Australia - a Great Example: Sustainable Ecosystems

Sustainable Ecosystems:

        

        The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has been Australia’s national science agency since it was formed in 1926. The CSIRO performs scientific research and delivers solutions in every area, such as health, manufacturing, natural resources and information technology. It advises the Australian Government on all science matters.

 

        Sustainable Ecosystems (CSE) is a research organization and a business unit of the CSIRO. It has labs and staff in every Australian Capital city and conducts research to understand the connections between the different types of ecosystems that exist in Australia, that is, the natural, urban, agricultural and industrial ecosystems.

  

        It focuses on finding solutions to the problems of social, economical and environmental sustainability in Australia. This research is divided into four research targets which are sustainable cities, healthy terrestrial eco-systems, sustainable regional development and agricultural sustainability. The target of the sustainable cities group is to address research in providing improved infrastructure to reduce our ecological footprint. Healthy terrestrial eco-systems are strived for by conserving landscapes and their biodiversity and maintaining eco-systems that benefit rural and urban communities.

 

  

        Sustainable regional development is approached by providing rural and urban communities information to help them adapt to economic, environmental, and social change. It researches the best ways to utilize limited resources providing the information on forming a national resource policy, and alternatives for management and investment. It improves agricultural sustainability by analyzing farming systems to improve agricultural management and ensuring continuing viability. Its goals are to support the change to sustainable cities and rural areas by studying and understanding the natural, agricultural, industrial and urban ecosystems. The research activities are divided among five research programs, Agricultural Landscapes, Rangelands and Savannas, Resource Futures, Tropical Landscapes, and Urban Systems.

  

        Some successes in the Urban Systems research program have been the development of a number of software tools for builders and designers specifically aimed at increasing sustainability in new homes and buildings and a web-based information portal on sustainable commercial buildings.  In the area of sustainable rangelands and savannas, landscape, ecology and grazing models have been developed including four computerized modeling tools useful for these areas.

  

        Each aspect of each type of eco-system is being researched by the CSIRO to help make these eco-systems sustainable. The CSIRO develops software, models, and tools to assist in the progress towards sustainable eco-systems in Australia.  It is programs such as these, which are sponsored by the Australian Government, which are assisting the nation in reaching its goal of being significantly more sustainable by 2050.

 

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Sources:

 

“Agricultural Sustainability”. Welcome to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. CSIRO. 27 Sep 2007. Accessed 14 Mar 2008. <http://www.cse.csiro.au/research/theme2.htm>

 

"Australian Climate Change Science Program." CSIRO. 3 Dec 2005. Accessed 7 Mar 2008. <http://www.csiro.au/org/pst6.html>.

 

“Healthy Terrestrial Ecosystems”. Welcome to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. CSIRO. 27 Sep 2007. Accessed 14 Mar 2008. <http://www.cse.csiro.au/research/theme3.htm>

 

“Sustainable Cities”. Welcome to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. CSIRO. 27 Sep 2007. Accessed 14 Mar 2008. <http://www.cse.csiro.au/research/theme4.htm>

 

SUSTAINABLE ECOSYSTEMS. CSIRO. 3 Oct 2007. Accessed 7 Mar 2008. <http://www.cse.csiro.au/>.
“Sustainable Regional Development”. Welcome to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research

 

Organization. CSIRO. 27 Sep 2007. Accessed 14 Mar 2008.  <http://www.cse.csiro.au/research/theme1.htm>

 

“Research”. Welcome to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. 27 Sep 2007. CSIRO. Accessed 14 Mar 2008. <http://www.cse.csiro.au/research/index.htm>
 

“Urban Systems research program”. Welcome to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research

 

Organization. CSIRO. 22 Oct 2007. Accessed 14 Mar 2008. <http://www.csiro.au/science/UrbanSystems.html>

 

“Sustainable rangelands and savannas”. Welcome to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research

 

Organization. CSIRO. 31 Jan 2008. Accessed 14 March 2008. <http://www.csiro.au/science/RangelandsSavannas--ci_pageNo-2.html>

 

Welcome to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. (CSIRO). 4 March 2008. Accessed 7 Mar 2008 <http://www.csiro.au/>

 

“WHO WE ARE”.   Welcome to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. CSIRO.  27 Apr

 

2006. Accessed 14 Mar 2008 <http://www.csiro.au/csiro/channel/_ca_dch38.html>

 

Photograph:

Swisscan. “Australian Outback Devil's Marbles”. 7 August 2007. Flickr.com. Accessed 14 March 2008. 

<http://flickr.com/photos/swisscan/1044416558/>
Used under the Creative Commons License. <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/>