School of Earth and
Environment
Potential research projects offered for
Level 4 (Honours) and
Level 5 (Masters) students
commencing in 2014
Geography and Urban and Regional
Planning
The Projects outlined in this Handbook are NOT necessarily all of those available.
Please feel free to talk to supervisors about designing projects around your interests
Geography and Urban and Regional Planning
Project:
Economic geography and regional development
For majors
including:
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
Supervisor:
Matthew Tonts, matthew.tonts@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2683
Description:
Please come and discuss ideas relating to topics in economic
geography and regional development. This can include a range of
topics across urban economies, regions, development and so on.
Project:
Global Commodity Prices and Regional Development Outcomes
For majors
including:
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
Supervisor:
Matthew Tonts, matthew.tonts@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2683
Description:
Changes in global commodity prices have significant implications for
regional development. To date, however, few studies have attempted
to quantify how commodity prices affect investment, employment and
population change
Project:
Resource Dependence and Socio-Economic Wellbeing: A
Quantitative Assessment
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Matthew Tonts, matthew.tonts@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2683
Description:
There is an extensive North American literature that examines the
relationship between dependence on the resource sector and levels of
socio-economic wellbeing in small resource towns. This study
replicates an analysis based on 2006 census data with newer data
available from the 2011 census
2
Project:
For majors
including:
Economic restructuring and small towns in the Western
Australian wheatbelt
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
Supervisor:
Matthew Tonts, matthew.tonts@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2683
Description:
This project examines the issue of uneven development in the
Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. It builds on earlier research
but examining how wider processes of economic restructuring have
affected the local economic, social and demographic characteristics of
the Wheatbelt.
Project:
Liveability in Perth
For majors
including:
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
Supervisor:
Matthew Tonts, matthew.tonts@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2683
Description:
This is less of a specific project, and more of a potential for students to
engage in projects developed in consultant with the Committee for
Perth. The Committee for Perth have interests spanning Perth's
economic development, demography, social structure etc. and how
these relate to liveability and, ultimately, public policy.
Project:
Spatial Economic Analysis and Regional Development
For majors
including:
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
Supervisor:
Paul Plummer, paul.plummer@uwa.edu.au
Description:
Please email to make an appointment to discuss ideas related to topics
in economic geography and regional economic analysis. This can
include a range of topics, but especially geographies of local labour
markets, regional competitiveness and socio-economic wellbeing in
resource communities.
3
Project:
Regulating ‘Striptopia’: The Geography and Planning of Adult
Entertainment Venues in Australia
For majors
including:
Urban & Regional Planning
Supervisor:
Paul Maginn, paul.maginn@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2711
Description:
In the last 10 years or so adult entertainment venues (i.e. strips bars or
gentlemen’s clubs) have become increasingly visible on the urban
landscape in Australia and other western liberal democracies.
Invariably such land uses or business activities tend to provoke
controversy within local communities on a variety of fronts. This
project seeks to trace the historical emergence of adult entertainment
venues in Australia with an emphasis on recent trends in terms of the
number, type, geography, community reactions and planning
regulation of such land uses with the view to establishing the nature
and extent of regulation of these premises.
Project:
The Great Australian Dream? Suburbanites’ Views and
Experiences of Suburbia
Urban & Regional Planning
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Paul Maginn, paul.maginn@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2711
The ‘great Australian dream’ is premised on the notion that Australians
have the ‘right’ to purchase and live on their own ¼ acre block of land.
Increasingly, for people to realise this dream they have had to move to
the outer suburbs where land and housing have been historically
cheaper. In an era of dominated by sustainable development the
suburbs and suburbanites have been increasingly cast as the proponents
of unsustainability, living in soulless places and suffering from all
manner of health problems – social, mental and physical. This project
seeks to explore life in suburbia by focusing on what’s good and
what’s bad about living in the outer suburbs from the perspective of
suburbanites. This is an integrated case-study project whereby up to 34 students will individually focus on a specific outer metropolitan
suburb to explore various aspects of suburban environments and life
and conduct a household survey to gauge people’s attitudes and
experiences.
