2022 ICEDS Member Highlights

21 December 2022

Adaptation, livelihoods and development in Asia and the Pacific

Dr Jeremy Smith

Research Highlights

A project led by the School of Engineering at ANU, in partnership with Abundant Water (AW) and Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB), is looking to increase access to safe drinking water in Timor-Leste. Over the next twelve months they will be installing a thousand ceramic water filters in households and 4 schools in the Baucau and Manatuto municipalities in Timor-Leste. The project is supported by the Australian Government through the SciTech4Climate program managed by the ANU Institute for Climate and Energy Disaster Solutions. Read more

"The partnership with EWB, AW and the School of Engineering will expand the distribution of the filters, evaluate their effectiveness for filtration and health outcomes, and explore opportunities for further uses," - Dr Jeremy Smith

EWB, AW, teachers, School Director and Education Minister at Eskola Basica Central (EBC) LayDoe, Laleia, Manatuto. Image: Supplied (Safe drinking water (arcgis.com))

Education

During semester 2, 2022, four student interns and a team of five design students representing four ANU Colleges (CoS, CECC, CAP, CASS) have been supporting ICEDS flood mitigation and intelligence projects. Assisted by supervisors from ICEDS and the four Colleges involved, students were providing their discipline perspectives and knowledge into trans-disciplinary impact-focused collaborations, capturing the research-led education intent of the ANU and contributing directly to current research projects.

 

Agriculture, food and nutritional security

Dr Robyn Alders

Research highlights

Outreach

Dr Alders was also invited by DFAT to join the 'Building resilience through food security' panel on 21 September at the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR) Brisbane, Australia, 19-23 September 2022 (7-minute talking points).

 

Dr Rachael Rodney Harris

Research highlights

As part of the ANU-DISR (prev. DISER) partnership we completed a collaborative project exploring the barriers, enablers, and opportunities for the adoption of low emission agricultural practices in Australia. The findings of this work will have direct impact on new agricultural climate policy (the responsibility for which now sits within DCCEEW). The project involved a government secondee spending time at ICEDS as part of the research team. We gave a briefing of the findings to key DCCEEW staff (Land and Climate Active Branch, Emissions Reduction Division) in November and coming from this Rachael was invited to participate as a panellist at the Livestock Emissions Reduction Forum in December. The research team included Rachael Rodney Harris, Bronwyn Wilkes, Alex Brown (DISR/DCCEEW secondee) and Holley Jones.

 

Dr Steven Lade

Research highlights

The way we produce our food today means that many of the Earth system processes will amplify current problems rather than attenuating them. However, this also means that positive actions in one domain can cascade through to others through interactions. See publication below:

Chrysafi et al. Quantifying Earth system interactions for sustainable food production via expert elicitation, Nature Sustainability, 5, p830–842 (2022).

 

Dr Anika Molesworth

Awards and honours

 

Biodiversity

Dr Claudia Munera Roldan

Research highlights

Examples of birdwatching tourism win-win situations for bird and forest conservation, and local communities. See full paper: journals.plos.org/climate

Public policy initiatives

Dr Muera Roldan joined the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) task force on Scenarios and Models in July, nominated by Colombia, and attended a three-day workshop in South Africa on the Nature Futures Framework with experts from around the world. The workshop aimed to catalyse the further development of scenarios and models for future IPBES assessments, including by testing the nature futures framework and discussing its limits and opportunities; collect additional feedback on the methodological guidance for using the nature futures framework, including potential challenges involved in its application; and further catalyse the development of qualitative and quantitative case studies that would be available for the nexus and transformative change assessments. Many discussions were around how to use the framework to link biodiversity and climate change and inform conservation, adaptation, and mitigation policies.

 

Climate economics and policy

Professor Penny Sackett

Research highlights

Ten (will be eleven by end of calendar year) expert reports written in response to briefs from the Environmental Defenders Office regarding the greenhouse and climate implications of various fossil fuel developments in NSW, QLD and WA. These have been submitted to courts and development consent authorities.

