Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Environmental management Victoria'

By the adoption of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), South Africa has significantly changed its water management regime and the institutions governing water in this country. These changes were first introduced by the National White Policy Paper on Water in South Africa in 1997 and subsequently the National Water Act in 1998. One of the key components of IWRM is the decentralisation of water management to a regional or catchment level and the introduction of public participation in the water management sector. With the enactment of the NWA South Africa incorporated IWRM in its legal system and a decade on, authorities are now turning to its implementation. The NWA introduces Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs) in water management and gives them authority over water management at a catchment level. Initially there were nineteen (19) and this number has since been reduced to nine (9) due to a number of factors. South African authorities are now seeking ways in which they can effectively decentralise water to a catchment level, including delegating and assigning some of the functions currently held by the Minster to CMAs. Using Victoria, Australia as a comparative study, this study investigates how water management can best be decentralised to a catchment level; it starts off by investigating the theory of decentralisation and its pros and cons; then sets off to investigate water management has been decentralised in Australia from the national level, to state level and catchment level; it then investigates the role of Rural Water Authorities in Victoria and compares them to Catchment Management Agencies in South Africa. Finally the work highlights the water management regime and the various stakeholders in water management South Africa from a national level to a catchment level and the challenges facing South Africa in term of WRM; and then makes recommendations and a conclusion based on its research findings and the South African socio-economic and political context.

The concentrations of various forms of nitrogen and phosphorus in the main stream and selected tributaries of Pirron Yallock Creek, southwestern Victoria were examined over a two-year period. Exceedingly high levels of both nutrients were found within a particular tributary, while generally high nutrient levels were observed throughout the catchment. The speciation results indicated that dairy effluent was the primary source of nutrients to Pirron Yallock Creek. A palaeolimnological study was undertaken to determine the impact of European settlement upon waterway nutrient concentrations within the region. The palaeolimnological study focused primarily on the diatom flora preserved within the sediments of nearby Lakes Corangamite and Bullen Merri. Lack of preservation of diatoms within the sediments of Lake Corangamite resulted in no water quality inferences for this lake. The preserved diatoms within Lake Bullen Merri suggested an increase in trophic status of this lake during the last 500 years. While a change in the diatom flora of Lake Bullen Merri was evident, it was not possible to differentiate the impact of European settlement upon nutrient status of this waterway from long-term trophic status change. In light of the particularly high nutrient concentrations observed in Pirron Yallock Creek, improved nutrient management strategies are proposed for the catchment. These strategies, which consider current nutrient management activities, are predominantly focussed on the dairy industry, which occupies the majority of the catchment.

To manage common resources such as water bodies, forests and the air is complex since several stakeholders are involved and affected by the use of the resource. One way to manage common resources is through co-management. Co-management is a decentralized method that empowers the local level and enables collaboration between the government and the local community. Co-management within fishing communities can be realized through so called Beach Management Units (BMUs). Around Lake Victoria, there are 1087 BMUs. One of these BMUs is located in Ggaba, Kampala, Uganda and the purpose of this study is to highlight benefits and shortcomings connected to co-management within fisheries. The study aims to explore if and how sustainability aspects are tackled through the co-management of fisheries. The data was collected using qualitative semi-structured interviews where six BMU members contributed with their experiences. In addition, data was collected from a qualitative content analysis on two BMU guideline documents, representing the central level. The results showed that the Ggaba BMU provides a platform for creating control through collaboration. The local levels’ perception on co-management within fisheries seems to correspond with the central level’s aim of the management. Another indication is that the BMU has brought upon positive effects on economic, social and ecological aspects on the society of Ggaba. However, corruption and illegal fishing are two identified barriers which seems to limit the function of the Ggaba BMU and the level of co-management.
Gemsamma resurser så som vattendrag, skogar och atmosfären är komplexa att hantera eftersom flera aktörer är involverade och påverkas av resursanvändningen. Ett sätt att hantera gemensamma resurser är genom samförvaltning. Samförvaltning är en decentraliserad förvaltningsmetod som möjliggör ett samarbete mellan den lokala och statliga nivån vid beslutsfattande. Omkring Victoriasjön realiseras samförvaltning genom så kallade Beach Management Units (BMUs). Dessa utgörs av 1087 stycken varav en BMU är lokaliserad i Ggaba, Kampala, Uganda. Syftet med denna studie är att belysa fördelar och brister kopplade till samförvaltning av fiske. Vidare syftar studien till att undersöka om och hur aspekter inom hållbar utveckling kan tacklas genom det decentraliserade styret av fiske. Data insamlades genom sex stycken kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer. Dessutom gjordes en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av två BMU-riktlinjedokument, vilka representerar den centrala nivån. Det empiriska materialet visade att Ggaba BMU utgör en plattform för strukturering, kontroll och samarbete. Den lokala nivåns syn på samförvaltning inom fiske verkar överensstämma med den centrala nivåns avsikt av samförvaltning. Resultatet indikerar även att BMUn har påverkat ekonomiska, sociala och ekologiska aspekter i Ggaba på ett positivt sätt. Problem med korruption och olagligt fiske identifierades dock, vilka verkar begränsa BMUns funktion och möjligheterna till samförvaltning.

