Tran, T. A., and Bounyasouk, T. (2022) ‘Tea farming communities’ perceptions of Fairtrade and COVID-19 in Phongsali district of Laos’, Community Development, 1–20. 
• McCall, G. S., Akpan, A., Banaduc, D., Figueroa, D., Fontoura, N., Hitchcock, R., Horn, S., Kar, D., and Tran, T. A. (2022) ‘The estuarine ecological knowledge network makes progress: International project sites and potential ways forward’, Marine Technology Society Journal, 56(3), 116–117. 
• Nguyen, H., Trung, T. H., Phan, D. C., Tran, T. A., Nguyen, T. H. L., Nasahara, K. N., Prishchepov, A. V., and Hölzel, N. (2022) ‘Transformation of rural landscapes in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta from 1990 to 2019: A spatio-temporal analysis’, Geocarto International, 1–23.
• Tran, T. A., and Tortajada, C. (2022) ‘Responding to transboundary environmental challenges in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: In search of institutional fit’, Environmental Policy and Governance, 1–17.

Education

In 2022 Dr Tran was a guest lecturer for the undergraduate course “Developing Vietnam: History, environment, and culture” (F22-ASCL-70.22), Dartmouth College, the US and Fulbright University Vietnam, Vietnam, delivering a lecture titled “Political ecology of freshening the Mekong’s coastal delta: Examining state-society relations”.

Media

• The Mekong delta’s transboundary water problems, East Asia Forum, 30 April.