Public policy initiatives

Submissions to: 

  1. The Independent Review of Australian Carbon Credit Units
  2. The Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee:      
    • Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Climate Trigger) Bill 2022
    • Inquiry into Climate Change Bill 2022 and Climate Change (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2022
      • Submission, Supplementary Submission, and appearance at associated public hearing

Education

  • Invited to present special lectures on `Sound Science for Wicked Problems’ to ENVS 3020 and to PHYS 2205/6205
  • Part of special Science and Society Panel for ENVS 1001

Outreach

Media

 

Dr Bec Colvin

Public policy initiatives

Dr Colvin is a member of the Australian Museum Climate Solutions Centre Advisory Group (https://australian.museum/learn/climate-change/climate-solutions-centre/).

Media

In 2022 Dr Colvin wrote an article for the Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter entitled “In a puzzling trend, concern about climate change has plateaued" discussing issues of Climate Change in relation to the recent Australian election.

Dr Colvin's other media appearances have included:

Education

The Master of Climate Change program has been re-classified to ‘multi-modal’ from 2023 onwards, meaning we can accommodate remotely enrolled students.

Garnaut Prize for the top achieving Master of Climate Change student went to Sally Wilson (Crawford via the world - Sally Wilson's study journey | Crawford School of Public Policy).

 

Professor Warwick McKibbin

Research highlights

Outreach

The Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis hosted a major international workshop focussing on climate change “9th ANU Workshop on The Global Economy”, Washington DC, April 28, 2022.

 

Roshen Fernando

Research highlights

Public policy initiatives

PhD Internship: 

  • Roshen was selected to attend the Fund Internship Program of the International Monetary Fund from June to August 2022. There, he worked at the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, evaluating the historical exposure of a global sample of multisectoral firms (~62k) to both chronic and extreme physical climate risks, and their historical sensitivity to those risks. Roshen also evaluated the global economic consequences arising from the exposure of those firms to future climate risks under three SSP scenarios.

 Seminars:

  • Micro-founded Global Economic Impacts of Physical Climate Risks | QUANTM Seminar Series, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, The International Monetary Fund, 25 August 2022.
  • Global Economic Impacts of Climate Shocks and Changes in Climate Risk Assessment | QUANTM Seminar Series, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, The International Monetary Fund, 27 July 2022.

 

Professor David Stern

Education

In 2022 Professor Stern convened the renamed course, Agricultural and Resource Economics (IDEC8018) for the first time. The course is a core requirement for the Masters of Environmental and Resources Economics but it wasn't taught in 2020 or 2021. This intiative is getting the program back on track post-pandemic.

The course provides training in the economics of natural resource management and an introduction to agricultural economics, introducing the key models and techniques of resource and agricultural economics with a particular focus on developing economies.

 

Earth systems

Professor Michael Hutchinson

Research highlights

Professor Michael Hutchinson's main contribution in 2022 was the release of ANUClimate 2.0 grids for Australia

ANUClimate consists of publicly available 0.01 degree resolution monthly and daily climate grids in netcdf format, rainfall from 1900, maximum and minimum temperature, solar radiation, vapour pressure and vapour pressure deficit from 1960, pan evaporation from 1970. There is a detailed summary abstract for each climate variable, including summary predictive error estimates. The climate grids can be used to support a wide range of climate, and climate change, dependent analyses.

Dataset available here: Hutchinson M.F.,  Xu T., Kesteven J.L., Marang I.J., Evans B.J. 2021. ANUClimate v2.0, NCI Australia.

Outreach

The release of ANUClimate 2.0 also included an invited presentation to the Bureau of Meteorology Annual Research and Development Workshop.

 

The Australian Earth System Simulator (ACCESS-NRI)

Public policy initiatives

The Australian Earth System Simulator (ACCESS-NRI) team released its Strategic Plan for 2022-2027, outlining its vision, mission, aims, principles and impact for the next five years.

Outreach

Media

Videos

 

Energy economics and policy

Professor Paul Burke

Research highlights

Outreach

Professor Burke presented a keynote titled ‘Australia's potential to supply zero-carbon energy to the Asia-Pacific’ at the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Conference 2022.