The state of the environment is increasingly present as an urgent concern for contemporary political, social, cultural and physical life. Yet the roles of the mass media (radio, television and newspapers) in shaping and influencing crucial public awareness, debates and environmental decision-making remain inadequately understood. Positioned as a critical studies inquiry into media representations and audience reception, this study forms part of a wider project amongst media scholars and culture critics on the relationship between media textual production and consumption. It explores how one radio station in Uganda, Central Broadcasting Service (CBS) radio, represents and constructs the environmental crises faced by Lake Victoria, especially pollution and overfishing. The focus is on the Victoria Voice radio documentaries aired on CBS radio in the year 2005. The study further explores how three lakeside communities negotiate these issues as radio broadcasts. It recognises that while the mass media contribute significantly to creating public awareness about such social concerns, their likelihood of having a direct and predictable impact on social behaviour is slight. The context and the lived experiences at the reception stage where the decisions are made on whether to adopt an innovation are ultimately the factors which impact on how they are negotiated. The thesis is informed by the theoretical and analytical framework of Cultural Studies as well as the Participatory Approach to Communication for Development perspectives. The study is specifically informed by the theories of ‘discourse’ (Foucault, 1980a, 1981) and the ‘circuit of culture’ (du Gay et al., 1997 and Johnson, 1987) and these provided the conceptual framework for investigating the representations, the production and the consumption of media texts. Predominantly qualitative methods have been employed in data collection and analysis. In the first place, a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 1995a, 1995c) of the radio texts has interrogated the discourses and discursive practices of CBS’ Victoria Voice environmental radio programmes in order to consider its representations of particular issues and consequently the discourses it privileged. Qualitative methods of participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were deployed to investigate the negotiation of the texts by the lakeside communities. This research establishes that the Victoria Voice radio texts foreground three contesting types of discourses: the discourse of basic economic survival and livelihoods is articulated largely by the ordinary people, the lakeside communities; the discourse of sustainable development, particularly the protection and sustainability of Lake Victoria, by scientists and environmental experts; and the discourse of modernisation and corporate investment by politicians and/or policy makers and industrialists. The texts, to a large degree, reaffirm the hegemonic relations of power in Ugandan society, and thus contribute to the maintenance of the status quo. The selection of an elite category of informers (scientists, experts, politicians, policy makers) serves to marginalise the less powerful ordinary people (the fisher folk, farmers and other eyewitnesses). The construction of the elite as active and speaking subjects within the various debates introduced in these programmes, for example, works both to obscure and endorse the unequal power relations. At the reception side, while the lakeside communities attest to the relevance of the programmes in providing information on the issues concerning Lake Victoria and other aspects of their livelihood, they also recognise the power relations that underpin the sets of representations. Amongst these sets is government’s complicity with industry, in line with their economic policies and the global capitalist economy, while espousing the rhetoric of nature conservation. The study argues that sustainable solutions for the crises on Lake Victoria should take into account the socio-historical and cultural contexts of the lakeside communities. For the Ugandan media, particularly radio, there is a need to rethink the nature of the coverage, which tends to neglect the contextual factors, such as local socio-economic and cultural factors within which environmental issues and problems occur and which, as this thesis establishes, greatly influences the way people make sense of environmental issues and problems. I posit that the Participatory Approach that seeks to address the communities’ most pressing concerns should be adopted – to include more of the communities’ voices and involve them in the production of radio programmes.