4
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
The appropriateness of a hierarchy of activity nodes as a city
structuring device under current economic growth
trends/dynamics/patterns and in the Perth city development
context
Geography, Urban and Regional Planning
Sharon Biermann, sharon.biermann@uwa.edu.au, 6488 8029
A hierarchy of activity centres has been identified in recent planning
policy (Directions 2031 (August 2010)) as a city structuring element so
that new growth occurs in a “more balanced way” (Directions 2031, p
33). Starting from the basis of classical urban location theory, this
project seeks to investigate the applicability and relevance of a
hierarchy of activity nodes in the context of current economic growth
dynamics and trends and in the Perth development context. The project
would entail a spatial analysis of economic growth trends and travel
patterns to examine the underlying assumption of urban hierarchy
theory that people will neatly travel first locally and then increasingly
further for higher order activities. A possible approach would be to
select a specific existing centre from each level of the proposed
hierarchy in Direction 2031 and analyse the “catchment area” for
each.
From a dot on a map in a plan to a viable urban activity node in
practice– what are the critical success factors?
Geography, Urban and Regional Planning
Sharon Biermann, sharon.biermann@uwa.edu.au, 6488 8029
Strategic city plans usually contain ambitious and noble proposals of
locations where future economic growth will be accommodated, often
presented as a series of dots on a map, possibly of different sizes to
indicate different intensities or levels in a hierarchy. In reality, very
few of these nodes materialise significantly in practice with a strong
body of evidence to suggest that the areas with the greatest economic
growth potential are those where economic growth trends are already
strong and that new primary nodes are most likely to emerge in relation
to high income residential areas. The intention of this project would be
to explore the factors which are important in predicting the location of
new economic growth in the urban context from the literature and to
occur through a spatial analysis of economic growth trends in relation
to the range of factors identified in the literature, recommending which
are the best predictors of new growth. The proposed activity centres in
Directions 2013 could then be broadly assessed against the outcomes
of the analysis to provide a prognosis for success.
5
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
The potential of Google Maps - Traffic as an empirical source of
information for exploring aspects of the relationship between land
use and transport
Geography, Urban and Regional Planning
Sharon Biermann, sharon.biermann@uwa.edu.au, 6488 8029
Improving mobility and access to urban services in urban areas is a key
objective of integrated land use and transport planning. Access to data
to analyse the impacts of land use change on transport patterns and
vice versa, which is comparable over time and space, is essential to
obtaining a better understanding of more appropriate urban form. An
example would be to understand the impacts of land use changes such
as residential density and Transit Oriented Development on traffic
patterns. The intention with this project would be to assess the
usefulness and value of using Google Maps – Traffic as a data source
for analysing land use – transport interactions by means of selected
case study applications.
The relationship between housing affordability, density and
distance
Geography, Urban and Regional Planning
Sharon Biermann, sharon.biermann@uwa.edu.au, 6488 8029
City planning and policy documents are unanimous in their calls for
affordable housing yet housing costs continue to be a major and often
inhibitive household expenditure item. These same plans and policies
promote higher densities along public transport corridors and closer to
the city centre to counteract urban sprawl and increase public transport
ridership. Yet these are the locations with high land costs. This project
will explore the relationship between housing affordability, density and
land costs at a range of locations and will attempt to develop a set of
“affordability surfaces” for a range of density/locality scenarios.
6
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
The value of travel time: Productive travel time
Geography, Urban and Regional Planning
Project:
Australian Geographies of Innovation, Productivity and Worker
Connectivity
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
Sharon Biermann, sharon.biermann@uwa.edu.au, 6488 8029
In most instances research in transport planning refers to travel time as
a ‘cost’ in costs of transport calculations.
Time is converted to a monetary value and included in the generalised
cost of travel. More recently evidence is emerging that people are
choosing to travel by public transport, so that they can spend travel
time productively, e.g. working on the train or socialising through
social media. These benefits of travel time have even been referred to
as the ‘gift’ of travel time (J. Jain and G. Lyons, Journal of Transport
Geography 16, 2008).