Media

Dr Thomas Longden

Research highlights

The project "Energy insecurity during temperature extremes in remote Australia" examines pathways to Indigenous benefit in the energy transition, beginning by grounding understanding in drivers of contemporary experiences of energy insecurity and considering opportunities for benefit across scales of clean energy development, from small to large.

Longden, T., Quilty, S., Riley, B., White, L.V., Klerck, M., Napaltjari-Davis, V., Jupurrurla-Frank, N. et al. Energy insecurity during temperature extremes in remote Australia. Nature Energy 7, 43–54 (2022).

Read more here.

Public policy

<CHECK BEFORE PUBLISIHNG>The project team made a submission to the Electricity Retail Supply Code Review, the draft decison paper of the review made a number of refernces to the research (see pages 41 and 42).

Click here to read the draft decion paper

 

Honorary Professor Stephen Bygrave

Outreach

In August Honorary Professor Stephen Bygrave was invited by the Federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water to be a special advisor drafting the National Electric Vehicle Strategy. This included drafting a public consultation paper (https://consult.industry.gov.au/national-electric-vehicle-strategy) which was released on 28 September and open for public comment till 31 October.

Professor Bygrave also attended the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt as an ANU representative.

Media

 

Dr Bec Colvin

Research highlights

Dr Bec Colvin and Ewelina Przybyszewski authored a study of the Upper Hunter region’s residents’ perspectives on local economic diversification in the context of global energy transition. Key findings include the importance of local leadership and local priorities guiding planning for the future, and the need for open and constructive dialogue in the community.

Media

Dr Colvin also discussed findings from this study in the media:

Image from ABC News Article: abc.net.au/news

Awards and honours

In 2022 Dr Colvin recieved the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) 2023-2025, $454,532, for  “Harnessing social norms to find a socially acceptable energy transition.”

 

Energy storage and recovery

Professor Andrew Blakers

Research highlights

One of the sites in our global pumped hydro energy storage atlas was selected for the Pioneer-Burdekin 5 GW, 120 GWh pumped hydro energy storage system.

See page 18 in: "Queensland SuperGrid Infrastructure Blueprint."

The Blueprint states (p18) "The Queensland Government analysis used data from a range of sources including the 1,770 sites in the Australian National University (ANU) and Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA) Project – An Atlas of Pumped Hydro Energy Storage. The Queensland Government undertook a risk-based, multi-criteria assessment to identify the best PHES sites at the lowest cost, and least impact ..."

Image: Site for the Pioneer-Burdekin 5 GW, 120 GWh pumped hydro energy storage system

International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) mounts global pumped hydro atlas on their website: Global Atlas (irena.org)

Outreach

Media

 

Extreme events and future scenarios

Dr Melanie Pill

Research highlights

Dr Pill is also part of a project developing a framework for DFAT for the Champions Group on Adaptation Finance. The project has international significance under the UNFCCC.

Outreach

  • Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction: presentation of above DFAT project in a public forum as part of ANU’s stall presence.
  • Pacific Ocean Climate Crisis Assessment Report: Author conference in New Zealand, organised by the University of Canterbury and NZ Government.

Media

 

Associate Professor Ben Edwards

Research highlights

Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker: Australian Subnational dataset

  • Led by Associate Professor Ben Edwards, the Australian Subnational project focusses on extending the work of he Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) was designed by Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government to track and compare policy responses around the world, but in this case the ANU team have developed a dataset with daily data on state and territory policy responses from 2020 to 2022. Data is publicly available via GitHub and the Australian Data Archives and has been used by Federal Department of Health and Aging. Read more.

 

Health

Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) Network

Research highlights

Building resilience to Australian flood disasters in the face of climate change

  • The study developed a framework to build long-term resilience to climate disasters in the health sector and highlighted the key actions on cross-sectional whole-of-system response to floods, strengthening NCD prevention, implementing a stronger environmental public health surveillance for infectious diseases, early warning systems and public and mental health services.

