NCCARF
Adaptation Research Network for Water Resources and
Freshwater Biodiversity
Victorian Node Discussion Paper
Produced by the Victorian Node of the
Water Resources and Freshwater Biodiversity Adaptation Research Network
October 2009
Authors:
Philip Wallis
Jane Catford
In consultation with 35 Victorian water researchers
Contacts:
Dr Jane Catford
Research Fellow, AEDA CERF
School of Botany
The University of Melbourne
catfordj@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 3339
Dr Philip Wallis
Research Fellow, Uniwater
Monash Sustainability Institute
Monash University
Phil.Wallis@msi.monash.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 9905 8709
Page 2
Summary
The Adaptation Research Network for Water Resources and Freshwater Biodiversity has been
established, in part, to put forward research proposals dealing with adaptation to climate change.
We are part of a multi-disciplinary network, therefore, any proposal is more likely to be favoured if it
includes collaboration across institutions and disciplines. Any proposal with national benefit is more likely
to succeed. A small number of strongly collaborative research proposals are more likely to be funded then
a large number of small proposals. What we propose will need to help Australia adapt to climate change
impacts.
The Victorian node has a strong presence in the southern Murray-Darling Basin and in south-eastern
Australia more generally, therefore we have a strategic advantage in proposals in this region. As the
southern Murray-Darling Basin generates a large proportion of Murray-Darling inflows, as well as
significant agricultural production, research focused on this region might be considered in the national
interest, especially if what we are proposing has wider application.
Victorian node consultation
On behalf of the Victorian node, Dr Philip Wallis and Dr Jane Catford have been conducting a series of
meetings, through July to October 2009, with a sample of researchers that have expressed an interest in
the Water Adaptation Research Network. Addressing the second goal of the Water Network (to facilitate
the development of collaborative and cross-disciplinary research at the national scale), the aim of the
meetings was to identify common research interests and key knowledge gaps that limit the ability to adapt
to climate change impacts. The major findings of this consultation are presented in Section 3 of this
document, and form the basis for further discussion and refinement of research topics.
Next Steps for the Victorian Node
We seek to progress the Adaptation Research Network for Water Resources and Freshwater Biodiversity
by identifying research proposals within the Victorian Node that address adaptation to climate change.
This paper provides a starting-point for discussion about which collaborative research proposals should be
supported.
Providing feedback
Feedback on this discussion paper can be provided in a number of ways: 1) through the wiki dedicated to
group discussion of this paper - contact us for access; 2) by making comments or tracking changes on the
word document directly and emailing this back to us so we can post these on the wiki; or 3) contacting
either Phil Wallis or Jane Catford directly to discuss the paper or arrange for a face-to-face meeting.
Following the release of this discussion paper, we hope to collect feedback over a three-week period (end
date: 9th November 2009), after which time we will update the paper. We seek expressions of interest in
leading working groups to develop research proposals and will provide support for thematic workshops. A
workshop of the whole Victorian node is planned for February 2010 where groups can report back on
research proposals and a Victorian Node plan developed.
Page 3
1. Introduction
In recognition of the dangerous and unavoidable effects of climate change, in 2007, the Australian
Government committed funding to establish the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility
(NCCARF). Based at Griffith University, NCCARF aims to identify the research and information required to
adapt to the physical impacts of climate change. See http://www.nccarf.edu.au/.
To achieve these aims, eight national research networks have been established to investigate ways to
manage, and adapt to, the effects of climate change on areas such as water resources, human health,
emergency services, settlements and infrastructure, and biodiversity. Research outputs will be focused on
the needs of decision-makers in governments, vulnerable industries and communities as they respond to
the likely impacts of climate change. The right to host the ‘Water Resources and Freshwater Biodiversity
Adaptation Research Network’ was won by a bid comprising the universities and organisations listed
below:
Griffith University (convener)
University of Adelaide
Australian National University
Charles Darwin University
CSIRO
James Cook University
MDFRC (MDBA, CSIRO, LaTrobe)
Melbourne University
Monash University
Murdoch University
Museum of Victoria
NRETA
NSW Dept Climate Change
Qld University of Technology
SAWater
SARDI
University of Canberra
University of Newcastle
University of New South Wales
University of Southern Qld
University of Tasmania
University of Technology Sydney
University of Western Australia
Uniwater
In accordance with the aims of NCCARF, the Water Network will develop research proposals that address
adaptation to climate change. Proposals that yield national benefits and foster collaboration by including multiple
institutions and disciplines will be encouraged. The primary goals of the network are to:

Synthesise relevant knowledge to give Australian water and biodiversity managers the best chance of
coping with a difficult climate future;

Facilitate the development of collaborative and cross-disciplinary research at the national scale;

Build research capacity through support and mentoring of early career scientists.