The purpose of this project would be to investigate how people in
Perth, on public transport, use their travel time and how this differs
throughout the day and from different geographical areas. Is there a
specific pattern to be detected (mornings work related, afternoons more
social)? This study would highlight the value of travel time when using
public transport, rather than portraying it as a burden (of costs).
Kirsten Martinus, kirsten.martinus@uwa.edu.au, 6488 7674
Linked to economic competitiveness, productivity has become
increasingly important in government policy and research worldwide.
In Australia, for example, the Productivity Commission explores the
environmental, economic and social factors affecting the welfare of
Australians as means to understand regional productivity differences.
Two areas of productivity advantage lie in a regions’ capacity to
support innovation as well as the virtual and physical connectedness of
its workforce. This project may include research into innovation,
worker connectivity and labour productivity aspects of regional
Australia to better understand the spatial relationships between these
factors as well as identify geographies associated with Australia’s
innovation system.
7
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Distribution of Affordable Housing in Perth Metropolitan Area
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Economic Advantage of Arts and Culture in Regional WA
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Liveability in Albany
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
Kirsten Martinus, kirsten.martinus@uwa.edu.au, 6488 7674
As part of the Directions 2031 vision statement, delivery of affordable
housing has become a strategic priority on local and State government
agendas. This project is an opportunity for students to engage with the
Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) to
examine affordable housing across Metropolitan Perth. The project
may include identifying the differences in affordable housing
distribution between LGAs or understanding how affordable housing
can be achieved in high-amenity areas (e.g., high employment or
public transport locations).
Kirsten Martinus, kirsten.martinus@uwa.edu.au, 6488 7674
Enriching the cultural base of regions can diversify economic
opportunities, which in turn can support regional social and economic
resilience. This project is an opportunity for students to engage with
the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) to
examine the relationship between regional economic health and
arts/culture in regional Western Australia.
Kirsten Martinus, kirsten.martinus@uwa.edu.au, 6488 7674
Attraction of permanent populations is critical for regional towns in
Western Australia; liveability appears to be a key influencing factor.
Comprised of key government, industry and community stakeholders
in Albany, Committee for Albany was formed to promote the interests
of Albany across the broad spectrum of economic development,
demographic, social, political (etc) issues. This project is less of a
specific project, and more of an opportunity for students to engage
with Committee for Albany to investigate ‘liveability’ as it relates to
public policy.
8
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Albany and its Long-Term Development
Geography; Urban and Regional Planning
Project:
Any Project concerned with natural hazards, risk and
vulnerability
Geography, GIS, Remote Sensing, Urban and Regional Planning
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Kirsten Martinus, kirsten.martinus@uwa.edu.au, 6488 7674
Planning for the long-term resilience and sustainability of regional WA
has become a key strategic focus of both local and State governments,
including City of Albany. This is less of a specific project, and more of
a potential for students to engage with the City of Albany to promote
its long-term development. The types of issues of interest to Albany
include those related to strengthening of education capabilities,
population change and structure, economic development, services and
infrastructure, and spatial planning.
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700
If you are interested in any project relating to disaster management,
natural hazards, risk and vulnerability, are more than welcome to
discuss your ideas with me. Depending on the project there are
possibilities for links with the Department of Emergency Service,
Department of Parks and Wildlife, the State Emergency Management
Committee and many local governments around the states.
Any Project concerned with Planning and emergency
Management/Disaster Management
Geography, GIS, Remote Sensing, Urban and Regional Planning
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700
A recent call from the Australian Emergency Management Institute
(AEMI) asks for a closer examination of the links between planning
and emergency service delivery topics include:
 Emergency service delivery in new and gentrifying communities
 Better integration of emergency service needs in the planning
process of new developments
 Geospatial tools for assessing the integration of emergency
management needs on new and gentrifying developments
 Response capacity in new and gentrifying communities.