Hospitalization Costs of Respiratory Diseases Attributable to Temperature in Australia and Projections for Future Costs in the 2030s and 2050s under Climate Change

  • The study highlighted the significant impact of cold temperatures on the economic burden of respiratory diseases currently in Australia and also suggest that overall temperature-attributable respiratory disease hospitalization costs are likely to increase substantially in Australia due to increasing temperature and heatwaves in the context of climate change.

Public policy initiatives

  • Prof Sotiris Vardoulakis has been appointed to the Chief Medical Officer Advisory Group for the development of the National Health and Climate Strategy.
  • HEAL team engaged with climate change and health project for Northern New South Wales Government on the development of local climate change response strategies.
  • HEAL team engaged roundtable with the National University of Singapore to explore regional health security in the context of climate change.
  • HEAL team engaged roundtable with Asian Development Bank to establish an advisory group for climate change and health to support Asia and Pacific countries in the development of climate change and health strategies.
  • HEAL team organised HEAL 2022 Conference and attracted more than 700 participants from academia, government, industry and community to explore transformational change for environmental, planetary and human health benefits for Australia and international communities.

Outreach

  • HEAL team appearance at a number of national and international conferences including the Healthy Environments And Lives 2022 Conference; International Society for Environmental Epidemiology 2022; Population Health Congress 2022; e-ASIA Climate Change Conference 2022.
  • HEAL contributed six articles to a special edition of The Health Advocate focusing on sustainability in the health sector.

Cynthia Parayiwa

Research highlights

Media

 

Dr Thomas Longden

Research highlights

Considering health damages and co-benefits in climate change policy assessment, The Lancet Planetary Health, September 2022. 

Australia finally has new climate laws. Now, let’s properly consider the astounding social cost of carbon, The Conversation, September 2022.

  • The Conversation article notes:

    A letter we published today in The Lancet Planetary Health outlines the importance of measuring the effects of climate change on human health when assessing the social cost of carbon.

    A key component of calculating the social cost of carbon is a damage function that typically uses a single equation to estimate a global GDP loss. However, as we argue in our letter, regional and sub-national damage functions would better capture the diverse range of climate change impacts, especially for human health and agriculture.

    Our arguments are echoed by a US Interagency Working Group on the social cost of carbon. In 2017, it recommended separating market and non-market climate damages by region and sector.

    Australia’s new annual climate change statement should also explicitly examine the health benefits of climate policies. These are likely to include fewer respiratory illnesses as a result of cleaner air, and increases in exercise associated with active travel options such as walking and cycling.

    Understanding these health benefits will also improve decision-making and could change our approach to dealing with climate change.

 

Professor Warwick McKibbin

Research highlights

Fernando R. and W. McKibbin (2022) “Antimicrobial Resistance: Designing A Comprehensive Macroeconomic Modeling Strategy”, The Brookings Institution, Center on Regulation and Markets, The Brookings Institution, Washington DC June.

  • "Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a dominant and growing global health threat that led to 1.27 million deaths in 2019. Given the widespread use of antimicrobials in agriculture and industrial applications in addition to healthcare and a range of factors affecting AMR, including climate variability, demographic trends, and plastic and metal pollution, an economy-wide approach is essential to assess its macroeconomic implications."

 

Roshen Fernando

Public policy initiatives

Poster presentation on the "Implications of Physical Climate Risks on Health Conditions among different Age Groups: Evidence from the Global Burden of Disease Data" at the Annual Workshop of Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research, 16 November 2022.

 

Professor Sotiris Vardoulakis

Public policy initiatives

Prof Sotiris Vardoulakis has been appointed to the Chief Medical Officer Advisory Group for the development of the National Health and Climate Strategy.

 

Indigenous peoples, cultures and knowledges

Cluster highlights

There have been three gatherings since this cluster’s formation in mid-2022, with Dr Virginia Marshall and Kate Harriden as cluster co-convenors. The first meeting in May was mostly introductions and discussing initial group protocols, including gathering approximately every eight weeks. There was a decision to submit a research proposal to the upcoming ICEDS seed funding round.

