Hydrogeological Features of the Lockyer Valley

The Lockyer Valley is situated 80 km west of Brisbane and is bounded on the sou th and west by the Great Dividing Range. The valley is a major western sub - catchment of the larger Brisbane River drainage system and is drained by the Lockyer Creek. The Lockyer catchment forms approximately 20% of the total Brisbane River catchment and has an area of around 2900 km2. The Lockyer Creek is an ephemeral drainage system, and the stream and associated alluvium are the main source for irrigation water supply in the Lockyer Valley. The catchment is comprised of a number of well -defined, elongate tributaries in the south, and others in the north, which are more meandering in nature.

Brave new green world : consequences of a carbon economy for the conservation of Australian biodiversity

Pricing greenhouse gas emissions is a burgeoning and possibly lucrative financial means for climate change mitigation. Emissions pricing is being used to fund emissions-abatement technologies and to modify land management to improve carbon sequestration and retention. Here we discuss the principal land-management options under existing and realistic future emissions-price legislation in Australia, and examine them with respect to their anticipated direct and indirect effects on biodiversity. The main ways in which emissions price-driven changes to land management can affect biodiversity are through policies and practices for (1) environmental plantings for carbon sequestration, (2) native regrowth, (3) fire management, (4) forestry, (5) agricultural practices (including cropping and grazing), and (6) feral animal control. While most land-management options available to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions offer clear advantages to increase the viability of native biodiversity, we describe several caveats regarding potentially negative outcomes, and outline components that need to be considered if biodiversity is also to benefit from the new carbon economy. Carbon plantings will only have real biodiversity value if they comprise appropriate native tree species and provide suitable habitats and resources for valued fauna. Such plantings also risk severely altering local hydrology and reducing water availability. Management of regrowth post-agricultural abandonment requires setting appropriate baselines and allowing for thinning in certain circumstances, and improvements to forestry rotation lengths would likely increase carbon-retention capacity and biodiversity value. Prescribed burning to reduce the frequency of high-intensity wildfires in northern Australia is being used as a tool to increase carbon retention. Fire management in southern Australia is not readily amenable for maximising carbon storage potential, but will become increasingly important for biodiversity conservation as the climate warms. Carbon price-based modifications to agriculture that would benefit biodiversity include reductions in tillage frequency and livestock densities, reductions in fertiliser use, and retention and regeneration of native shrubs; however, anticipated shifts to exotic perennial grass species such as buffel grass and kikuyu could have net negative implications for native biodiversity. Finally, it is unlikely that major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions arising from feral animal control are possible, even though reduced densities of feral herbivores will benefit Australian biodiversity greatly.

Catalysing design principles through the dreaming of sustainable subtropical cityscapes : the collaborative construction of new place identities

This paper addresses the question of how to open up pathways and build capacity to facilitate the movement towards sustainable sub-tropical cities. The focus is on outlining a collaborative planning and co-design process that can help catalyse the emergence of sustainable place-habitats and so re-weave and colour anew the tapestry of our sub-tropical cities. Cities are portrayed as self-organising complex adaptive system phenomena, being constantly re-shaped by local and global social-political, environmental, cultural and economic forces as well as planning regimes. While constructing a sustainable city is at essence a design process incorporating new sustainable practices and legislation to reinforce their use, these steps are necessary but not sufficient. Sustainable sub-tropical city-making could be re-thought as a dreaming-re-storying process. This paper explores a new co-design process, which can channel collaborative efforts around re-inventing sustainable place-habitats across the cityscape. A further outcome of this co-design process is the alignment of the emergent design principles and planning actions that can trigger the re-storying of a new sustainable sub-tropical city. Besides a new co-design process, we also advocate the building of sub-tropical city learning networks to facilitate the cross-fertilization for Dreaming sustainable sub-tropical cities.