The intention is to develop a single, inclusive network with the aim of facilitating open exchange of
information and sharing of resources among the water research community in Australia. Additional
partners will be able to join in activities coordinated by the host institution within their geographic region,
fill gaps in expertise and broaden the reach of the network into government and industry.
Page 4
1.1. Research themes
The coordinators of the Water Network have proposed four research themes in the National Adaptation
Research Plan (NARP):

Governance: Including water allocation, markets and trading - activities to inform development of
water allocation and market arrangements that support adaptation to climate change

Water Resources: Inform policies and management practices for interception activities (including
farms dams, plantation forestry and re-afforestation with native vegetation) and the joint management
of surface and groundwater.

Freshwater Biodiversity: Research to inform adaptive management of environmental flows and
other mitigation strategies to protect freshwater biodiversity and maintain aquatic ecosystem health.

Climate scenarios: Develop scenarios of likely climate change and its implications for freshwater
biodiversity and water resources
1.2. Victorian node
The Water Network has been split into regional nodes that will facilitate interaction among researchers in
each of the regions, as well as supporting researchers to attend meetings in other regions. The nodes will
provide a point of contact for engagement with industry partners (e.g. state and local government
agencies), and ensure that issues addressed are locally relevant. Uniwater, a joint initiative of the
University of Melbourne and Monash University, is acting as the Victorian Node Coordinator through
Monash University.
A priority of the Victorian Node is to facilitate future collaboration among researchers with shared research
interests and complementary skills. Funding of projects will initially be sought from NCCARF on a
competitive basis. It is envisaged that a maximum of three research proposals will be developed by the
Victorian Node, though it is possible to develop proposals across regional nodes and research networks.
Recognising that many research topics therefore cannot be included, the Victorian Node aims to develop
strong proposals that address key knowledge gaps relating to climate change adaptation from an
integrated, multi-disciplinary perspective.
1.3. Network priorities and activities
The National coordinators of the Water Network have suggested a list of activities that the network will
perform:
 Connect existing networks and expertise in water into the Water Network.
 Participate in an inception workshop that will establish strategic priorities for the next few years
and decide on lead organisations and individuals for thematic issues.
 A mid-term international workshop/conference aimed at developing stronger links with
international developments in the water/climate area.
 Synthesise existing and emerging research into themes.
 Facilitate open exchange of information and sharing of resources among research partners.
 Assist with developing detailed thematic research plans.
 Facilitate the establishment of research teams to work on priority areas with reference to the
National Adaptation Research Plan.
 Provide support for early career scientists and postgraduate students to actively participate in
regional and national meetings and workshops, and to be included in the development of research
proposals.
 Provide access for university students to the water industry, and provide training and job
experience in areas of importance to the water industry.
 Encourage and support co-supervision of students across research partners and, where relevant,
across disciplines.
Page 5
2. Research capacity – Victorian node
The Victorian Node of the Adaptation Research Network has been consulting with water researchers at
Monash University, the University of Melbourne and the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre
(MDFRC) in order to identify common research opportunities and key knowledge gaps that limit the ability
to adapt to climate change. This consultation will extend to interested water researchers at other
universities and research organisations in Victoria that were not originally listed on the network bid. Key
Victorian water managers will then be invited to share their views on knowledge gaps and research needs
to get an idea of where the Adaptation Research Network can develop research proposals to inform water
policy and management.