Between gatherings we were advised that the cluster’s proposal had not been funded. At the August gathering it was agreed to find ways to progress the project, and some time was spent refining it. Attendees also decided that the next gathering would be a deep listening exercise.

In late November, approximately nine people gathered at the peninsular near the stepping stones across Sullivan’s creek and listened to country. Supported by pre-session materials (videos and a reading) and a discussion about what deep listening is musically and what listening to country is culturally, the participants were well-prepared to listen to Country live, through individual recorders. There was also a hydrophone recording under the surface of Sullivan’s creek!  Then we all went back to the School of Music for nibbles and to collectively listen to a grass tree burning. It was a lovely spring afternoon activity and it is likely something similar will happen in 2023.

 

Dr Bonnie McConnell

Research highlights

McConnell, B., & Jallow, S. (2022). Climate Change Adaptation in The Gambia: The Role of Kanyeleng Communication and Performance. African Studies Review, 65(3), 692-716. doi:10.1017/asr.2022.67

 

Law, governance and institutions

Dr Sarah Milne

Reserach highlights

Dr Sarah Milne published a book about global efforts to save nature, called “Corporate nature: An insider’s ethnography of global conservation”. Published with the University of Arizona Press, here: https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/corporate-nature.

The book explores the origins and effects of a prominent policy idea known as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) – an idea that has spawned key contemporary climate mitigation policies like REDD+ and Nature-Based Solutions. The book offers a cautionary tale: it shows how mainstream conservation organisations are often ill-equipped to implement the “solutions” they propose in complex settings, such as in Southeast Asia. By examining how things can go wrong, new ideas for conservation practice can emerge.

Associate Professor Rebecca Monson

Research highlights

Gender, Property and Politics in the Pacific: Who Speaks for Land?, Cambridge Univeristy Press, January 2023.

  • Rebecca Monson takes gender relations as a critical entry point for understanding struggles over land in Solomon Islands, and the ways in which seemingly ‘local’ property disputes are bound up with multiscalar struggles over natural resources and political ordering. The book provides crucial insights into the relationship between property disputes and the authority of public institutions, and also points to the ways in which extractive industries, urbanisation and climate change contribute to widespread feelings of insecurity.

Property rights and climate migration: Adaptive governance in the South Pacific, Law and Governance, April 2022.

  • This article draws on multidisciplinary perspectives and ongoing work in Solomon Islands to propose an analytical frame for polycentric property system responses to climate migration. It suggests that the heuristic of absorptive capacity may provide a basis to consider adaptive property law for a future of climate migration.

Property, climate change, and community relocation in the Pacific in The Routledge Handbook of Property, Law and Society, Routledge, November 2022.

  • The Routledge Handbook on Property, Law and Society includes a number of chapters that address the relationship between property, climate change, and disasters. This chapter provides an accessible account of key property issues facing policy-makers as they confront the challenge of climate-induced internal migration in the Pacific. It provides an introduction to the region’s diverse land tenure systems and considers recent attempts by governments to address the prospect of community relocation. It argues that aid donors remain committed to state-centric understandings of property, and this constrains more local responses to climate-induced displacement.

Public policy initiatives

Associate Professor Rebecca Monson worked with Sustineo and Dignity Pasifik to develop evidence-based guidelines for planned climate relocation in Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands Planned Relocation Guidelines were handed over to the Solomon Islands Government in July 2022, and funded by the International Organization for Migration.

 

Low carbon and resilient cities

Dr Yuan Peng

Research highlights

Outreach

  • Peng, Y,  The role of cities in an emerging hydrogen economy – the pledges and strategies of frontrunner cities in China. 11th The Australia-China Youth Dialogue 2022.
  • Peng, Y,  Exploring the Mechanisms to Promote Electric Vehicle (EV) Adoption in Cities – from a Systems Perspective. Energy Conversations: A clean transport strategy for the ACT, ANU Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions.

Dr Yuan Peng speaking at ANU Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions' Energy Conversations event.

