Different Conceptualizations of River Basins to Inform Management of Environmental Flows

Environmental flows are a critical tool for addressing ecological degradation of river systems brought about by increasing demand for limited water resources. The importance of basin scale management of environmental flows has long been recognized as necessary if managers are to achieve social, economic, and environmental objectives. The challenges in managing environmental flows are now emerging and include the time taken for changes to become manifest, uncertainty around large-scale responses to environmental flows and that most interventions take place at smaller scales. The purpose of this paper is to describe how conceptual models can be used to inform the development, and subsequent evaluation of ecological objectives for environmental flows at the basin scale. Objective setting is the key initial step in environmental flow planning and subsequently provides a foundation for effective adaptive management. We use the implementation of the Basin Plan in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) as an example of the role of conceptual models in the development of environmental flow objectives and subsequent development of intervention monitoring and evaluation, key steps in the adaptive management of environmental flows. The implementation of the Basin Plan was based on the best science available at the time, however, this was focused on ecosystem responses to environmental flows. The monitoring has started to reveal that limitations in our conceptualization of the basin may reduce the likelihood of achieving of basin scale objectives. One of the strengths of the Basin Plan approach was that it included multiple conceptual models informing environmental flow management. The experience in the MDB suggests that the development of multiple conceptual models at the basin scale will help increase the likelihood that basin-scale objectives will be achieved

Transforming retirement: re-thinking models of retirement to accommodate the experiences of women

Like other governments in the Western world, the Australian government is re-thinking its retirement policy in response to the ageing of the population. A ‘transitional’ model is being encouraged, which has the aim of extending the working life into the retirement period. This article unpacks the meaning of a transitional phase to women in different family and work situations. Drawing on a larger, Australian Research Council funded project, examining the shift in attitudes towards work and retirement in three generations of Australian women, three different models of retirement are developed which enable women's diverse pathways into retirement to be identified and compared, and policy options considered for enhancing women's transition to retirement. The models also highlight the different effects of workplace flexibility on different groups of women, exposing the economic vulnerability of single mothers

'Things are getting better all the time'?: challenging the narrative of women's progress from a generational perspective

This article addresses the dilemmas associated with continuing to interpret women’s experience through the lens of a progress narrative that emerged to represent the aspirations of women during the peak of the women’s movement. The central theme of this narrative is that gender will no longer act as a social constraint once women are recognized as workers as well as mothers. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Karl Mannheim and empirical data from in-depth interviews undertaken as part of a generational study of Australian women, the article argues that the progress narrative no longer inspires young women, who take gender equity for granted. Although motherhood continues to shape their working arrangements, the discourses they use to make sense of the tensions involved are embedded in a new Zeitgeist which prioritizes ‘choice’, not ‘equity’. The implications of this shift for the ‘work-life balance’ social policy agenda are then considered