Activity in the Victorian Node will primarily focus on three of the research themes identified in the National
Adaptation Research Plan: 1) governance, 2) water resources and 3) freshwater biodiversity. The
governance theme engages with existing research collaboration in this area between Monash and
Melbourne Universities, which also includes researchers at universities interstate, making this a national
theme. The water resources and freshwater biodiversity themes will be developed around research in
south east Australia.
The Water Network has recently issued a call to produce synthesis papers aimed at communicating key
issues, highlighting knowledge gaps and identifying the role of the network in helping to address these
knowledge needs. The Victorian node has put forward nominations to develop synthesis papers for the
freshwater biodiversity theme; for the governance theme; and for the water resources theme on the topic
of water markets. We welcome further suggestions for synthesis papers.
Page 6
3. Potential Research Topics
Through an initial consultation process with a sample of water researchers, we have identified research
themes that are focused on climate change adaptation and incorporate the diversity of views and research
interests within the network.
3.1. Understanding system behaviour of freshwater ecosystems
Increasing our understanding of freshwater ecosystems is essential for understanding what the
physical impacts of climate change will be and for developing adaptation strategies. This includes
increasing understanding of critical ecological thresholds, the impacts of disturbance which may
become more important for management under climate change (e.g. bushfires, low flows). Ecological
responses to environmental flows (ecohydrology) are a key topic under this theme, as environmental
flow regimes are, to a certain degree, a management lever.
Understanding the impacts of climate change on riparian vegetation (which is important for energy and
nutrient dynamics in-stream), was nominated as an important area of adaptation research. For example,
die-back and degradation of river red gums reduces leaf litter production, which can cause trophic
starvation to higher orders, with resultant impacts on ecosystem services.
The importance of learning from past research was a key priority for some of those interviewed;
especially the use of multiple lines of evidence for causal criteria analysis of ecological responses. A
desktop study was proposed to draw on existing information to develop frameworks that document current
knowledge gaps.
Integrated modelling of freshwater ecosystems has also been flagged as an area of interest,
especially in a holistic landscape-scale context, including groundwater modelling. The effects of climate
change on groundwater-surface water interactions in Australia are poorly understood. Consequently,
the effect of these interactions on ecosystems is also poorly understood. This is a potential area for a
collaborative research proposal. A project of this type would potentially be limited to locations where
groundwater monitoring networks already exist. The effects of climate change on ephemeral streams,
which would become less frequently connected under a warmer and drier climate, needs to be evaluated;
in particular, an increased ability to make predictions on how these functions would assist in their
management.
Estuarine environments have been flagged by a number of researchers as an area that requires a
greater understanding of system behaviour. It was suggested that estuaries are clearly within the scope of
the freshwater network, rather than the marine network, due to the strong catchment influence on estuary
water quality and flows. To ensure that estuaries do not fall in a gap between marine environments and
inland streams, this topic could be potentially be taken up through a collaboration between the freshwater
and marine networks.
Climate change will impact water quality through increased fire frequency or extent, reduced discharge,
potential increases in pollutants, and an increase in human population pressure. In addition, the reconnection of salinised and acidified wetlands and stream reaches with, for example, the Murray River
system could create water quality problems. Research currently seems to be focussed more towards
water quantity issues, except in urban systems. This balance needs to be redressed.
Land use change and the ecological consequences of land management practices are overlain by the
impacts of climate change. What will be the effect of increased carbon dioxide concentration on aquatic
ecosystems? What effect will climate change have on energy resources for aquatic environments?
Page 7
Increasing the use of genetic approaches to examine resilience and the effects of extended drought on
lowland rivers and their floodplains was suggested as a potential topic. For example, it was suggested that
the health of key tree species could be examined across the whole Murray-Darling Basin to see if climate
change-driven processes are causing bottlenecks in overall genetic structures.
3.2. Aquatic ecological sentinel sites
The identification of long-term environmental research ‘sentinel sites’ to detect climate change
impacts on inland waters was an area with much support from those consulted. Such sites would already
have climatic, hydrological and ecological data already being collected or joint programs where these
combined datasets could be most easily supported. The collection of long-term ecological data in
wilderness areas would help to better understand climate change impacts on water resources without the
compounding influences of urban and rural land management impacts. Attributing climate change impacts
from other environmental stressors is essential for understanding the drivers of change and developing
adaptation strategies.