 

Associate Professor Bob Webb

Research highlights

  • Westman, Linda, James Patterson, Rachel Macrorie, Christopher J. Orr, Catherine M. Ashcraft, Vanesa Casta´n Broto, Dana Dolan, Mukesh Gupta, Jeroen van der Heijden, Thomas Hickmann, Robert Hobbins, Marielle Papin, Enora Robin, Christina Rosan, Jonas Torrens, Robert Webb. 2022. Compound urban crises. Ambio 51:1402–1415.

 

Professor Xuemei Bai

Research highlights

 

Psychology, communication and the arts

Dr Robyn Gulliver

Research highlights

First author key papers/chapers published in 2022: 

Books published in 2022:

Awards and honours

Dr Gulliver recieved a Highly Commended award in the inaugural Public Environmental History Prize, Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Environmental History Network for her project titled 'Women in the Environmental Movement from 1980.

Media

Sarah Boddington

Outreach

ICEDS has provided support to the launching of a new cross-faculty Seminar Series: Social Dimensions of Climate Change Transitions in Australia. This seminar series aims to build a community of practice for researchers and policy makers. Our first three seminars at the end of 2022 were on communicating about climate change, micro-grids and resilience, climate change anxiety and communities in transition. We will continue the seminar series into 2023.

 

Risk, vulnerability and resilience

Professor Stephen Dovers

Research highlights

Professor Stephen Dovers contributed chapters to two major books in disaster policy, as part of an international book series established by the ANU’s late Professor Helen James:

  • Dovers, S. 2022. Policy learning for disaster risk reduction. In: James, H., Shaw, R., Sharma, V. and Lukasiewicz, A. (eds). Disaster risk reduction in Asia Pacific: governance, education and capacity. pp.19-36. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Samnakay, N. and Dovers, S. (2022). National policy frameworks for compound, cascading and protracted disasters: learning from other policy sectors. In: Lukasiewicz, A. and O’Donnell, T. (eds). pp.313-39. Complex disasters: compound, cascading, and protracted. Palgrave MacMillan

Professor Dovers was invited to write the inaugural article in a new feature “Viewpoints” in the Australian Journal of Emergency Management, on mainstreaming disaster policy, which in 2022 was published along with commentaries from a range of leading figures in the sector:

Outreach

Professor Dovers led the final plenary panel of the 2022 AFAC Conference, Australia’s premier disaster and emergency management conference, in Adelaide in August, on the topic of co-benefits of disaster risk reduction measures.

Professor Dovers was also a co-proponent and participant in a major Academy of Social Sciences project on the past, present and future of Australian cities, and with colleague Elnaz Torabi contributed a paper on climate change adaptation and cities. That and other papers will be published as a major text on the future of Australian cities by ANU Press in 2023.

 

Professor Phil Cummins

Research highlights

 

Professor Hugh Davies

Awards and honours

The PNG Centre for Disaster Reduction will this year receive the Hamaguchi Award as recognition for the Centre's efforts to promote disaster awareness and preparedness in Papua New Guinea.

Professor Davies was one of the founders of the Centre, before leaving PNG in 2018. Professor Joseph Espi PhD and Ms Yayamel (Lara) Aisi MSc will travel to Japan to receive the award in November. It is a high award and is a mark of international recognition for the Centre. The Centre produced the book Aitape Story, a complete record of the 1998 Aitape tsunami, to promote continuing awareness of tsunami risk in SW Pacific.

 

Associate Professor Bob Webb

Research highlights

 

Dr Steven Lade

Education

In 2022 Dr Steven Lade convened a new postgraduate course: ENVS8019 Sustainable Futures: Staying on Track. The course is designed to engage students in the systems thinking and modelling tools needed for tackling complex multi-scale issues involved in creating sustainable futures.

