Climate, energy and disasters are crucial and growing issues for Australia. The ANU Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions (ICEDS) initiates and supports the development of transdisciplinary research teams across ANU with the aim of securing long-term, large-scale research funding and ensuring broad societal impact as well as leading outreach, policy engagement, facilitation and coordination roles. The project, “Partnering with local communities in regional Australia to increase resilience to flood risk” funded by the Australian Government National Emergency Management Agency, consists of a team of researchers (drawn from the fields of hydrology, social science, ecology and economics) who are partnering with communities to develop the first ever Australian guidelines on Nature-based Solutions [Nbs] for flood mitigation and resilience. NbS approaches to flood mitigation aim to protect, sustainably manage, and restore ecosystems to meet critical societal needs today, while building long-term environmental and economic resilience.

Project: Science Communication for Nature-based Solutions to Flooding

Summary:

Climate change is increasing the incidence and intensity of extreme weather events, including flooding. The severity of flood impacts can be mitigated by working with nature in local areas, not only by building dams and levees which can be harmful to the environment. Nature-based Solutions to flooding aim to detain, divert and reduce flooding by making room for the river, afforestation, restoring wetlands and palaeochannels, increasing permeability and revegetating riverbanks. A team at the Institute for Energy, Climate and Disaster Solutions is Disasters (ICEDS) is developing National guidelines aimed at supporting local councils to choose nature-based approaches for flood mitigation that will not only reduce flood risk but will maintain /restore catchment ecology and connections between rivers and floodplains. Detailed hydrological and hydrodynamic modelling is being conducted in a number of Australian local government areas to support local decision-making about the selection and implementation of nature-based solution and to inform national guideline development.

This internship will provide the opportunity for a science communication intern to gain experience in how research is translated into communications for the public. Working with our interdisciplinary team and under the supervision of the project officer, the intern will support the collection, organisation, writing of content, editing and proof-reading of the draft National Guidelines to Nature-based Solutions to flooding, and with regard to the project’s NbS case study catchment sites.