Sustainability

Research Centre

Newsletter

Upcoming SRC 10th Year Anniversary The SRC will be celebrating its 10th year anniversary with an inaugural dinner to be held on Thursday 12 October 2017. Numerous research partners, all SRC alumni and current students, past and present staff and adjuncts will receive an invitation in due course. Alumni are encouraged to complete the ‘where are they now’ form already emailed to them. This information, together with the SRC’s achievements over the past 10 years will be displayed on the SRC’s webpage: http://www.usc.edu.au/research-and-innovation/sustainability-and-environment/sustainability-research-centre Reminiscent of old times is an image featuring staff and students in attendance at the very first SRC Annual Retreat.

Winter 2016

Inside this issue

Upcoming field trip For HDR student, Renee Currenti ............................ 2 HDR students present at international confer- ences ................................ 3 New Coast alert notifica-tion service ....................... 3 Earthquake - landslide interactions ..................... 4 Lead Author (Policy Effec-tiveness)…………...…..………..5 Recent publications ..... 5

Winter 2017

2

The last couple of months have been exciting and successful for HDR stu-

dent, Renee Currenti. This semester has seen the delivery of SUS101 with

Renee acting as graduate teaching assistant and tutor, contributing to the

teaching of the most recent cohort of students interested in sustainability. It

has been a very enjoyable learning experience.

March began with her Masters confirmation. April saw a three-week re-

search trip in Fiji where, along with two other key goals, a pre-research con-

sultation was conducted with the community of Nawairuku in the high-

lands of Ra Province. It was a short but immensely successful visit to the vil-

lage to discuss potential research ideas and to build strong working rela-

tionships. The time was also extremely valuable as a chance to contextualise

her upcoming fieldwork. Renee will be conducting her field data collection

from June to August 2017. She will be working together with the community

to better understand how it is adapting and responding to changes (climatic

and non-climatic) within the village. Renee’s research will also identity fac-

tors that aid or constrain adaptation efforts. The short, but sweet visit re-

sulted in a very excited HDR student and a community looking forward to

her return.

HDR student, Renee Currenti’s upcoming fieldtrip

Congratulations... Congratulations to Mikayla Cover on being awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Honours Scholarship valued at $5000. The selection criteria for the award is based on academic merit, research focus and potential alignment to a USC area of research concentration, and motivation for ongoing study/research and pursuit of a Higher Degree by Research. Mikayla successfully presented her research proposal entitled ‘Social value mapping as a decision support tool in environmental impact assessments: A case study from Sigatoka, Fiji’, to the School of Science and Engineering in March. She recently completed her fieldwork in Fiji, working in collaboration with the Nadroga-Navosa Provincial Council to conduct social participatory mapping. Mikayla is now working to report the findings on iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) use and values of the Sigatoka River estuary.

Pictured to the right: Danielle Rietberg, Roger Kitson, Mikayla Cover, Matthew Brown, Renee Currenti and Dr Tristan Pearce

3

HDR students present their research at International Conferences

HDR student, Andrew Venning presented a paper at the Ninth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts and Responses held in Cambridge, U.K. in April this year. His paper was entitled: ‘Climate change, affordable housing and law: A transdisciplinary theme.’

Marta Botta presented at the IAFOR In-ternational Conference on the Social Sci-ences in Hawaii, January 2017. The purpose of her study was to investi-gate the ontology and social impact of new spiritual memes on evolutionary processes. The current study provided an analysis of the unique spiritual memeplex inherent to the novel mythology conceived by art-ist and spiritual leader Oberto Airaudi, founder of the spiritual eco-community, The Federation of Damanhur, Italy. Anal-ysis of Damanhur’s spiritual memes was facilitated through semiotic analysis of selected murals in the expansive under-

ground complex, the ‘Temples of Humankind’. The hypothesis that new Western spiritual memes created in sustainable communities were pre-dominantly moulded by the migration of ideas from East to West was con-firmed by visual research methods. The case study illustrated the spatial dimension of the globalisation effects of the migration of memes from East to West; notwithstanding that ideas facilitated by globalisation in the form of cultural imperialism are overwhelmingly flowing in the reverse direction. This trend of westernisation, as an attribute of our post-colonial era, had been investigated extensively in the past few decades, whereas East to West migration of ideas explored by the current study have not been a sub-ject of scholarly research to equal measure. Additionally, migration of ideas at the macro level, analysed through the pendulum theory of social change, integrated the theoretical and empirical approaches of this study to provide a comprehensive multiscalar analysis. The community is presenting an in-triguing new collective ‘habitus’ within a loaded cultural context consisting of a proliferation of unique spiritual memes that contain elements associat-ed with a changing sociocultural paradigm.