The process of allocating necessary resources like clean water, fuel/energy and food have resulted in an unsustainable use of natural resources causing problems with Soil erosion, soil fertility, desertification, deforestation, eutrophication and global warming. The purpose of this study was to gain information on the functional design of a waste management system enabling the organic components of domestic waste to be processed as useful resources while at the same time allow them to be re-circulated. The main part of this study was carried out at the Kendu SDA Hospital in the Rachyonyo district in western Kenya. For the case of this study two main objectives where chosen. The first was to develop a principal technological solution using three classed “appropriate technologies” found suitable for the purpose namely biogas, ecological water treatment systems and slow sand filtration. The second was to further analyse each included technology to further develop their potential to fit the concept. Results from the pilot facilities where then to be retrieved from the actual component selection and construction process itself, with performance analysis left for future studies.

The main purpose of the biogas system study has been to evaluate the original ideas of overall concept, details, materials and construction methods. The 1 m3 biogas system has improved significantly during the development process and is today not far from an implementation, i.e. construction on a slightly larger scale. The biogas system developed during the project has proven to have potential for digestion of both latrine and kitchen waste. Using the two as fuel for the process does not only remove a problem – it grants several benefits.

The ecological waste water treatment system main objective was to design and construct a pilot SSF-wetland. Results show that the construction process for smaller scaled SSF systems is simple and does not require trained personnel or specialized equipment and that significant cost reduction can be made by using locally available materials.

The slow sand filtration sub system concept is called PT SCX and though still in the stage of development proved to have great potential concerning both efficiency and sustainability. The PT SCX comprises the advantages of slow sand filtration with further development of individual system solutions. It was adapted to enable both integration to the IWESS solution and stand alone installations purifying even highly turbid surface water sources to drinking water quality.

The result from the study confirms the suitability of the three included technologies, ecological waste water treatment, biogas and slow sand filtration to work in an integrated system called IWESS- Integrated Water Energy and Sanitation Solution. The combined subsystems can together with source separated sewage offer full resource recovery enabling recirculation of both nutrients and water. In addition the system can be designed as a net producer of renewable and emission free energy.

Depending on their nature and severity, disasters can create large volumes of debris and waste. Waste volumes from a single event can be the equivalent of many times the annual waste generation rate of the affected community. These volumes can overwhelm existing solid waste management facilities and personnel. Mismanagement of disaster waste can affect both the response and long term recovery of a disaster affected area. Previous research into disaster waste management has been either context specific or event specific, making it difficult to transfer lessons from one disaster event to another. The aim of this research is to develop a systems understanding of disaster waste management and in turn develop context- and disaster-transferrable decision-making guidance for emergency and waste managers. To research this complex and multi-disciplinary problem, a multi-hazard, multi-context, multi-case study approach was adopted. The research focussed on five major disaster events: 2011 Christchurch earthquake, 2009 Victorian Bushfires, 2009 Samoan tsunami, 2009 L’Aquila earthquake and 2005 Hurricane Katrina. The first stage of the analysis involved the development of a set of ‘disaster & disaster waste’ impact indicators. The indicators demonstrate a method by which disaster managers, planners and researchers can simplify the very large spectra of possible disaster impacts, into some key decision-drivers which will likely influence post-disaster management requirements. The second stage of the research was to develop a set of criteria to represent the desirable environmental, economic, social and recovery effects of a successful disaster waste management system. These criteria were used to assess the effectiveness of the disaster waste management approaches for the case studies. The third stage of the research was the cross-case analysis. Six main elements of disaster waste management systems were identified and analysed. These were: strategic management, funding mechanisms, operational management, environmental and human health risk management, and legislation and regulation. Within each of these system elements, key decision-making guidance (linked to the ‘disaster & disaster waste’ indicators) and management principles were developed. The ‘disaster & disaster waste’ impact indicators, the effects assessment criteria and management principles have all been developed so that they can be practically applied to disaster waste management planning and response in the future.

The central event in this thesis is the Little Desert dispute, a 1969 controversy about whether land in western Victoria should be developed for agriculture or retained as natural bushland. The Little Desert dispute has lived on in the minds of protagonists and later environmentalists as a cultural icon and a ‘win’ for conservation. This pivotal event provides a framework within which the politics of nature conservation, ecology and land management can be examined. The thesis explores the role of ‘public science’ – science in government, bureaucracy and the community – in this context, as well as tracing the history of the science of ecology in post-war Australia.
The second focus of this thesis is ‘the rise of ecological consciousness’ – the rise of the political relevance of the natural world and emerging concerns about the place of people in nature. This is a multifaceted concept, and includes ‘ecological’ in both its scientific and philosophical guises. ‘Consciousness’ is studied I the individual, collective and political senses.
The Little Desert dispute occurred just as ecological consciousness was beginning to rise in Australia and throughout the western world. The resolution of the dispute through the establishment of the Conservation Council of Victoria and the Land Conservation Council, in 1969 and 1970 respectively, was played out against a backdrop of changing environmental values and systems. The dispute had antecedents in diverse utilitarian, scientific, aesthetic and romantic conservation traditions. It was these values that motivated the leading protagonists, who were conservationists but not environmentalists. However, many environmentalists today look back on the Little Desert dispute as the beginning of the new ‘ecologically conscious’ era. The contribution of earlier conservationists to the environmental movement is often overlooked in environmentalist literature. Through examining closely the role of science and scientists in land management, this thesis explores some of the continuities as well as the discontinuities of the ‘environmental revolution’ in Australia.