Fluid Infrastructure : A response to a natural flood disaster in Brisbane

Fluid Infrastructure: Landscape Architecture Exhibition: This exhibition showcases the work of 4th Year undergraduate landscape architecture students in response to the 2011 Queensland floods through five installations: Systima Fluid Flux Flex Fluid Connectivity The Floods Verge Fluid Evolution The focus of these installations is the post-flood conditions of Brisbane’s riverside public infrastructure, within a scenario of flood as a normalised event. It recognises that within this scenario, parts of this city cannot be described as definitively ‘land’ or ‘water,’ but are best described as ‘fluid terrains’(Mathur, A. and Da Cunha, D. 2006). The landscape design propositions within the five installations include public transport diversification (RiverRats) schemes, greenspace elevations, ephemeral gardens and evolving landscapes, creative interpretation and warning devices and systems. These propositions do not resist fluid conditions, but work with them to propose a more resilient urban river landscape than Brisbane currently has. This QUT exhibition was developed as part of the 2011 Flood of Ideas Project (http://www.floodofideas.org.au) in partnership with Healthy Waterways (Water by Design), State Library of Queensland (The Edge), Brisbane City Council, Australian Institute of Architects, University of Queensland, Green Cross Australia, Stormwater Industry Association.

Sole depth and weight-bearing characteristics of the palmar surface of the feet of feral horses and domestic Thoroughbreds

Objective: To determine solar load-bearing structures in the feet of feral horses and investigate morphological characteristics of the sole in feral horses and domestic Thoroughbreds. Sample: Forelimbs from cadavers of 70 feral horses and 20 domestic Thoroughbreds in Australia. Procedures: Left forefeet were obtained from 3 feral horse populations from habitats of soft substrate (SS [n = 10 horses]), hard substrate (HS [10]), and a combination of SS and HS (10) and loaded in vitro. Pressure distribution was measured with a pressure plate. Sole depth was measured at 12 points across the solar plane in feet obtained from feral horses from SS (n = 20 horses) and HS (20) habitats and domestic Thoroughbreds (20). Results: Feet of feral horses from HS habitats loaded the periphery of the sole and hoof wall on a flat surface. Feral horses from HS or SS habitats had greater mean sole depth than did domestic Thoroughbreds. Sole depth was greatest peripherally and was correlated with the loading pattern. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: The peripheral aspect of the sole in the feet of feral horses had a load-bearing function. Because of the robust nature of the tissue architecture, the hoof capsule of feral horses may be less flexible than that of typical domestic horses. The application of narrow-web horseshoes may not take full advantage of the load-bearing and force-dissipating properties of the peripheral aspect of the sole. Further studies are required to understand the effects of biomechanical stimulation on the adaptive responses of equine feet.