9
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Development of high resolution land-use land-cover classification
of Perth neighbourhoods in relation to physical activity
Geography, GIS, Remote Sensing, Urban and Regional Planning
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700
Research in the Centre for Built Environment and Health focuses on
the factors that promote physical activity in people’s neighbourhoods.
Land-use mix is considered one influencing factor, however to date
these measures are coarse in resolution. This project would use high
resolution multi-band imagery and state of the art technology to
develop a classification to better understand the mix of land-use and
land-cover people expose themselves to when conducting physical
activity.
Determining the Spatial Extent and Influence of Seasonal Traffic
Behaviour Patterns across Western Australia’s Road Network
Geography, GIS, Remote Sensing, Urban and Regional Planning
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700, and Sanath
Jayamanna and Thandar Lim of Main Roads
The objective of the project is to develop a method to determine the
extents of influence of the respective Traffic Behaviour Patterns over
the entire WA road network based on a linear network solution. Main
Roads collects traffic data at locations on its network using Network
Performance Sites which count continuously throughout the year and a
large number of Short Term Count Sites which count over a very short
period of time, usually 2 to 7 days. The short term counts are affected
by seasonal variations caused by climate, tourism, agricultural or
farming activities, school holidays and other reasons. A seasonal
adjustment process has been developed that measures the variation and
provides a set of factors which increase or decrease short term counts
to eliminate seasonal variations and provide an annual average daily
value of traffic volumes for the location. Based on the seasonal factors
at these point locations the entire network needs to be segmented into
sections assigned with a seasonal factor so that a short term count
made on a particular section of road can be annualised into an annual
average daily value by applying the relevant factor.
This is an excellent opportunity for a student interested in transport
geography and network analysis. The student(s) involved in this study
will work closely with Main Roads Western Australia to develop a
solution to an industry problem whilst meeting the academic
requirements of an Honours Project or Masters by
Coursework/Research Project.
- Please contact Assistant Professor Bryan Boruff for a full project
brief.
10
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Assessment and Monitor of Road-Side Vegetation Change: a
Remote Sensing Approach using High Resolution 4-Band Imagery
Geography, GIS, Remote Sensing, Urban and Regional Planning
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700
The objective of the project is to develop a remote sensing method to
monitor the success of revegetation, across project and offset sites. The
proposal is to utilise available “Urban Monitor” imagery that provides
high resolution multi spectral coverage over the Perth Metropolitan
Region for 2007, 2009 and 2010. Past and current vegetation cover
within road reserves can be compared using this historical dataset. The
method will allow Main Roads to measure quantitative changes in the
extent of vegetation cover (woody canopy, herbaceous cover) and bare
soil and so evaluate the success of revegetation activities. Results
could be used to help monitor and report on revegetation completeness
for compliance purposes and identify locations that require more site
revegetation as part of any future program of works.
This is an excellent opportunity for a student interested in remote
sensing and will focus on the use of with high resolution (15cm x
15cm) 4-band imagery over the Perth metropolitan region. The
student(s) involved in this study will work closely with Main Roads
Western Australia to develop a solution to an industry problem whilst
meeting the academic requirements of an Honours Project or Masters
by Coursework/Research Project.
- Please contact Assistant Professor Bryan Boruff for a full project
brief.
Does Ownership Matter?: Examining Hazard Preparedness of
Renters and Absentee Homeowners in conjunction with the
Department of Fire and Emergency Services
Geography, GIS, Remote Sensing, Urban and Regional Planning
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700
Recently the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) has
conducted a survey of several hundred absentee landowners focusing
on what motivates owners to prepare properties that are not their
primary residence. The organisation has conducted a cursory analysis
of the data but this project provides the opportunity to work more
closely with the results conducting in depth analysis. The project may
also require follow up interviews with survey respondents.
11
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Examining Hazard Preparedness Using Remote Sensing
Techniques
Geography, GIS, Remote Sensing, Urban and Regional Planning
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700
The objective of this project is to develop a tool to audit the hazard
preparedness of a household and examine the difference between the
hazard preparedness of owner occupied dwellings and those owned by
absentee home owners and dwellings occupied as a long-term rental
unit (i.e. not a vacation rental). This project would draw upon high
resolution remotely sensed imagery extracting information to measure
household preparedness autonomously.