Caring for the environment has become a global issue, and the role of national parks in preserving species and environments has taken on renewed importance. Many consider that national parks are places to learn and experience nature, and from this experience can come positive conservation behaviour. A dilemma facing park agencies is their capacity to manage the park system with limited resources and funding. A park system that allows human access as well as preservation of biotic communities requires planning and resources. The view that the community may assist with conservation or management of discrete areas was cited in the literature, and assessing the possibility of community involvement is the focus for this study. The research used a case study strategy to examine Human-Environment theory, which refers to the study of humans and their environment. The theory encompasses both the built and natural environment, and the concepts of place attachment and environmental ethics. Although the theory takes in both the built and the natural environment this study did not include the built environment. The study examined the Human Natural World Relationship and conservation behaviour and was placed within an ecosystem management framework. This framework allowed the human-environment interaction to be examined so that human values could be assessed alongside economic, environmental and other values. The study examined the Human Natural World Relationship and conservation activism to establish if the community could contribute to the conservation and management of the national park. The community’s views, values and place attachments were gathered through focus groups, interviews, and the distribution of a self-administered survey to the whole community. The location for the study was Croajingolong National Park and Biosphere Reserve in Gippsland, Victoria. The location was chosen because there was minimal research on the community from the towns of Mallacoota, Cann River and Bemm River, who are the main users of the park. The study found that the identity of the community was deeply connected with the identity of the national park and that several aspects related to the town and the national park affected the community. This has implications for management to ensure that the status of the national park as well of the town of Mallacoota is protected so that the unique identity of the community and the bond they have to the park is preserved. A suggestion by one participant, who expressed the sentiment of many in the community, was that the town should be zoned as a park town has much merit. The study also found that the majority in the community held ecocentric views and were suited to involvement in conservation and management of the national park. Management can use the results of this study to inform strategies for policy and decisions making that take into account the views and values of the community in the validation of park classification, governance, funding, marketing, conflict resolution and communication with the community