Bargara Pasturage Reserve : Future Visions

Bargara Pasturage Reserve: Future Visions This exhibition showcases the work of Postgraduate Landscape Architecture and final year Undergraduate Civil and Environmental Engineering students in response to issues of sustainability in a coastal wetland known as the Bargara Pasturage Reserve; an exemplar of the many issues facing sensitive coastal places in Queensland today. The 312ha Pasturage Reserve at Bargara is the only biofilter between the pressures of Bargara’s urban and tourism expansion, surrounding sugarcane farming, and the Great Sandy Marine Park, including the largest concentration of nesting marine turtles on the eastern Australian mainland. This ephemeral wetland, while struggling to fulfil its coastal biofiltration function, is also in high demand for passive recreation, and the project partners’ priorities were to meet both of these challenges. The students were required to plan and design for the best balance possible amongst, but not limited to: wetland and coastal ecological health, enhancement of cultural heritage and values, sustainable urban development, and local economic health. To understand these challenges, QUT staff and students met with partners, visited and analysed the Pasturage Reserve, spent time in and around Bargara talking to locals and inviting dialogue with Indigenous representatives and the South Sea Islander community. We then went home to Brisbane to undertake theoretical and technical research, and then worked to produce 11 Strategic Plans, 2 Environmental Management Plans and 33 Detailed Designs. One group of students analysed the Bargara coastal landscape as an historical and ongoing series of conversations between ecological systems, cultural heritage, community and stakeholders. Another group identified the landscape as neither ‘urban,’ ‘rural,’ nor ‘natural,’ instead identifying it metaphorically as a series of layered thematic ‘fields’ such as water, conservation, reconciliation, and educational fields. These landscape analyses became the organising mechanisms for strategic planning. An outstanding Strategic Plan was produced by Zhang, Lemberg and Jensen, entitled Metanoia, which means to ‘make a change as the result of reflection on values’. Three implementation phases of “flow”, “flux”, and “flex” span twenty-five years, and present a vision a coastal and marine research and conservation hub, with a focus on coastal wetland function, turtle habitat and coral reef conservation. An Environmental Management Plan by Brand and Stickland focuses on protecting and improving wetland biodiversity and habitat quality, and increasing hydrological and water quality function; vital in a coastal area of such high conservation value. After the planning phase, students individually developed detailed design proposals responsive to their plans. From Metanoia, Zhang concentrated on wetland access and interpretation, proposing four focal places to form the nucleus of a wider pattern of connectivity, and to encourage community engagement with coastal environmental management and education. Jensen tackled the thorny issue of coastal urban development, proposing a sensitive staged eco-village model which maintains both ecological and recreational connectivity between the wetland and the marine environment. This project offered QUT’s partners many innovative options to inform their future planning. BSC, BMRG and Oceanwatch Australia are currently engaged in the investigation of on-ground opportunities drawing on these options.

Taxonomy and palaeoecology of Quaternary faunas from caves in eastern tropical Queensland : a record of broad-scale environmental change

Analysis of fossils from cave deposits at Mount Etna (eastern-central Queensland) has established that a species-rich rainforest palaeoenvironment existed in that area during the middle Pleistocene. This unexpected finding has implications for several fields (e.g., biogeography/phylogeography of rainforest-adapted taxa, and the impact of climate change on rainforest communities), but it was unknown whether the Mount Etna sites represented a small refugial patch of rainforest or was more widespread. In this study numerous bone deposits in caves in north-east Queensland are analysed to reconstruct the environmental history of the area during the late Quaternary. Study sites are in the Chillagoe/Mitchell Palmer and Broken River/Christmas Creek areas. The cave fossil records in these study areas are compared with dated (middle Pleistocene-Holocene) cave sites in the Mount Etna area. Substantial taxonomic work on the Mount Etna faunas (particularly dasyurid marsupials and murine rodents) is also presented as a prerequisite for meaningful comparison with the study sites further north. Middle Pleistocene sites at Mount Etna contain species indicative of a rainforest palaeoenvironment. Small mammal assemblages in the Mount Etna rainforest sites (>500-280 ka) are unexpectedly diverse and composed almost entirely of new species. Included in the rainforest assemblages are lineages with no extant representatives in rainforest (e.g., Leggadina), one genus previously known only from New Guinea (Abeomelomys), and forms that appear to bridge gaps between related but morphologically-divergent extant taxa ('B-rat' and 'Pseudomys C'). Curiously, some taxa (e.g., Melomys spp.) are notable for their absence from the Mount Etna rainforest sites. After 280 ka the rainforest faunas are replaced by species adapted to open, dry habitats. At that time the extinct ‘rainforest’ dasyurids and rodents are replaced by species that are either extant or recently extant. By the late Pleistocene all ‘rainforest’ and several ‘dry’ taxa are locally or completely extinct, and the small mammal fauna resembles that found in the area today. The faunal/environmental changes recorded in the Mount Etna sites were interpreted by previous workers as the result of shifts in climate during the Pleistocene. Many samples from caves in the Chillagoe/Mitchell-Palmer and Broken River/Christmas Creek areas are held in the Queensland Museum’s collection. These, supplemented with additional samples collected in the field as well as samples supplied by other workers, were systematically and palaeoecologically analysed for the first time. Palaeoecological interpretation of the faunal assemblages in the sites suggests that they encompass a similar array of palaeoenvironments as the Mount Etna sites. ‘Rainforest’ sites at the Broken River are here interpreted as being of similar age to those at Mount Etna, suggesting the possibility of extensive rainforest coverage in eastern tropical Queensland during part of the Pleistocene. Likewise, faunas suggesting open, dry palaeoenvironments are found at Chillagoe, the Broken River and Mount Etna, and may be of similar age. The 'dry' faunal assemblage at Mount Etna (Elephant hole Cave) dates to 205-170 ka. Dating of one of the Chillagoe sites (QML1067) produced a maximum age for the deposit of approximately 200 ka, and the site is interpreted as being close to that age, supporting the interpretation of roughly contemporaneous deposition at Mount Etna and Chillagoe. Finally, study sites interpreted as being of late Pleistocene-Holocene age show faunal similarities to sites of that age near Mount Etna. This study has several important implications for the biogeography and phylogeography of murine rodents, and represents a major advance in the study of the Australian murine fossil record. Likewise the survey of the northern study areas is the first systematic analysis of multiple sites in those areas, and is thus a major contribution to knowledge of tropical Australian faunas during the Quaternary. This analysis suggests that climatic changes during the Pleistocene affected a large area of eastern tropical Queensland in similar ways. Further fieldwork and dating is required to properly analyse the geographical extent and timing of faunal change in eastern tropical Queensland.

