Many broadacre farms in Western Australia (WA) experience problems in attracting and retaining farm labour. A survey of WA farmers (Rabobank 2007) reported that of the 69 percent of farmers who required additional labour over the previous 12 months, 14 percent said it was ‘impossible’ to find labour. A further 62 percent said they had experienced some difficultly attracting adequate labour. To overcome this labour shortage, 41% of the survey (more)...
In many regions in Western Australia farm size is increasing and there is less labour available. To combat this many farmers are putting more priority into cropping and less effort into their less profitable enterprises such as livestock production. The resulting decrease in stocking rates makes the enterprise even less profitable. The farmers are also less likely to establish perennial pastures due to the perceived workload increase. One solution to this problem is for farmers to get a professional (more)...
The Powerful Choices study uses a biophysical-economics model of the Australian economy to explore the capability of discrete low-carbon technologies to maintain economic growth, ensure energy security and reduce CO2 emissions out to 2051. The approach applies physical laws of thermodynamics and mass balance to established economic structures to ensure that financial dynamics are constrained by physical reality. Renewable electricity (bio-electricity, wind, solar thermal and (more)...
We all agree that valuing ecosystem services is crucial for better management of the ecosystem. We don’t seem to agree on how to do it. Current methods do not model the dynamics of economic or ecological systems.
Dr Greg Hertzler’s (USyd) research project developed a dynamic model to value ecosystem services and natural resources. It found natural resource managers (who often value the ecosystem using their preferences and knowledge) are crucial, particularly if they consult (more)...
The main outcome of this research is the discovery that these lenses have continued to form even under the regulated river conditions of the last century. However, high river levels promote lens formation, and the lack of high river levels is limiting the ongoing formation of these lenses.
Pumping groundwater from these lenses, especially in these low-river-level periods is detrimental to the longevity of these lenses and the buffering role that they play,
preventing regional saline (more)...
Final report on the one year project which critically tested two novel technologies for contaminant detection and treatment in catchment water contaminated by agricultural chemicals. The project brings together RMIT’s expertise (polymer compositions suitable for fungicide iprodione sensing in real ground and run-off water) and Victorian DPI expertise (analytical support and samples) to develop a chemical detection device made of a polymer. The (more)...
This final report summerises the activities and outcomes of the Land & Water Australia Project - Environmental Flow Bayesian Network Decision-Making Framework.
The development of two Bayesian Network models used as a decision-support tool for determining environmental flows in major rivers in Australia are reported on. The first eFlows BN model was for the Latrobe River in Victoria, a river system that is highly regulated and (more)...
Final report on the project in which Dr Pauline Treble used chemical analysis in the layers formed on cave stalagmites to discover the prehistoric variability of Australia’s rainfall. These have then been compared with climate model’s predictions of the past. The research is providing a deeper understanding of the speleothem record for south-western Australia and the Murray Darling Basin. Pauline’s fieldwork has recovered material suitable to know what drip water tells about the surface rainfall (more)...
This study combines non market valuation and bio economic modelling in a dynamic model of ecosystem services. First, because non market valuation and bio economic models use different concepts of valuation, the values of ecosystem services are defined. Next, an analytical solution is derived which includes a dynamic Lancaster demand system and new methods for welfare analysis. Finally, both revealed and stated preference methods are proposed for estimating the value of ecosystem (more)...