Research Thesis  Submitted  in  Fulfilment  of  the  Requirements  for  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of   Philosophy  in  Economics, School of Economic & Business Sciences Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, SA
The world is facing a sustainability crisis due to depletion and degradation of environmental and natural resources faster than they can be generated. Many of these resources are not partitioned by private property rights, and are held as state property, common property, or as open-access. Common Property Resources (CPRs) have two distinct attributes: (1) limited or nontrivial exclusion (it is difficult to exclude multiple individuals or users from appropriating from the resource) and (2) substractability (the resource features rivalry in consumption), meaning that appropriation by one reduces the overall resource availability and thus, subtracts from what can be appropriated by others. Examples include fisheries, grazing lands, irrigation systems, and ground water basins. Because no one has property rights or control over such resources, users of CPRs are frequently assumed to be caught in an inescapable dilemma - overexploitation of the resource. Thus, unlike the ‘invisible hand’ of Adam Smith in competitive markets, in the case of CPRs the self-interested behavior does not yield economic efficiency or optimal outcome or Pareto optimality. This study sought to understand the evolution of management dynamics and operation of governance structures developed by resource users and other stakeholders in three large scale CPRs in Kenya. The objectives are to (1) examine the evolution of management dynamics. (2) Examine the management model applied and its functioning. (3) Explore the governance structures and challenges of implementing them. (4) Explore critical variables related to user groups, institutional arrangements and external environment in the resource system. (5) Suggest measures to improve on the management and governance of the resource system. In addition, the study gives a comparative analysis of the management models applied in the three CPR systems. The general theoretical literature on CPRs has focused mainly on two basic but important conditions or categories. First, small scale communally owned and governed resources, in ii terms of the physical or geographical size of the resource system with well-defined boundaries. Secondly, group or users size, characterized by small numbers with similar identities and interests. This study therefore, contributes to literature by using large scale CPR case studies in terms of physical size of resource system and number of users and examining the evolution and dynamics in the management model and governance structures. A Qualitative Research (QR) methodology is adopted and analytical tools of institutional analysis and an empirical foundation based on field data applied. A survey research design is used. Both primary and secondary data was sourced and a pilot study was conducted to test reliability of research instruments. Data is documented, compiled and presented in form of tables, figures and general descriptions. Data analysis and synthesising is done by working through the data to arrive at a conclusion to answer the research questions and achieve the purpose of the study. The study findings show that management and governance issues in the three CPRs have evolved over time both in terms of the scale and involvement of other stakeholders in decision making process in the resource system. Specifically, the collaborations among state agencies, other stakeholders and resource users through their associations has enabled monitoring and enforcement not only be effective but also legitimate and consequently, lead to sustainable resource use. The management models used in the three CPR case studies are identified as the Partnership Fisheries Management (PFM) in Lake Victoria fishery, Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) in Mwea Rice Irrigation Scheme and Holistic Management Framework (HMF) in Laikipia group grazing lands. The governance structures applied in the three CPRs are generally position, boundary, choice or authority, aggregation, information, payoff and scope rules. The degree of application of each set of rules however, depends on the nature of the resource system. They are designed, developed, implemented, monitored, enforced, sanctioned and arbitrated by the resource users, state lead agencies, departments and ministries iii and other stakeholders or actors. Each of these actors are involved in varying degrees in the various phases depending on their role and interest in the resource system. The management and governance structures can be strengthened and improved by enhancing certain administrative, health, safety, environmental issues and increased state support and involvement in the resource system. The co-management model design which is applied in the three CPRs yield various benefits to the resource-dependent community, public, state and resource system because it incorporates state and local (resource users) managers in decision making. However, the degree of participation of other stakeholders, challenges faced and other internal and external factors, depend on the nature of CPR, ownership and control of the CPR by resource users and the technical infrastructural investments required for the operation of the system. These results add to existing knowledge on Sustainable Development (SD) environment nexus by providing facts to multidisciplinary environmental and natural resources scholars regarding the dynamics of large scale CPR systems. Provide an in depth understanding of CPR management issues for the formulation of national strategies for SD, fisheries, Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), and irrigation farming. Lastly, they provide ways of responding to increasing challenges of shared water resources (Lake Victoria) in addition to strengthening of relations within the East African Community (EAC). Key words: Actors, bio-physical and community attributes Common Property Resources, governance structures, institutions, large scale, management models, resource users, resource systems
GR2018

The goal of wetland assessment is to identify and quantify the condition of wetlands, taking into account the presences of threats likely to impact the services and functions the wetlands provide. There are a wide variety of methods available for undertaking wetland assessment; most rely on data collection across a broad range of attributes at wetland sites to gauge wetland condition. This thesis examines the practice of wetland assessment in West Gippsland, south-eastern Australia and it investigates the contribution, and potencies, of component biological, chemical, hydrological and physical data inputs, individually and collectively, to the identification of high social, economic and environmental value wetlands in the region. A systematic analysis using statistics and data-mining techniques was undertaken of the inventory data for 163 representative wetlands to discover pertinent relationships between the values of different site characteristics and the classification of high-value wetlands. Binary logistic regression and neural networks were used to build models mimicking the wetland assessment process, and an assessment of their abilities to do so was conducted. The influences of two wetland classification schemes: Corrick and Norman (1980) scheme, and Ecological Vegetation Classes (EVCs), on the naming of high-value wetlands were also investigated.

Western basalt plains native grasslands, which extend from the west of Melbourne in Victoria to the South Australian border, are recognised as one of the most threatened ecosystems in Victoria (DC&E 1992). Ecosystem functions and their ability to support life are disappearing along with the remnant grasslands. The research project reported in this thesis aimed to develop methods to re-establish the dominant native grass. Kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra) in ways designed to out-compete invasive grassy weeds.