 

Smart grid

Dr Elizabeth Ratnam

Research highlights

ARC LIEF 2023 LE23010058 - National Facility for Electricity Grid Security and Resilience Research (ARC Funding $400,000)

  • Media Release: $39 million awarded to build research infrastructure, equipment, and facilities
  • CI Team: Dr Elizabeth Ratnam (Lead CI), Professor Ian Petersen, Professor Iman Shames, Professor Jochen Trumpf, Professor Lachlan Blackhall, Associate Professor Guodong Shi, Professor Ian Manchester, Associate Professor Gregor Verbic, Professor Jian Zhu, Professor Vijay Varadharajan, Professor Steven Weller.

ANU - Major Equipment Grant (2022) - Facility for Energy Security and Resilience Research (ANU MEC funding $100,000)

  • CI Team: Dr Elizabeth Ratnam (Lead CI), Professor Ian Petersen, Professor Iman Shames, Dr Abhishek Bhardwaj, Professor Jochen Trumpf.

ARC Linkage Project LP210200473 (2021-2024) - Building Australia's Electric Vehicle Fast Charging Infrastructure (ARC Funding $481,767)

  • CI Team: Dr Elizabeth Ratnam (Lead CI), Dr Guodong Shi, Professor Ian Petersen, Dr Andrew Mears, Dr Abhishek Bhardwaj.
  • Project Partner: SwitchDin

ARC Discovery Project DP220101035 (2021-2024)  - Democratisation of Deep Learning: Neural Architecture Search at Low Cost (ARC Funding $390,000) (Led by Uni of Melbourne)

  • CI Team: Prof Saman Halgamuge (Lead CI), Professor Ponnuthurai Suganthan, Dr Julian de Hoog, Dr Elizabeth Ratnam

 

Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program (BSGIP)

Research highlights

Outreach

Converge: enabling greater integration of rooftop solar into the grid. Webinar featuring Shane Rattenbury, Minister for Water, Energy and Emissions Reduction, ACT, launched a new project exploring the grid participation of distributed energy resources within the ACT

‘DEIP Dive’ 2022 explores a distributed energy future. Hosted at ANU by BSGIP and ARENA on 12 September, this knowledge sharing event brought together close to 140 representatives from energy retailers, researchers, networks, market bodies, consultants, technology providers, peak bodies and federal and state government. The keynote speech on Public Interest Technology was jointly delivered by Prof Lachlan Blackhall and Dr Hedda Ransan-Cooper.

Image: DEIP Chair Rachele Williams (centre) flanked by keynote speakers Professor Lachlan Blackhall (left) and Dr Hedda Ransan-Cooper (right) (arena.gov.au).

Children’s book helps power clean energy transition . Dr Bjorn Sturmberg launched his first children’s book with a special book reading by ANU VC, Prof Brian Schmidt, at Parliament House on 7 November.

The Future of Neighbourhood Batteries in Australia (28 November 2022). BSGIP hosted experts from across industry, academia and government to outline actions required of different actors to ensure this form of technology has a positive impact. Organised by Dr Marnie Shaw and Dr Hedda Ransan-Cooper.

BSGIP online seminar series (ongoing). BSGIP hosted 10 online seminars in 2022 on a diverse range of topics from optimised electric vehicle fast charging to integrating distributed energy resources in remote Western Australia to governing just energy transitions in the Asia-Pacific. In the interests of knowledge sharing these seminars were open to a wide audience via University and BSGIP social media channels.

Pierrick Chalaye presented at the Social Dimensions of Climate Change in Australia seminar series: How to Improve Energy Resilience in the Eurobodalla Shire, 27 October 2022.  Pierrick Chalaye also presented work at the European Consortium for Political Research, August 2022.

Awards and honours

Evolve takes out Engineers Australia Canberra Excellence Project Award - Project Evolve won the Engineers Australia ACT project award. A project on Community Energy Models led by Dr Marnie Shaw received a ‘Highly Commended’ honour.

Dr Bjorn Sturmberg receives Tall Poppy honour - Dr Sturmberg also led a project that will be part of the Engaged ANU pilot for ‘Navigating the Energy Transition’.

