Re-watch any of the weekly Flow-MER Fridays from our Spring series, where the Flow-MER team share insights from the Program.
The line-up this Spring included:
- 10th Nov: Kamilaroi (Indigenous) Knowledge and Methodologies to Inform Water Management — Associate Professor Bradley Moggridge and Professor Ross Thompson
- 17th Nov: Integrating technology into wetland vegetation monitoring — Dr. Will Higgisson
- 24th Nov: Beating a path to ecosystem-scale evaluation — Dr. Shane Brooks
More info and recording for each session below:
Session 1: 10 November 2023
Kamilaroi (Indigenous) Knowledge and Methodologies to Inform Water Management
Bradley Moggridge 1&2 and Ross Thompson 2
(1 Kamilaroi Nation, 2 University of Canberra, Centre for Applied Water Science)
Indigenous knowledge and methodologies are a missing component in water management in Australia. On this dry, flat and ancient continent, Traditional Knowledge has been passed on from generation to generation for millennia (over 65,000yrs), with a profound reliance of knowledge and connection to surface and groundwater. The role of traditional knowledge in finding and protecting cultural water places and landscapes has been critical to ensure the survival of Indigenous peoples in a dry landscape like Australia. Indigenous knowledge and methodologies can provide new (but old) evidence that is culturally appropriate, which generates a culturally safe space, with Indigenous researchers and communities leading. The aim is to shift the research paradigm away from Indigenous peoples being the researched, under non-Indigenous research methodologies, to becoming the researchers. This allows the Indigenous scientist to derive the terms, questions and priorities of what is being researched, how the community is engaged, and how the research is delivered.
Session 2: 17 November 2023
Integrating technology into wetland vegetation monitoring
A multi-disciplinary team from the Centre for Applied Water Science at the University of Canberra have been developing methods to estimate wetland plants and their response to environmental water using drone imagery and machine learning. Dr Will Higgisson will present on a method developed to estimate the percent cover of common reed (Phragmites australis) and a measure of condition and cover of tangled lignum (Duma florulenta). This webinar will provide the background to this work, the processes we took, and the potential application of these methods.
Session 3: 24 November 2023
Beating a path to ecosystem-scale evaluation
Shane will re-introduce the Basin-scale Ecosystem Diversity evaluation of Commonwealth Environmental Water in the Basin. He’ll reflect on the background and long-term results and identify significant challenges and opportunities that come from working at large landscape scales and some that are peculiar to management in the Basin.