Water resource management is becoming more complex and relies heavily on computer software processing to help data queries for common and rare patterns for analyzing critical water events. For example, it is vital for decision makers to know if certain types of water quality problems are isolated (e.g. rare) or ubiquitous (e.g. common) and whether the conditions are changing spatially or temporally for a proper management plan. This thesis aims to automatically detect spatiotemporal common and rare patterns by significantly addressing the uncertainty and heterogeneity in water quality data, in order to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of common and rare pattern mining models underpinning many of the water resource management strategies and planning decisions. Therefore, we propose two novel semantics-oriented mining methods: the Correcting Imprecise Readings and Compressing Excrescent Points (CIRCE) method and the Exceptional Object Analysis for Finding Rare Environmental Events (EOAFREE) method. The CIRCE method resolves uncertainty problems in retrieving common patterns based on spatiotemporal semantic points, such as inflexions. The EOAFREE method tackles the heterogeneity problem by summarizing raw water data into a water quality index, that is, water semantics, in discovering rare patterns. We demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the two methods by using simulation and real world datasets, and then implement them in a Semantics-Oriented Mining Application for Detecting Water Quality Events (SOMAwater) prototype system, which is used to query spatiotemporal common and rare patterns for a real world water quality dataset of 93 sites in 10 river basins in Victoria, Australia from 1975 to 2010.

Pimelea spinescens Rye subspecies spinescens is an endemic subshrub found within temperate grasslands of the Victorian volcanic plains. It is listed as critically endangered under the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Efforts to bolster populations using horticultural techniques have been largely unsuccessful. For long-term survival it is necessary to successfully germinate seed and employ methods which encourage wild populations to reproduce in situ. The aim of this research was to identify which factors of the biology, ecology and management of P. spinescens populations, significantly affect the species’ in situ recruitment potential.

Wastes generated due to human activities pose a threat to the environment, and their safe and economical disposal is warranted. Landfilling of these wastes is still the most widely practised and viable alternative for their disposal. This is usually accomplished by using engineered waste containment systems in which compacted liners of predominantly clay soils are employed between waste and natural ground to act as barrier to chemical leaching. It follows that the design hydraulic conductivity of the clay is a governing parameter and many environmental regulations require this parameter to be less than 1x10"' m/s. Therefore, the precise assessment of hydraulic conductivity and the compatibility of the liner material with the permeant or leachate encountered, is paramount to ensure the effective performance of the clay liner. This thesis reports the test results of the compatibility and hydraulic conductivity of some Victorian soils used for liner construction.

The investigations reported in this thesis examined the relationships between biomass reduction (burning and mowing), soil disturbance, soil nutrient levels (N, P and K) and weed invasion in native grassland remnants in Victoria, Australia. The study was carried out at three native grassland remnant sites, Derrimut grassland reserve, Laverton grassland reserve and Victoria University of Technology, St. Albans campus grassland reserve on the westem edge of Melboume, Australia. These grassland remnants belong to the Western Basalt Plains grassland community which is listed as threatened in Victoria, and which forms part of the lowland temperate grasslands which once extended across south eastern Australia. A major threat to the survival of these communities is invasion by a variety of weeds. Weed invasion is often markedly enhanced by disturbance of the soil due to ploughing and overgrazing. It is known that some type of biomass reduction (burning, mowing or grazing) is required to prevent the dominant native perennial tussock grasses from over shadowing the diversity of forbs that grow between the tussocks, but the effects of various biomass reduction methods on weediness, and the underlying causes of weediness, have not been studied in any depth. The outcomes of the investigation are currently being applied to the management and rehabilitation of lowland grassland remnants. Most previous studies of lowland grassland rehabilitation and management have assumed that the key determinant of competition between native and exotic plant species in lowland grasslands is above-ground cover. The results reported in this thesis clearly show that below-ground competition for nutrients is also important in determining the extent of exotic and native plant growth in intact and disturbed areas. The successful establishment of native species during revegetation, with low levels of weed growth, will depend on the extent to which below ground growth of natives is achieved to lower available nutrient levels quickly, and prevent large scale growth of exotics. The management of lowland grassland remnants with low levels of flatweeds and annual grasses will likewise depend on the maintenance of a healthy sward of native vegetation which can keep available nutrients in the soil at low levels, especially when above-ground cover is removed by biomass reduction actions such as burning, mowing and grazing.

In recent times, with regards to rural water supplies in Victoria and most other parts of Australia, emphasis is placed more on efficient use of existing water resources than on new resource developments. This is especially true for irrigation systems. This emphasis is mainly due to limited funds available for construction works, lack of suitable hydrologic sites, and the spirited and justifiable lobbying of enviromnental groups against construction of new projects. Hence to meet the increased water demands, efficient operation of existing irrigation systems is required. Recently with the high computational power of personal computers, irrigation scheduling based on an accounting of soil water budget components has become popular around the world. This research project focuses on such irrigation scheduling techniques, with the aim of improving the efficiency of water use, thus leading to conservation of water resources.

