Planning for climate change northern monsoon cluster: decision making and planning for natural resource management

Natural resource managers are tasked with a range of challenging and sometimes competing management objectives but often have limited resources with which to achieve them. Natural resource management (NRM) objectives typically include conserving biodiversity, maintaining healthy ecosystems, achieving water quality targets and restoring degraded habitats. A key challenge is to identify where, when and how to implement effective activities to achieve these objectives with the least cost and impact on stakeholders. This project provided and tested an appropriate decision support framework for cross-realm planning and supporting synthesis of NRM plans to assist natural resource management groups in northern Australia successfully tackle this challenge

Organic Farming in Wales 2003 - 2004

Organic Centre Wales (OCW) was originally formed to act as an information source for producers enquiring into organic farming; in our second phase, in response to changes in the sector, we have an increased remit on policy issues. It has been a busy time, seeing the production of a second Organic Action Plan, the implementation of the CAP reform and development work on agri-environment reforms. The year also saw the start of organic maintenance payments for farmers. This Annual Report contains accounts of the progress that has been made on many fronts during the last 12 months, particularly in market knowledge due to the research for the recently published report, 'Organic Food: understanding the consumer and increasing sales'. This information, together with continuing product development work, will enable Welsh organic producers to be proactive in building a solid consumer base

Future scenarios for the Fitzroy River catchment: summary of key findings relevant to the WA Government Discussion Paper

We summarise the significant components and findings from NESP project 1.6 (Multi-objective planning in northern Australia: co-benefits and trade-offs between environmental, economic, and cultural outcomes). In particular, we discuss results relevant to the Western Australia government's draft paper 'Managing water in the Fitzroy River Catchment – Discussion paper for stakeholder consultation'. Specifically, we provide comments regarding the seven components of the draft paper: (1) adaptive management, (2) policy on dams, (3) groundwater extraction, (4) surface water harvesting, (5) opportunities for Aboriginal economic development, (6) regulatory requirements, and (7) water development options posed by the WA government for the consideration by stakeholders

Integrated models, frameworks and decision support tools to guide management and planning in Northern Australia. Final report

[Extract] There is a lot of interest in developing northern Australia while also caring for the unique Australian landscape (Commonwealth of Australia 2015). However, trying to decide how to develop and protect at the same time can be a challenge. There are many modelling tools available to inform these decisions, including integrated models, frameworks, and decision support tools, but there are so many different kinds that it’s difficult to determine which might be best suited to inform different decisions. To support planning and development decisions across northern Australia, this project aimed to create resources to help end-users (practitioners) to assess: 1. the availability and suitability of particular modelling tools; and 2. the feasibility of using, developing, and maintaining different types of modelling tools

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission: Optical Telescope Element Design, Development, and Performance

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared space telescope that has recently started its science program which will enable breakthroughs in astrophysics and planetary science. Notably, JWST will provide the very first observations of the earliest luminous objects in the Universe and start a new era of exoplanet atmospheric characterization. This transformative science is enabled by a 6.6 m telescope that is passively cooled with a 5-layer sunshield. The primary mirror is comprised of 18 controllable, low areal density hexagonal segments, that were aligned and phased relative to each other in orbit using innovative image-based wavefront sensing and control algorithms. This revolutionary telescope took more than two decades to develop with a widely distributed team across engineering disciplines. We present an overview of the telescope requirements, architecture, development, superb on-orbit performance, and lessons learned. JWST successfully demonstrates a segmented aperture space telescope and establishes a path to building even larger space telescopes.Comment: accepted by PASP for JWST Overview Special Issue; 34 pages, 25 figure

Integrated models, frameworks and decision support tools to guide management and planning in Northern Australia

Made available by the Northern Territory Library via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).NESP comprises six research hubs, each with their own specific research priorities: Clean Air and Urban Landscapes; Earth Systems and Climate Change; Marine Biodiversity; Northern Australia Environmental Resources; Threatened Species Recovery, and Tropical Water Quality Hub (see the NESP website for a detailed description of each hub). The research about which this report is written was undertaken as part of the Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub, which addresses issues associated with the sustainable development of the unique northern environments. This report is associated with one of the core themes of that hub, to: Develop and trial spatially explicit tools to guide planning and management decisions that support a mix of multiple uses and protected areas while maintaining environmental values.The Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub is supported through funding from the Australian Government?s National Environmental Science Programme. The NESP NAER Hub is hosted by Charles Darwin University. Logo on cover: James Cook University, Griffith University, The University of Queensland, Charles Darwin University and the University of Western Australi

Gestures of Resistance

Gestures of Resistance aims to respond to our current general mood of political anxiety and alienation by opening up socio-political critique in order to resist the palpable feeling of disempowerment. Rather than accepting the non-choice of the neoliberal setup of Greece or current right-wing politics both in America and Europe, the artists of Gestures of Resistance reflect on the current state of our political condition, our current housing situation, the state of education and art, liberalism, diversity and pluralism in this moment of historical crisis, whereby the state of today seems to have strong links to the state of the past.As part of Gestures of Resistance, artworks by sixteen international contemporary artists will be exhibited at the Romantso Cultural Centre in Athens during Documenta 14. From photographs and collages to sculptures and installations, each artist has an agenda and political take – some subtle and cryptic, some openly confrontational

Transport Phenomena in Particle Suspensions: Sedimentation and Thermophoresis

This chapter deals with transport phenomena induced in colloidal suspensions and complex fluids either by gravity, which is the well established but nevertheless still stimulating subject of sedimentation, or by thermophoresis, a subtler and very intriguing effect that is still partly understood. Specifically, I shall highlight the wealth of information one can get by investigating the particle concentration profiles generated at equilibrium by sedimentation, or at steady-state by thermophoresis, and discuss some novel optical techniques that have been fruitfully exploited to study them