Introduction to the special issue

Creative productivity emerges from human interactions (Hartley, 2009, p. 214). In an era when life is lived in rather than with media (Deuze, this issue), this productivity is widely distributed among ephemeral social networks mediated through the internet. Understanding the underlying dynamics of these networks of human interaction is an exciting and challenging task that requires us to come up with new ways of thinking and theorizing. For example, inducting theory from case studies that are designed to show the exceptional dynamics present within single settings can be augmented today by largescale data generation and collections that provide new analytic opportunities to research the diversity and complexity of human interaction. Large-scale data generation and collection is occurring across a wide range of individuals and organisations. This offers a massive field of analysis which internet companies and research labs in particular are keen on exploring. Lazer et al (2009: 721) argue that such analytic potential is transformational for many if not most research fields but that the use of such valuable data must neither remain confined to private companies and government agencies nor to a privileged set of academic researchers whose studies cannot be replicated nor critiqued. In fact, the analytic capacity to have data of such unprecedented scope and scale available not only requires us to analyse what is and could be done with it and by whom (1) but also what it is doing to us, our cultures and societies (2). Part (1) of such analysis is interested in dependencies and their implications. Part (2) of the enquiry embeds part (1) in a larger context that analyses the long-term, complex dynamics of networked human interaction. From the latter perspective we can treat specific phenomena and the methods used to analyse them as moments of evolution.

Transnational organised environmental crime

Transnational environmental crime must become a government priority, as organised criminal networks continue to exploit the environment with unprecedented profits. Such earnings come at a substantial social, economic and environmental expense for communities and their livelihoods. Indeed, organised environmental crime is identified by the United Nations as a key factor in the impoverishment, displacement and violent conflicts affecting millions of people — notably in developing societies.2 It is widely recognised that organised environmental crime syndicates, motivated by substantial financial rewards, continue to flourish and expand in disadvantaged societies with porous borders, where corruption is widespread and regulation is poor. The theft of biodiversity and the demise of animal species and habitats have resulted not only in financial loss, but also in an increase in “environmental refugees” — people dislocated and forced to migrate due to loss of livelihoods.