Hybridisation between closely-related species is an ongoing threat to many species that can be exacerbated by anthropogenic practices. The Pacific Black Duck (Anas superciliosa) is a dabbling duck native to the southwest Pacific that is currently under threat of hybridisation with introduced Mallard (A. platyrhynchos). Mallard are known to hybridise with and threaten many other dabbling duck species throughout the world. To evaluate the threat posed by hybridisation with introduced domestic Mallards to the Australian subspecies of the Pacific Black Duck (A. s. rogersi), a set of nine microsatellite markers were selected to genetically differentiate these species and detect hybrids. The use of these microsatellite markers on putative Pacific Black Ducks found that the overall frequency of hybridisation in Australia is currently low (1.5%) and also revealed that the frequency of hybridisation tended to be higher in urban compared to rural Victoria. Behavioural observations suggested that while Mallards are dominant over Pacific Black Ducks, the latter have not been excluded from parks inhabited by Mallards. In contrast to mainland Australia, most birds on Lord Howe Island appear to be Mallards of New Zealand stock descent. It’s unclear whether hybrids resident were bred locally or whether they emigrated from New Zealand. The lack of Pacific Black Duck phenotypes on Lord Howe Island suggests that this species has been outcompeted by Mallards. In addition to hybridisation with Mallards, anecdotal reports have suggested that Pacific Black Ducks are also hybridising with Chestnut Teals (A. castanea). Based on microsatellite analysis, Chestnut Teal - Pacific Black Duck hybrids were detected, albeit at a low frequency (0.5%), among a sample of putative Pacific Black Ducks sampled throughout Australia Overall, Mallard – Pacific Black Duck hybridisation does not currently seem to be widespread. However, the precautionary principle would advise eradication methods to be put into place to prevent the spread of the Mallard genome throughout Australia’s Pacific Black Duck population to protect the genetic integrity of the Australian subspecies.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the Shankland Valley Wetland for its ability to treat urban stormwater pollutants. Monitoring was conducted during two moderate storm events and two non-storm events. Pollutant concentration was measured at 24 hour intervals over periods of approximately one week.

This creative writing thesis begins with the premise that climate change poses critical outcomes for the Australian continent, and asks what the consequences of this are as the precariousness of Australia’s future in relation to climate change continues to gather pace. Comprising a novel (70%) and exegesis (30%), the thesis as a whole seeks to explore the connections between climate change, land and culture in Australia, and to investigate settler Australian understandings regarding ‘place’, ‘belonging’ and ‘home’ in relation to both settlement and unsettledness in contemporary times.

The development and use of any specific model depend on the availability of data and the hydrological settings of a country. Because of data limitations (especially water quality and land management data), the water quality models developed for Australian catchments are lumped/semi-distributed conceptual models. Even within these modelling frameworks, water quality component is empirical or generation rates-based. In this context, developing an effective water quality management plan in the data-poor conditions of Australia still remains as a major challenge for water catchment managers, despite huge investment on river health improvement programs. Physics-based distributed water quality models such as SWAT are most suitable for agricultural non-point source pollution studies. However, because of high data requirement and processing, the applications of these models are limited in many datapoor catchments. In this study, relevant input data sources and analysis techniques were addressed especially for sparsely available water quality data to assemble, and to rigorously calibrate and validate the SWAT based Middle Yarra Water Quality Model (MYWQM) for the case study area - Middle Yarra Catchment (MYC) of Victoria, Australia. The regression based model LOADEST was used for estimating sediment, and nutrient observed loads from monthly water quality grab sample data. The MYWQM was then used to develop a water quality management plan for agricultural non-point source pollution in the MYC. In general, the MYWQM was found capable of predicting streamflow, sediment and nutrient loads in the MYC. The model was also found effective for simulating individual and integrated effects of several Best Management Practices (BMPs) in the MYC. Moreover, the model showed that the in-stream processes if not considered can result in incorrect estimates when simulating BMPs in the model. Overall, the performance of the MYWQM on evaluating the BMPs in the MYC demonstrated that data-intensive physics-based models can be applied in the data-poor conditions of Australia.

Streamflow data are critical for water resource investigations, and their development projects. However, the scarcity of such data, particularly measured streamflow through streamflow gauges, constitutes a serious impediment to the successful implementation of development projects. In the absence of such measured streamflow data, streamflow estimation using measured meteorological data represents a viable alternative. Nevertheless, this alternative is not always possible due to the unavailability of required meteorological data. In the face of such data limitations, many have advocated the use of remote sensing (RS) data to estimate streamflow. The aim of this study was to generate daily streamflow time series data using remote sensing data through catchment process modelling and statistical modelling.