An example of a sentinel site is the alpine region of south eastern Australia, which would provide an
early warning system for the effects of climate change on aquatic systems, as the bioclimatic envelopes in
these high-elevation areas will migrate upwards under a warmer climate. Some potential climate-change
impacts in these snowfall-driven systems include reduced streamflow, changes to surface water and
ground water interactions and consequent effects on water quality and aquatic biodiversity. In addition,
analogous monitoring networks already exist for terrestrial ecology.
3.3. Information systems / observation network
The management of existing data, information and knowledge has been identified as a key area of
interest among those consulted. This could focus on integrating ecological data with the Australian Water
Resources Information System (AWRIS).
In conjunction with a new water information system, a south-eastern Australian (or Southern
Hemisphere) observation network could be setup to collect ecological and hydrological data. This could
be based on the idea of ‘sentinel sites’ mentioned above.
Information on water resources is stored on numerous databases across different jurisdictions. AWRIS will
provide data on water availability, water use and water quality, based on a continuation of the baseline
study that was established in the National Water Commission’s assessment of water resources; Australian
Water Resources 2005. Victorian water information is currently hosted on the Victorian Water Resources
Data Warehouse (www.vicwaterdata.net). AWRIS promises to be a ‘National Enabling Framework’ for
hosting water resources information. Another emerging initiative, the national Water Resources
Observation Network (WRON), is being developed by the WRON Alliance (www.wron.net.au). Another
program is the Water Information Research and Development Alliance (WIRADA) is a partnership
between CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology (www.bom.gov.au/water/wirada).
3.4. Cities
Climate change adaptation research in cities focuses on stormwater, urban heat islands, water supply
(both centralised and de-centralised), flood mitigation and urban stream health. Research proposals are
independently being developed around scenarios of water sensitive urban design (WSUD) and urban
hydrological modelling, which would be able to assess the effects of adaptation strategies on the urban
water cycle.
Page 8
3.5. Systemic and adaptive water governance
Water governance in Australia is typified by institutional complexity. Legislation at multiple levels of
government, regulations, cross-boundary markets and different regional planning mechanisms and policy
contestants contribute to this complexity. Additionally, unprecedented biophysical challenges to water
resources are occurring against a political background of a transfer of some powers from the States to the
Commonwealth.
This network proposes to address how the new Water Act 2007 (Cth) will influence the dynamic structure
of institutional arrangements in the water governance arena. This extends to issues of institutional
capacity and a consideration of innovative governance structures that can facilitate planning and cope
with the uncertainty driven by factors such as climate change.
4. Activities to Date
4.1. NCCARF Melbourne meeting
A workshop was held at the University College at the University of Melbourne in April 2009, organised by
the Adaptation Research Network coordinators (Stuart Bunn & Brendan Edgar, Griffith). The aim of this
meeting was to broadly discuss and garner interest in the four research themes of the network. The
following dot-point summary of the meeting outcomes was provided and summarises the key research
needs in each theme, as well as other priorities of the network.
