Shortfalls in water supplies are perhaps the greatest practical NRM policy concern in Australia today, looming larger in many minds than the great international debates on greenhouse gasses, climate change and biodiversity. Because forest land cover uses more water than any other, wide expansion...

The salt burden in a stream reflects the blend of salty and fresh flows from different soil areas in its catchment. Depending not only on long-run rainfall, water yields from a soil are also determined by land cover: lowest if the area is forested and greatest if cleared. Water yields under...

Chinese grasslands are suffering considerable pressures from human and livestock populations. It has been estimated that 90% of Chinese grasslands are suffering from light to heavy levels of degradation. Allied to this is the low household income of herders and farmers dependant upon livestock...

This paper analyses a fisheries management strategy, marine reserves switching, in which a non-fishing area is created, removed, or rotated from one site to another according to economic criteria through time. Using a dynamic optimisation framework under uncertainty, with the different fish...

A choice modelling valuation exercise was recently undertaken across several countries to assess the tradeoffs that households are prepared to make between water use restrictions, maintaining environmental condition in waterways, and increased water costs. The results from the Queensland survey...

The extent of the benefits of improved river health remain uncertain. Quantifying these benefits is useful in prioritising policy investments. This study uses the Choice Modelling technique to estimate the value that households attach to attributes of improved river health. Data from a choice...

The sharp increase in Australia's terms of trade since 2003-04 has dramatic regional and sectoral implications. Mining-intensive regions have gained from the jump in export prices. Import-competing sectors have faced greater competition both from falling import prices and due to rising demand...

Natural resource management decision making by Catchment Management Authorities in NSW is being aided by a project involving bio-physical modelling and the development of an alternative decision-making framework. The objective of the bio-physical modelling process is to generate predictions of...

Conservation and restoration of native vegetation is often a gradual process which may require many years to transform an ecosystem from one vegetative state to a target ecosystem. This process is stochastic, with some changes potentially irreversible. In contrast, contracts with landholders to...