Is Recovery Really Community Centric?: The Role of Community
in Disaster Recovery
Geography, GIS, Remote Sensing, Urban and Regional Planning
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700
The Western Australia Local Recovery Plan (2009) states, among
others, that disaster recovery should adopt a community centred
approach. Over the past several years, many WA communities have
experienced significant hazard impacts and are engaged in (or have
engaged in) the recovery process. This project would examine one or
more case studies of community recovery to examine the level to
which recovery was truly a community centred process.
Surveys and interviews would form the basis of data collected for this
project.
Trees in Perth: Quantifying the Community Amenity and
Ecosystem Services that urban trees provide
Geography, quantify the benefits that urban trees can provide. Perth
has been referred GIS, Botany
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700, Natasha Pauli,
Piers Higgs and Kehan Harman, Gaia Resources, 9227 7309
The aim of this project is to as a ‘green’ city, with many trees in the
urban landscape. In this project, you will use both mobile mapping
technologies (in conjunction with Gaia Resources staff and other
volunteers) to document trees in the urban landscape. This will be
combined with remote sensing techniques to evaluate canopies,
distribution and even species distributions to determine the community
amenity and ecosystem services that these urban trees provide.
12
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description
Using Remote Sensing to Quantify Disturbance for mine sites in
Western Australia
Geography, GIS, Remote Sensing
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700, Piers Higgs and
Grit Schuster, Gaia Resources, 9227 7309
All Western Australian mine sites are required under legislation to
report on their annual ground disturbance and pay a bond for the
rehabilitation of these areas. In the past this was surveyed, and now
this is being done through the use of remotely sensed images and
digital elevation models, although with a high degree of manual
intervention. The aim of this project is to develop automated
classification techniques to determine the types of disturbance that
occur on mine sites, creating a more defensible process for
determining disturbance across mine sites.
Various collaborations with the Business School
Geography, GIS, Remote Sensing, Urban and Regional Planning
Bryan Boruff, bryan.boruff@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2700, Doina Olaru and
Bret Smith
Over the past several years I have developed working relationships
with others around campus including the Business School. If you are
interested in the spatial dimensions of any of the following topics
please see me to discuss specific projects.
- Social exclusion (limited access to urban facilities and activities);
- Sustainable transport solutions for Perth – Light rail (or integration of
PnR into the landscape of travel options) or cycling and walking;
- Hedonic pricing (residential areas);
- Value capture for transport services derived from commercial
activities (HP but for commercial properties instead of residential);
- Smartrider data - intra–individual vs inter-individual travel variability
(spatio-temporal) and comparison with travel surveys for PT users;
- Travel patterns of elderly population;
- Urban sprawl vs containment and intensification measures for 2014
in Perth;
- Social housing – spatial analysis of how integrated the new
developments are in the city;
- Activity spaces and data needs;
- Impact of tourist mobility in Perth CBD.
13
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Urban Aboriginal Wellbeing
Geography and Urban and Regional Planning
Project:
Gender and Mobility amongst Aboriginal Australians
For majors
including:
Geography and Urban and Regional Planning
Supervisor:
Sarah Prout, sarah.prout@uwa.edu.au, 64883433
Description:
Generally speaking, Aboriginal people are more mobile over the shortterm than non-Aboriginal people. In fact, temporary, often circular,
population movements within and between the towns and cities of a
particular region remain a common feature of many hunter-gatherer
based societies. There are a number of factors that shape Aboriginal
mobilities, ranging from customary ceremonial journey’s, to the need
or desire to access seasonal job markets, or retail, recreational and
medical services. One of the demographic aspects of these kinds of
movements that is not well understood is the differences (if any)
between the mobilities of Aboriginal men and women. There is some
evidence within the literature that gender plays a significant role in
shaping Aboriginal mobilities but further research is required to
determine how and why mobility may vary with gender. This project
will examine the gendered nature of Aboriginal mobilities through
interviews, life histories, or focus groups with Aboriginal participants.
