Since late 2010 and continuing into 2011, price volatility, in relation to basic agricultural commodities, has occupied center stage on the agendas of decision makers. An additional concern has been uncertainty about a new global economic crisis in the wake of the macroeconomic difficulties...

This research project on the valuation of cultural heritage is developing a methodology for a quantitative valuation study of the use and non-use values of historic heritage places. The methodology developed in this project will provide a template for subsequent empirical applications to...

Demand management has been of interest in dry climates such as Australia, Spain and the Western United States for decades. It is particularly important to understand policy options during drought conditions, as drought periods have a disproportionate effect on supply infrastructure decisions....

This report presents results of research designed to investigate variations in willingness to pay (WTP) estimates across different scales and scopes of environmental investments. The goal is to help catchment management authorities better prioritise their natural resource management actions at...

The survey was designed to estimate environmental values suitable for integration into MOSAIC, a bio-economic model for catchment and farm level planning. Local residents, as well as distant rural and distant urban communities, were surveyed in three NSW catchments (Lachlan, Namoi and...

Integrated catchment policies are widely used to manage natural resources in Australian catchments. Integration of environmental processes with socio-economic systems is often difficult due to the limitations of decision support tools. To support assessments of the environmental and economic...

There has now been almost two decades of natural resource management by signatory states under the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement Despite significant public expense, the success of initiatives to improve the Basin’s environmental remains ambiguous. This confusion is partly due to poorly...

The impacts of transmission congestion and network investment on the development of the Australian wind energy industry have received growing attention from wind farm developers as well as relevant policy stakeholders such as the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC). There are many...

A comprehensive emissions trading scheme (ETS) is Australia’s principal climate change policy instrument. There are undoubtedly benefits of full ETS coverage. However, if emissions that cannot be affordably, reasonably and accurately measured are included, these must be balanced against...

By treating organic wastes as a resource, and applying a different method of waste management, organic wastes could contribute significantly to global energy needs. The ethanol distillation process waste product, stillage, is a soup-like waste stream that contains substantial organic content. By...