Building Disaster Resilience One Message at a Time

When severe weather is approaching, flood waters are closing local roads, or bushfires are affecting Sunshine Coast communities, effective information and communication systems play a critical role in building a disaster resilient community. Sunshine Coast Council’s full time Disaster Management Coordinator and part time USC PhD candidate, John Gallina, noted that up to the minute information alerts from Council’s disaster management unit can now be sent directly to phones and smart devices to keep our community up to date with emergency information alerts arising from high impact events. Everyone is encouraged to subscribe to the free CoastAlert by simply downloading the SCCApp from the AppStore or Google Play, or go directly to Disaster Hub: www.disaster.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au and follow the directions to download the app.

4

Earthquake – Landslide Interactions: Implications for Sustainability Major earthquakes cause widespread environmental and socioec-onomic disruptions that can persist for decades. The shallow-focus 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes triggered widespread land-slides west of Aso central volcano cones in Japan. Although most seismic activity occurred in a largely rural area, several villages and many farms were damaged in addition to the landslide dis-turbances. Most of the landslides initiated on ridgelines and/or convex to planar slopes, but did not mobilize into long runout debris flows. Rather much of the landslide sediment remains on hillslopes or in headwater channels where it can be transported as a damaging debris flow during a future large storm. This situa-tion is exacerbated by future landslides that will likely occur along ridgelines, where large parallel fissures developed during the earthquake promoting rapid ingress of rain water and runoff into these already unstable slopes. Future slope failures and de-bris flows have the potential to inflict damage on rural communi-ties and the widespread disturbances and destruction of rural roads in the region are already causing elderly farmers to aban-don their centuries-old grazing practices placing endangered grass species at risk. Prof Roy Sidle has been engaged in collaborative research in Kumamoto with Japanese col-leagues (Prof Gomi, A/P Akasaka, and students) from Tokyo University of Agriculture & Technology, and has recently received an International Collaboration Grant from Kyoto University, Disaster Prevention Research In-stitute, to investigate the interactions of earthquake-generated fissures and future landslides.

Parallel fissures along a ridgeline generated during the April 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake

Extensive landslides in grasslands west of Mt Aso

Emerging from the field research trip inside the Aso Caldera

5

Recent Publications

Baldwin, C., Smith, T., Jacobson, C. (2017). Love of the Land: Social-ecological connectivity of rural landholders. Journal of Rural Studies, 51:37-52. Botta, M. (2016). Neo-collectivist Consciousness as a Driver of Transformative Sociocultural Change. Jo urnal o f Futures Studies. 21(2):51-70. Botta, M. (2016). Neo-collectivist consciousness as a driver of transformative sociocultural change. Jo urnal of Future s Studies, 21(2), 51–70. doi:10.6531/JFS.2016.21(2).A51 Botta, M. (2017). Temporal Dimensions of Social Change in Sustainable Communities. Wo rld Future s Re vie w, 9(1):44-58. Fawcett, D., Pearce, T., Ford, J.D., Archer, L. (2017). Operationalizing longitudinal approaches to climate change vulnerability assessment. Glo bal Enviro nm e ntal Change . 45:79-88. Fitz-Walter, Z., Johnson, D., Wyeth, P., Tjondronegoro, D., & Scott-Parker, B. (2017). Driven to drive? Investigating the effect of gamification on learner driver behaviour, perceived motivation and user experience. Co m pute rs in Human Behavior. 71:586-595. doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.08.050 Howes, M., Wortley, L., Potts, R., Dedekorkut-Howes, A., Serrao-Neumann, S., Davidson, J., Smith, T. and Nunn, P.D. (2017). Environmental sustainability: a case of policy implementation failure? Sustainability. 9:165. Jacobson C., Matunga H., Ross, H. and Carter R.W. (2016). Mainstreaming indigenous perspectives: 25 years of New Zealand’s Resource Management Act. Australasian Jo urnal o f Enviro nm e ntal Managem e nt. 23(4): 331-337. McAllum, M. (2017). Recalibrating the Gaze. Wo rld Futures Re vie w. 1-11. McAllum, M. (2017). Reconceiving the self and the other: possibilities beyond the seduction of popularist and authoritarian polarities. Jo urnal o f Future s Studie s . 21(3):17-26. Naz, S., & Scott-Parker, B. (2017). Obstacles to engaging in young driver licensing: Perspectives of parents. Accide nt Analysis and Prevention, 99, 312-320. Nunn, P.D., Runman, J., Falanruw, M. and Kumar, R. (2017). Culturally grounded responses to coastal change on islands in the Federated States of Micronesia, northwest Pacific Ocean. Re gio nal Enviro nm e ntal Change , 17(4), 959-971. Oprescu, F., Scott-Parker, B., & Dayton, J. (2017) An analysis of child deaths by suicide in Queensland Australia, 2004-2012. What are we missing from a preventative health services perspective? Jo urnal o f Injury and Vio le nce Re se arch, 9(2). doi: 10.5249/jivr.v9i2.837