Sarah Prout, sarah.prout@uwa.edu.au, 64883433
Aboriginal presence in cities is often unrecognized or considered
inauthentic by the majority population. At the same time, many
Aboriginal people live and move within cities in ways that are 'unseen',
but are critical to their sense of wellbeing. This project will map
Aboriginal people’s sense of wellbeing in the city. It will draw on
innovative mapping techniques, and/or methods such as photovoice,
geo-biographies, yarning, or interviews to examine what spaces and
places Aboriginal people move between in the city, where they feel
most ‘well’ and ‘unwell’, and why.
14
Project:
Aboriginal Presence in Perth
For majors
including:
Geography and Urban and Regional Planning
Supervisor:
Sarah Prout, sarah.prout@uwa.edu.au, 64883433
Description:
Australia’s Aboriginal population is increasingly urban-based. And
yet, most Aboriginal Affairs policy and funding remains directed at
rural and remote Australia where need is assumed to be most acute.
Further research is required to determine the characteristics of urban
Aboriginal populations and examine how they compare to those of
rural and remote localities. Using data from the two most recent
Census’s, this project will analyse and map how the Aboriginal
population in the Perth metropolitan area has changed in the last five
years and what emerging policy issues these changes may signal.
Areas of potential focus include change in: population distribution, age
profile, migration trends, housing tenure type, education levels and/or
employment.
Project:
Geographies of Educational Disadvantage amongst Adolescents in
Kenya
Geography and Urban and Regional Planning
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Sarah Prout, sarah.prout@uwa.edu.au, 64883433
Description:
Education is a key global poverty alleviation strategy. The United
Nation’s Millennium Development Goals recognize this, targeting
universal access to primary school education for all children.
However, in Kenya where primary school education is technically free
and accessible to all children, extreme poverty persists in many areas.
Many children who are bright and driven are unable pursue secondary
studies because they cannot afford to pay school fees. Consequently,
they re-enter the cycle of poverty from which they came. Other
students, particularly those in rural areas, who are able to embark on a
secondary education, often face extreme challenges that undermine
their ability to advance with their studies or find sustainable
employment. Through a comprehensive literature review, interviews
with members of the Kenyan diaspora community in Western
Australia, and document analysis, this project will begin to map out
the various geographies of secondary educational disadvantage in
Kenya. It will examine the unique economic, social, cultural barriers
to, and facilitators of, secondary educational achievement in rural
localities.
15
Project:
Supervisor:
For majors
including:
Description
Various topics in Geography, Urban and Regional Planning
Geography, Urban and Regional Planning
Clare Mouat, clare.mouat@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2652
Project:
Seasonal variability in the morphology of reef-protected beaches
For majors
including:
Physical Geography, Environmental Science, Marine Science
Supervisors:
Jeff Hansen jeff.hansen@uwa.edu.au, 6488 3724 and Ryan Lowe
Description:
The seasonal cycle of beach erosion and accretion on open-ocean
sandy beaches has been studied for decades. However many beaches
globally (and most along the west coast of Australia) experience some
degree of wave sheltering by coastal limestone reefs; evidence
indicates that these reefs play a major role in moderating the seasonal
changes to morphology observed on local beaches. For this project, a
field program will be implemented to regularly survey the spatial
changes that occur along a local reef-fringed beach (or possibly series
of beaches); the morphology would be monitored at intervals over a
summer-to-winter cycle and could also incorporate available historical
field data sets. Observed changes in beach morphology will be related
to associate changes in observed near shore processes (waves and
currents) observed during the study period, in order to understand how
the presence of these offshore reefs ultimately shapes our local
beaches.
Topics might include:
1. Maintaining and building strong/new communities for example, in
the mining areas with mobile/international workforces.
2. The political geography of Western Australian urban planning for
securing children’s right to the city and/or planning using
an integrative life-span approach
3. Ecology, health, technology and climate change adaptation: light
pollution and developing sustainable streetlight systems in
new/established areas.