Climate change has affected diverse physical and biological systems worldwide. The impact of climate change on water resources is one of the most important. Even though the world’s water resources are rapidly deteriorating due to the combined effects of climate change, population growth and fast urban development, climate change has been posing new challenges to water resources managers. Uncertainty of the climatic pattern is a major challenge for water authorities to formulate effective water management policies according to the prevailing and future climatic conditions.

Mid-way through George Eliot’s Middlemarch, the heroine of the novel develops a plan to move from her country estate in England’s Midlands to the northern industrial county of Yorkshire, where she intends to found a model factory town. Dorothea Brooke’s utopian fantasy of class relations, ultimately abandoned, hints at the broader regional and geospatial discourse at work in this canonical Victorian novel, but is as equally ignored by critics as by other characters in Eliot’s realist masterpiece. In Communities of Place, I explore a new current of scholarship in Victorian studies by examining the role that England’s historic and geographic regions played in the development of the novel. Scholars of British literature and history have long argued that Victorian national and cultural identity was largely forged and promulgated from England’s urban centers. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the center became synonymous with London and, in the national metropolitan imagination, counties outside of London seemingly became homogenized into peripheral, anti-modern spaces. The critical tradition reinforces this historical narrative by arguing that the rise of nationalism precludes the development of regionalism. Thus, theorists of British nationalism have glossed over England’s intranational identity and have directed attention beyond England’s borders, to France or Scotland, to analyze national identity within Great Britain as a whole. Scholars of intra-English culture, meanwhile, often narrowly focused on county histories and the working classes in isolation. Both types of studies effectively argue that the English middle class, and the middle-class Victorian novel, lack regional affiliation; as Raymond Williams argues, middle-class Victorians were “external” to regional life. With Communities of Place, I join a scholarly conversation that offers an alternative to these scholarly cul-de-sacs: a critically engaged and historically responsive account of English regionalism. My project demonstrates how the development of distinctive English regional cultures paralleled, and occasionally destabilized, the formation of English national identity in the Victorian period. Central to this project is my assertion that the English upper and middle classes, like the working classes, were in part defined by their regional affiliations. Communities of Place, then, offers a historically specific understanding of regionalism as an important structuring framework for the social, geographic, and environmental relations in post-Romantic English literature, by drawing attention to four formulations of English regionalism: the early-Victorian defenses of industrial Northern Englishness, mid-Victorian regional conceptions of mixed rural and factory spaces, the repurposing of non-industrial landscapes for leisure, and the late-century return to the materiality of countryside, now emptied of Romantic naturalism. In each chapter I study geographically-specific cultural regions, from Elizabeth Gaskell’s industrial Lancashire to Thomas Hardy’s rural Wessex, in order to explore more generally how local class relations, topography, and recreational activities helped to shape discrete notions of Englishness outside of London. This methodology offers a productive alternative to center/peripheral models for understanding relations within England. By focusing on the depiction of regional responses to topics of national discussion, ranging from industrialism to the rise of consumer culture, I show how these issues were negotiated by the middle classes Victorian literature. These responses influence contemporary discussions about regional authority over landscape policy, the cultural status of the vernacular, and the preservation of green spaces in the urban nation.

Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]) is the main contributing factor to anthropogenically derived global climate change. The impact of climate change upon terrestrial ecosystems is still uncertain. If information can be obtained on how past fluctuations in [CO2] and temperature has affected terrestrial communities this knowledge can increase our understanding as to how future climate change may impact upon modern-day ecosystems. Foliar stomatal frequency analysis is a proxy-CO2 measure that may provide estimates of atmospheric [CO2] from subfossil or fossil leaf material. Currently, the majority of the research in this field has been conducted on deciduous Northern Hemisphere species including extant and fossil material. Southern Hemisphere fossil species are currently under-represented in the fossil proxy-CO2 database. The rate of climate change in the Southern Hemisphere is less than that experienced in the Northern Hemisphere, so using Northern Hemisphere derived training sets to provide Southern Hemisphere CO2 estimates may introduce confounding errors. Therefore, the use of Southern Hemisphere training sets on Southern Hemisphere fossil material will provide more accurate atmospheric CO2 estimations. This thesis will contribute to the field of knowledge by determining the applicability of three Southern Hemisphere evergreen tree species to be used as potential proxy-CO2 indicator species.