Living Laboratories
The philosophy behind “Living Laboratories” is that the current investment in landscape change through Natural Resource Management Programs offers the research community a “laboratory” within which hypotheses can be tested and measurements can be taken at full landscape scale. The Living Laboratories Program is supported by ICE WaRM and Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation (DWLBC).
Any individual or organisation interested in helping to create a “Living Laboratories” Open Day is encouraged to contact Paul Dalby at ICE WaRM:
Dr Paul Dalby
0401 122 204
Past Living Laboratories Programmes:
Purpose of Living Laboratories
To utilise large-scale infrastructure and policy initiatives in water and natural resource management as “living laboratories” to:
- generate and document innovations and lessons learned that can be used to better implement large-scale NRM programs;
- integrate research methodologies into implementation programs to allow more meaningful evaluation of their outcomes; and
- provide infrastructure for Australian researchers to undertake world-class research.
Context
The Australian and State Governments are undertaking major investments in infrastructure and policy reform in South Australia, to improve the management of water and other natural resources through programs such as The Living Murray, National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality and National Water Initiative. While these programs have funding for internal monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes of these programs, they also provide an outstanding opportunity to engage the research sector to:
- independently measure and benchmark the outputs and outcomes of the programs,
- monitor and learn about how to successfully implement large reform and restoration programs, and
- document and transfer research findings and lessons learned to wide audiences.
Research in natural resource management (NRM) has often been undertaken at a laboratory or small/pilot scale, partly because resources available for research are usually not sufficient to undertake large-scale landscape manipulations. This means that research outcomes need to be scaled up through the use of modeling and other tools, but there is always a degree of uncertainty about the validity of these upscaling approaches. Research in NRM has also often been highly discipline based, and failed to deliver integrated understandings of social, technical, institutional, economic and environmental interactions. This limits the ability of agencies and NRM Boards to effectively invest to deliver landscape-scale improvements based on a sufficient scientific understanding of the likely outcomes.
By allowing researchers to be active participants in the delivery of large infrastructure and policy reform initiatives, their research can be woven into the fabric of the program design, and be used to provide feedback on the program effectiveness to policy makers. Such a model would put Australian policy makers and researchers at the leading edge of environmental-related management and research internationally.
There is a unique opportunity available over the next five years to:
- underpin implementation programs with rigorous scientific evaluation;
- enable research to be carried out at the same scale as implementation;
- communicate the lessons learned nationally and internationally;
- showcase an integrated approach to NRM that has been championed by the Australian and South Australian governments.
