A New Blue Future

Dr Michelle Voyer 

Welcome to the first newsletter for our Blue Futures Global Challenges keystone project. This newsletter coincides with World Earth Day, with this year's theme being 'Climate Action'. You can read how the Blue Futures team is addressing this theme, via the news article below 'Demonstrating a Sustainable Path Forward this World Earth Day'. 

This project was born out of a desire to use interdisciplinary collaboration and research as a tool through which we could explore how to manage and plan for change in our coastal communities. Little did we know that the project would be kicking off in one of the most turbulent, traumatic and disruptive periods of change within living memory.

From the fires which devastated our region over summer to the silent but growing threat of COVID 19, our research has taken on extra relevance and urgency. We hope it will assist in informing the recovery of our region and wider international debates about ocean management and use. As ‘business as usual’ is disrupted in every imaginable way, our project is well positioned to examine important questions about what comes next. How do we make the future of our coasts bright in the face of the immediate and ongoing changes that these disasters, and the ever present threat of climate change have initiated? How can we create a ‘new normal’ that places community wellbeing, Indigenous knowledge and environmental sustainability at its core? We will be examining these questions from a variety of angles, involving scientists, lawyers, social scientists, accountants, economists, the arts and humanities, engineers and IT specialists. 

There has never been a more important time for academia, Government, industry and the community to work together. This first edition of our quarterly newsletter will introduce you to our project steams, and the activities they have commenced earlier this year. 

Demonstrating a Sustainable Path Forward this World Earth Day 

World Earth Day is on April 22 and this year’s theme is ‘climate action’, urging the message that unless every country in the world steps up – and steps up with urgency and ambition — we are consigning current and future generations to a dangerous future.

The Blue Futures team is working with communities on the South Coast, to explore coastal change, including how our oceans are governed, how technology can be used to monitor and address threats, and create innovative new opportunities.

Read the full news article here: 

www.uow.edu.au

Capacity Development and Outreach

Prof. Robin Warner

The key aim of this cross cutting strategy is to develop a Blue Futures capacity development and training program with the potential for application in the NSW South Coast and beyond including the Indo Pacific region. This strategy is intended to position UOW as a global leader in professional short course and post-graduate training in the Blue Economy and related concepts.

We are commencing work in this stream by conducting a global review of existing training programs relevant to the Blue Economy and related concepts and collating materials for a draft short course curriculum. We have had initial discussions on a draft short course curriculum and will be seeking feedback and input on the draft from the other project streams in coming months. We have engaged a research assistant, Candice Visser to begin reviewing existing training programs and to collate materials for the development of the short course curriculum.

Anticipating and Imagining stream

Dr Joshua Lobb

In the anticipating and imagining stream, we want to answer the question “what might the future of our oceans and coast and the communities that rely on them look like?”. Many of us have deep connections to the places where the land meets the sea. We walk this space; we live and breathe the salt air; we collect stories, images and memories. We’ve been doing this for millennia. Our focus is on gathering material from our past and present, to consider how our stories of the coast might continue and change in the future. In our group are artists, writers, geographers and scientists. Together, we are bringing together a range of resources: stories, images, scientific data, historical documents, maps, and lived experiences. Our aim is to create opportunities for communities to imagine their own blue future. We will do this through community events and workshops, the generation of story maps and a major exhibition “Ways to Water”, to be held at Wollongong Art Gallery. What does the future of our coast and community look like?  We don’t know yet, but we are going to work together to find out.

Governing and Guiding stream

Dr Michelle Voyer

The key aim of the governing and guiding stream is to explore tools and techniques for examining and resolving conflict in coastal environments. Social, economic and environmental change will make decision making in coastal environments increasingly challenging – our oceans are becoming increasingly busy spaces where different uses compete with each other. Shifting environmental conditions will make resolving these conflicts even more difficult.

We have commenced work in this stream by first examining the different approaches and frameworks that are currently used to assist with integrated decision making and conflict management. We will explore how each of these frameworks consider and take account of social, environmental and economic values. We are particularly interested in exploring ways to make intangible environmental, social and cultural values more explicit in these decision making processes.

We have engaged three research assistants, Anna Lewis, Chris Kuster and Kirti Lal, to begin reviewing existing literature and available data. Our aim is to test and trial a number of integrated decision making processes using a local case study, in collaboration with our project partners and stakeholders.

Developing and Enabling stream

Dr Hugh Forehead

This stream is designed to help support sustainable innovation on the NSW south coast and so increase opportunities and prosperity in the region.  We are have three projects to address this:

The first will design a framework for building a network of collaboration between innovators and with government. The first phase of this work has begun with Sri Sivasubramani conducting a review of structures used elsewhere, often called ‘maritime clusters.’

The second will build a publicly available database of water quality on the south coast. It will bring together data that is currently scattered or unavailable, to give the best available picture of the state of our waterways, to aid in research and decision making. We will also work with monitoring agencies to develop ways to increase real-time monitoring of water quality and to address microplastic pollution. We have started work on designing the structure of the database, have developed collaborations with councils and the Environment Protection Authority and are in the process of contacting other agencies.

The third project aims to create a system of wireless sensors to help oyster farmers to better manage their farms. It will be based on iOyster, a low-cost sensor that we are developing in conjunction with farmers.

Indigenous Blue Futures cross-cutting stream 

Cultural Appreciation Workshop for all Blue Futures researchers 

Paul Knight (Illawarra Local Aboriginal Land Council)

On April 9, Paul Knight and Jade Kennedy generously offered to take the team through cultural appreciation training prior to us commencing any on ground research as part of the Blue Futures program. The workshop provided all Blue Futures researchers with a wider appreciation of how Aboriginal knowledge and culture can inform and enrich the work we are all doing.

Research Assistant Biographies 

The Blue Futures project will utilise the expertise of Research Assistants who specialise in different aspects of the blue economy. Two are introduced below. 

Jen Saunders

Jen Saunders is an artist and researcher interested in examining local histories, communities and landscapes. She uses creative work – visual, audio and written – to look closer at how we define ourselves as belonging to place.

My interests currently overlap in the space of archives, local history narratives and artworks. The Anticipating and Imagining stream is looking at ways people define their relationships with coastal waters (in the past, present and future) through creative responses like art and literature, so it’s exciting for me to be able to apply my research interests in the Blue Futures project. The ‘engine’ that drives my interest in local histories is learning about Aboriginal knowledges of the South Coast and figuring out how to unlearn the misconceptions inherent in being non-Aboriginal. The fact that Blue Futures is aiming at foregrounding local Aboriginal knowledges and protocols makes this project a fantastic chance to learn/unlearn in a concrete and ongoing way within a team!

Dr Kirti Lal

I have a keen interest in blue carbon, the carbon associated with coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, saltmarshes and seagrasses. In recent years the realisation that coastal ecosystems sequester and store large quantities of blue carbon has increased coastal and marine policy and management practices to ensure long-term conservation of coastal blue carbon ecosystems. The Blue Economy provides a framework for developing ocean sustainability, conservation and management of marine/coastal ecosystems, which can be used in conservation governance and decision-making processes. My contribution to the Blue Futures project is focussed on environmental and biophysical aspects of the blue economy framework, including marine-based ecosystem services, nature’s contribution to people, and integrated coastal zone management.