Journal articles

Lead Author (Policy Effectiveness chapter) for the Global Environmental Outlook 6th edition

Dr Pedro Fidelman, SRC Adjunct Fellow, has been appointed as a Lead Author (Policy Effectiveness chapter) for the Global Environmental Outlook 6th edition. The Global Environment Outlook is the United Nations Environment flagship integrated assessment on the state of the global environment. It presents the environmental trends for air, climate, water, land and biodiversity. It draws on all the major global assessments from international science panels and UN bodies. The assessment looks at the interactions and feedback loops among social, economic and environmental drivers to assess the effectiveness of different policy responses in moving the world onto a more sustainable pathway. For more information see www.unep.org/geo

The Sustainability Research

Centre

Our niche area for the Sus-

tainability Research Centre

(SRC) is societal adaptation –

more specifically, under-

standing the social dimen-

sions of environmental

change.

We contribute knowledge to

a range of sustainability is-

sues such as coastal manage-

ment, climate change, and

water resources management

(recognised as significant at

local through to international

scales).

The SRC includes over 60 re-

searchers (including 30 PhD

students): http://

www.usc.edu.au/connect/

research/research-and-

development/sustainability-

and-environment/

sustainability-research-

centre/research-students

Further information:

Gail Wilkins

Tel: +61 7 5459 4891

Email: gwilkin2@usc.edu.au

www.usc.edu.au/

sustainability

Scott-Parker, B. (2017). Nonverbal communication during the driving lesson: Driving in-

structors and learner drivers. Transportatio n Re search Part F. 47, 1-12. doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2017.03.004

Scott-Parker, B., & Oviedo-Trespalacios, O. (2017). Young driver risky behaviour and pre-

dictors of crash risk in Australia, New Zealand and Colombia: Same but different? Accide nt

Analysis and Prevention, 99, 30-38.

Scott-Parker, B., & Senserrick, T. (2017). Brief report: A call to improve sampling methodol-

ogy and reporting in young novice driver research. Injury Pre ve ntio n, 23(1), 8-9.

Scott-Parker, B., Stokes, L., Panaho, S., Cawkwell, M., & Caldwell, J. (2017). Are you okay to

drive? Commuting behaviour and blood alcohol concentrations amongst restaurant din-

ers. Traffic Injury Prevention. doi.org/10.1080/15389588.2017.1293824

Sidle, R.C., Gomi, T. and Gallina, J. (2017). The continuum of chronic to episodic natural hazards: implications and strategies for community and landscape planning. Landscape and Urban Planning, doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.05.017

Simões, E., Sousa Junior, W.C., De Freitas, D. M., Mills, M., Iwama, A. Y., Gonçalves, I., Oli-vato, D., Fidelman, P. (2017). Barriers and Opportunities for Adapting to Climate Change on the North Coast of São Paulo, Brazil. Regio nal Enviro nm e ntal Change ; doi:10.1007/s10113-017-1133-5

Ashford, T., Archer-Lean, C., Ashford, G., Taylor, J., Keys, N., Thomsen. D., Ryan, L., & Bald-win, C. (2017). Sustainability Focused CoP: enabling transformative education. In J. McDonald & A. Cater-Steel (Eds), Implementing Communities of Practice in Higher Educa-tion: Dreamers and Schemers. Springer Singapore. Baldwin, C. (2017). ‘Justice in water resource management’, in Natural Re so urce s and Envi-

ronmental Justice: Australian Perspectives. Lukasiewicz A, Dovers S., Robin L, MacKay J, Schilizzi S,

and Graham S (eds), CSIRO Publishing, Clayton, Vic, pp.143-154.

Botta, M. (2016). Heritage and city commons. In J. M. Ramos (Ed.), The City as Co m m o ns: A

Policy Reader (pp. 26-31). Melbourne, Australia: Commons Transition Coalition.

Graham, S., Baldwin, C., McKay, J., and Jackson, S. (2017). ‘Justice approaches: methods

and methodology in environmental justice research’ in Natural Reso urce s and Enviro n-

mental Justice: Australian Perspectives. Lukasiewicz A, Dovers S., Robin L, MacKay J, Schilizzi S,

and Graham S (eds), CSIRO Publishing, Clayton, Vic, pp. 39-57.

Jacobson, C., Crevello, S., Nguong, C., and Chea, C. (in press) Resilience and vulnerability assessment as the basis for adaptation dialogue: a Cambodian example. In: Serrao-Neumann, S, Coudrain, A, and Coulter, L. (ed.s) Developing and communicating climate change information for decision-making. Springer.

Nunn, P.D. (2017). Coastal settings. In: Gilbert, A. (ed.). Encyclo pe dia o f Ge oarchae o logy.

Dordrecht: Springer, pp 145-156.

Books