Research needs - Climate scenarios
 Model selection, downscaling
 Extreme events; probability, duration, magnitude, frequency
 Rates of change
 Temperature regimes
 Actual evapotranspiration
 Impact of CO2 change
Research needs - Governance
 Water trading; surface versus groundwater
 Policies, guidelines and barriers to trade
 Water allocation methodologies
 Security of entitlement
 Optimum institutional structures
 Economic model assumptions
Research needs - Water Resources
 Surface and groundwater; total water resource
 Quantity and quality of water
 River behaviour changes
 Urban/ rural/ per-urban interactions
 Agriculture, environment, mining, integrated usage and limits
 Optimum energy use for water uses
 Demographic shift impacts
 Evapotranspiration measurement
Research needs – Aquatic Biodiversity
 Linkages between aquatic and terrestrial fragmentation, dispersal, connectivity
 Target setting based on impact of climate change
Page 9
 Assisted translocation
 Changing ecosystem function, e.g. nutrient transformation rates
 Quantifying environmental values
 Barriers to dispersal, natural and human
 Identification of alternative states/ thresholds
 Need to broaden aquatic biodiversity research focus to be more than flow management
Regional coordination/ node activities
 Build partnerships with government, particularly through projects
 Develop terms of reference/ structure for work plans
 Need to consider interaction with other networks, and how best to achieve this
 Respond to research needs at a regional level
Communication
 Strong desire to have a high level of web based functionality
 Role of network is to translate science into knowledge
 Explore producing a poster/ stand that can be used at conferences
 Build communication into development phase of projects
 Consider road shows as a communication tool
 Explore web based seminars
 Engage at the policy level of government
 Expand into international engagement, world climate conference, millennium assessment
 Utilise conferences to communicate i.e. ISL, ESA, AWA
 Develop lexicon of common cross disciplinary terms
Building science capacity
 Industry placement of students
 Focus on post grad/post doc students
 Mentoring
 Explore sabbaticals
Research management
 Need to clarify boundary issues between themes
 Explore common areas of need across networks i.e. regional downscaling/extreme
events
 Need to better address water resource component in theme
 Need common understanding of the meaning of adaptation. May need a forum
specifically on what adaptation research means
 Implementing coordinated research projects will be a key measure of success of the
network
 Integration will be needed across disciplines
Discussion on meaning of adaptation
 Systems understanding
 Conceptual models of biodiversity functions and processes
 Adaptation is not mitigation or monitoring
 Ability to respond
 Reducing uncertainty
 Increasing resilience
 Predictive
 Options include refugia, triage, restoration, weed fire, feral management, species
tolerance
Page 10
Information to help managers adapt
 Vulnerability of ecosystems, resilience, life history traits
 Downscale climate models
 Long term ecological research sites
 Better description of downscaling knowledge requirements of managers i.e. types of
events, time scales
 Flood – drought return times
 Ecological models to predict current state, response (species change, invasives,
keystone spp) resilience
 Ecosystem change models (resilience, rehabilitation, adaptation)
 Management of emergent problem organisms
 Reserve design optimisation
 Catchment scale restoration
 Conservation triage – prioritisation
 Understanding endogenous change from climate change versus change from other
management actions
 How are systems adapting to climate change, and how does management respond?
 Spatial use of water resources to optimise outcomes
 Formulate water resource planning to ensure biodiversity outcomes are achievable
 Scenario models that link water resource, socio-economic, governance
4.2. Systemic and adaptive water governance workshops
Activities relating to a ‘systemic and adaptive water governance research network’ have been
incorporated into the NCCARF Water Adaptation Research Network’s governance theme.
A workshop was held under the title “Systemic and adaptive water governance: Reconfiguring institutions
for social learning and more effective water managing?” to explore the role of social learning in water
policy and law. The abstract distributed for the event read as follows:
The way we manage water catchments and allocate water resources in an era of climate change
is one of Australia’s predominant public policy challenges, with the Murray Darling Basin a hotspot
in the public debate. Historical ‘institutions’ and practices for water management have resulted in
unsustainable levels and patterns of water use. As a result, natural systems are highly degraded;
and there is intense conflict and competition between water users over scarce water resources,
with irrigated agriculture and associated regional centres facing very uncertain futures. This
situation will be further accentuated under climate change scenarios of increasing and sustained
water scarcity.
We need to rethink our institutions and practices of water managing, particularly given the impetus
of new federal water legislation and authority structures, and the need to interface with existing
institutions. Social learning offers an innovative perspective, drawing together multidisciplinary
perspectives upon this complex problem. The seminar and workshop will explore from several
disciplinary dimensions and water management and practice, the potential for social learning to
contribute to the further development of systemic and adaptive water governance. Interdisciplinary
researchers, from Uniwater (Universities of Melbourne and Monash) are formulating a research
strategy which explores the potential for social science researchers (broadly conceived) to
develop a project to address these issues.
Page 11