4. Social and Economic Costs of Problem Gambling and Gaming
developments.
5. Reviewing the vision and role of planning practitioners in realising
change in urban reform and development.
Other topics related to urban and regional issues in planning and
geography, especially including but not limited to social inclusion,
economic and political geography.
16
Project:
Quantifying storm impacts at moderate-energy beaches
For majors
including:
Physical Geography, Environmental Science, Marine Science
Supervisors:
Jeff Hansen jeff.hansen@uwa.edu.au, 6488 3724 and Ryan Lowe
Description:
Short-term changes in beach morphology resulting from storm events
have primarily been studied at sites that typically experience little
wave energy (wave heights <1 m) and thus when storms occur the
impact is often considerable. This project aims to evaluate the impact
of storm events, and particularly the pace of post-storm recovery, at
beaches that have more energetic baseline conditions (wave heights
~1-2 m), such as those adjacent to Perth. A field program will be
developed in which daily beach surveys will be conducted prior to,
during, and follow winter storm events. The recorded beach
morphology changes will then be related to the observed wave
conditions to determine what factors control the amount and timing of
the morphology changes as well as regulate how fast the beach
recovers following the storm. This information will be valuable to
those tasked with protecting coastal resources as well as provide basic
insights into the processes that control beach evolution over short time
scales.
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description:
Coastal Planning and Development in Western Australia
Geography, Coastal Development
Julian Clifton, julian.clifton@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2695
The potential topics are:
1. Marine protected areas in Western Australia, focused on the current
bio-regional planning process and an examination of the priorities
and concerns of principal coastal resource users and stakeholders in
order to evaluate the significance and impacts of this process for
Western Australia;
2. Metal pollution in estuarine and coastal environments, including a
systematic sampling of sediments in an estuarine or coastal habitat
in order to determine current and historic levels of heavy metal
contamination in these sediments. This would enable the
determination of likely sources, trends over time and the potential
environmental significance of these contaminants;
3. Marina developments in coastal Western Australia, focused on the
current and future trends in marina developments, examining the
process by which marinas are evaluated in environmental and
economic terms as well as evaluating the planning process which
considers these proposals and the potential impact of future
expansion of marinas in Western Australia; and
4. Other topics related to marine and coastal planning and
management, indigenous environmental management, community
participation in management, pollution management.
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Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description
Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description
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For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description
Establishing susceptibility to wind erosion under future climate
states
Physical Geography, Geology, Soil Science – background in climate
science required.
Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, karl-heinz.wyrwoll@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2714
South-western Australia has been identified as being a region that will
see a significant decrease in precipitation over the next few decades.
Using model projections the project aims to determine the likelihood
of increased wind erosion.
The paleoclimatology of the last 22, 000 years of the East AsiaIndonesia-Australia region: a model study
Physical Geography, Geology – background in climate science
required
Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, karl-heinz.wyrwoll@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2714
The study utilizes AGCM output at the global scale for the last 22 000
years at 1000 years intervals.
Reconstructing late Quaternary paleoclimates and paleohydrology
in south-western Australia
Physical Geography, Geology - requires competence in process
sedimentology
Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, karl-heinz.wyrwoll@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2714
Reconstruction of fluvial events and their relationship to basin
hydrology and climate states. The focus of the study is the Irwin River
basin, and the project involves extensive field time and the ability to
work independently in the field.
Continental-scale dust events in north western Australia
Physical Geography - background in climate science required.
Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, karl-heinz.wyrwoll@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2714
Evaluating the details of the controls and characteristics of dust events
over north western Australia. The project may involve a remote
sensing component.
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Project:
For majors
including:
Supervisor:
Description
Tsunami threat and evidence along the southern margin of
Western Australia
Physical Geography, Geology - competence in process
geomorphology.
Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, karl-heinz.wyrwoll@uwa.edu.au, 6488 2714
The project evaluates the geomorphological and stratigraphic evidence
that has been proposed to relate to tsunami events along the coast of
south-western Australia.
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