Grants to Melbourne researchers tackling challenging urban environments policy issues

Volume 11 Number 2 February 9 - March 8 2015

 

The Commonwealth Department of the Environment is working with the University of Melbourne and research organisations around the country to bring best practice, science-based decision-making to environmental policies. Daryl Holland reports.

New research hubs tackling policy questions about the urban environment, threatened species and the drivers of our climate have been created as part of the federal government’s $142.5 million National Environmental Science Programme (NESP).

The University of Melbourne will take the lead on the six-year, $8.88 million Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub and will play key roles in two other NESP hubs, the $23.9 million Earth Systems Hub and the $29.98 million Threatened Species Recovery Hub.

Hubs covering Tropical Water Quality, Marine Biodiversity and Northern Australia Environmental Resources have also been included in the programme.

Professor Peter Rayner from the School of Earth Sciences will direct the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub and says these hubs came about because the government was looking for applied research that would inform policy priorities.

“For example, if we’re going to plant trees in cities, to remove some greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, to cool the city, to make the city more amenable for walking, what kinds of things do we plant, how many do we need, and where do they go?

“And that’s a really very integrated question. You might need to answer questions about how manageable various kinds of plants are, how they affect the heat balance, and how effective they are at taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. And do the plants put out other pollutants that we might need to worry about?”

The hub includes members from RMIT, the University of Wollongong and the University of Western Australia, and includes experts in air quality, atmospheric modelling, instrumentation, population health, conservation biology, urban design and urban ecology.

“That’s a pretty broad portfolio,” Professor Rayner says. 

“We have drawn together a team to address most things the department might like us to tackle. I’m sure there will be something that will surprise us, but we think we have pretty good coverage.”

Associate Professor Brendan Wintle from the School of Biological Sciences is the director of the University of Melbourne node of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub, which is being led by the University of Queensland.

The hub is closely aligned with the existing Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence for Environmental Decisions, and Dr Wintle says the theoretical and discovery-based science of the Centre for Excellence will complement the applied, policy-focused research of the hub.

“We develop models that combine ecology and biology and economics to determine the most cost-effective way to preserve threatened species,” Dr Wintle says.

He says the hub would be asking the difficult questions about which species realistically can be saved, and would provide recommendations to the government’s Threatened Species Commissioner to get the best outcomes for as many species as possible.

The Earth Systems Hub, led by the CSIRO, aims to further understand the drivers of Australia’s climate. Professor David Karoly is co-ordinating the University of Melbourne node of the hub, which includes members from the Schools of Earth Sciences and Geography. He says the hub will provide greater opportunities for collaboration between universities and other research organisations than previous, similar schemes.

“This programme gives researchers and graduate students the opportunity to work with the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology to test and develop the next generation of dynamic climate models,” Professor Karoly says.

www.environment.gov.au/science/nesp

 

www.science.unimelb.edu.au