Accolades for BSGIP at national engineering awards ceremony - The Evolve project team were finalists for the Sir William Hudson Award wich recognises Australia’s top engineering projects and the teams behind them.  Prof Lachlan Blackhall also recieved an individual award, the M A Sargent Medal recognising a highly significant contribution, through technical innovation, to the science or practice of electrical engineering and leadership relating to electrical engineering. 

Image: Lachlan Blackhall was recognised for his leadership in the field of electrical engineering (bsgip.com).

Dr Marnie Shaw recognised for leadership in clean energy - Dr Marnie Shaw was recognised for her leadership in clean energy, receiving a Chloe Munro Scholarship for Transformational Leadership from the Clean Energy Council.

Media

 

Solar photovoltaics

Professor Andrew Blakers 

Research highlights

The Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP), led by The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in collaboration with ANU and other institutions, received $45 million over the next eight years to ensure the nation continues to be a world leader in the development and deployment of cutting-edge solar technology, including the next iteration of solar panels.

See ANU News Story: $45m injection to electrify innovation in Aussie solar tech

Public policy initiatives

26/5/22: Extensive quoting in the “Inquiry into Renewable Energy in Victoria” (PDF 4.98MB)

30/6/22: Heavily quoted in a report from the ACT Legislative Assembly, “Inquiry into renewable energy innovation in the ACT” (PDF 1.03MB)

28/3/22: Follow up advice to the Senate Environment & Communications Committee for its “Inquiry into oil and gas exploration and production in the Beetaloo Basin” (PDF 207KB)

Outreach

Image: Professor Andrew Bakers with Drew Clarke AO at ANU Solar Oration 2022 (ICEDS)

Media

 

Dr Hieu Nguyen

Awards and honours

Dr Hieu Nguyen was awarded the 2021 Vietnam Golden Globe Awards in Science & Technology for Early-Career Scientists (the most prestigious national honour for young scientists), recognised for his research into new material technologies and his contributions to the development of advanced characterisation techniques for solar energy devices.

Dr Hieu Nguyen was also selected as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Faces of Vietnam 2021 (the highest honour for Vietnamese citizens ≤35 years old from the Prime Minister of Vietnam), recognised in the category of Scientific Research and Innovation for his work in solar energy devices.

Sustainable transport

Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program (BSGIP)

Research highlights

The Realising Electric Vehicle-to-grid Services (REVS) project officially ended in 2022. A number of knowledge sharing reports were published this year including:

Outreach

First electric vehicle chargers now on campus. Installed for research purposes as part of the DERlab, the School of Engineering generously offered this resource free-of-charge to the ANU community.

Photo: Vice-Chancellor Prof Brian Schmidt and members of BSGIP: Lachlan Blackahll, Mejbaul Haque, Heather Logie, Bjorn Sturmberg, Mehdi Nikpendar and Peter Shevchenko. Credit: Jamie Kidston.

Public policy initiatives

Media

  • Australia needs to get motoring on clean transport strategy, ANU media release, 11 May. Co-author of the Framework for an Australian Clean Transport Strategy (FACTS) Dr Bjorn Sturmberg says the lack of clear direction is slowing our adoption of clean technologies, such as electric cars and buses.
  • Electric vehicles pass the remote road test, ANU media release, 8 July. Electric vehicles can handle the distances required to travel to essential services in remote and regional Australia, a new study from The Australian National University (ANU) has shown.
  • Who will drive vehicle-to-grid?, Utility magazine, 2 August. Opinion piece written by Bjorn Sturmberg, Kathryn Lucas-Healey and Laura Jones.

 

Water and flooding

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

Dr Andrew Ross

Research highlights

 

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 

 

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

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

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 2nd 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 (PM-A) in two equatorial atolls, Tarawa, and Kiritimati in Kiribati, and 12-month May to April average sea surface temperature (SSTM-A) in the Nino regions surrounding the atolls are examined between 1950 and 2022. The only significant temporal trend found was for SST­M-A in the Nino4 region surrounding Tarawa atoll. The extreme interannual variations in PM-A due to frequent ENSO events mean that any trends in PM-a in either atoll are not detectable. The large interannual variations in PM-A are highly significantly correlated with SSTM-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:

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

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