Write vs. type : tangible and situated media for situated engagement

Digital media is often criticised for being intangible, transient and ephemeral. These characteristics limit the provision of long-lasting social experiences, as it is through the use of all our senses that we attach meaning to space, creating a sense of place. This paper presents a comparative study of the affordances of two design interventions, one tangible paper-based, called Print + Talk = Love (PTL), the other digital screen-based, called Discussions in Space (DIS). The emphasis is on a) how tangible media, such as paper, provides different and meaningful collective experiences, and b) how it can stand on its own as an interactive design intervention and as a comprehensive data-gathering tool in urban public places. By positioning PTL and DIS within the context of urban public places and testing their abilities to engage participants, we examine their particular situated engagement abilities through a mixed method approach. As a result, the digital aspects of DIS, e.g., using Twitter, extend the situated experience beyond the actual location of the intervention. Moreover, informing a hybrid approach, we also found that the physical aspects of PTL and its tangible presence, kept the user experience focused on the actual place and event surrounding the intervention.

Rethinking sustainable urban development: Towards an integrated planning and development process

A city is the most dramatic manifestation of human activities on the environment. This human dominated organism degrades natural habitats, simplifies species composition, disrupts hydrological systems, and modifies energy flow and nutrient cycling. Sustainable urban development is seen as a panacea to minimise these externalities caused by widespread human activities on the environment. The concept of sustainable urban development has been around over a considerably long-time as the need to adopt environmentally sustainable behaviours made the international community commit to it. However, to date such development has not been achieved in large scales anywhere around the globe. This review paper aims to look at the sustainable urban development concept from the lens of planning and development integration to generate new insights and directions. The paper reports the outcome of the review of the literature on planning and development approaches—i.e., urban planning, ecological planning, urban development, sustainable urban development—and proposes a new process to support the efforts for achieving sustainable urban development—i.e., integrated urban planning and development process. The findings of this review paper highlights that adopting such holistic planning and development process generate a potential to further support the progress towards achieving sustainability agendas of our cities.

Modelling after-the-fact leakage for key exchange

Security models for two-party authenticated key exchange (AKE) protocols have developed over time to prove the security of AKE protocols even when the adversary learns certain secret values. In this work, we address more granular leakage: partial leakage of long-term secrets of protocol principals, even after the session key is established. We introduce a generic key exchange security model, which can be instantiated allowing bounded or continuous leakage, even when the adversary learns certain ephemeral secrets or session keys. Our model is the strongest known partial-leakage-based security model for key exchange protocols. We propose a generic construction of a two-pass leakage-resilient key exchange protocol that is secure in the proposed model, by introducing a new concept: the leakage-resilient NAXOS trick. We identify a special property for public-key cryptosystems: pair generation indistinguishability, and show how to obtain the leakage-resilient NAXOS trick from a pair generation indistinguishable leakage-resilient public-key cryptosystem.

Benthic shift in a Solomon Islands' lagoon : corals to cyanobacteria

In June 2011 a large phytoplankton bloom resulted in a catastrophic mortality event that affected a large coastal embayment in the Solomon Islands. This consisted of an area in excess of 20 km2 of reef and soft sandy habitats in Marovo Lagoon, the largest double barrier lagoon in the world. This embayment is home to over 1200 people leading largely subsistence lifestyles depending on the impacted reefs for majority of their protein needs. A toxic diatom (Psuedo-nitzchia spp.) and toxic dinoflagellate (Pyrodinium bahamense var. compressum) reached concentrations of millions of cells per litre. The senescent phytoplankton bloom led to complete de-oxygenation of the water column that reportedly caused substantial mortality of marine animal life in the immediate area within a rapid timeframe (24 h). Groups affected included holothurians, crabs and reef and pelagic fish species. Dolphins, reptiles and birds were also found dead within the area, indicating algal toxin accumulation in the food chain. Deep reefs and sediments, whilst initially unaffected, have now been blanketed in large cyanobacterial mats which have negatively impacted live coral cover especially within the deep reef zone (> 6 m depth). Reef recovery within the deep zone has been extremely slow and may indicate an alternative state for the system.

Real-time image classification for adaptive mission planning using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Real-time image analysis and classification onboard robotic marine vehicles, such as AUVs, is a key step in the realisation of adaptive mission planning for large-scale habitat mapping in previously unexplored environments. This paper describes a novel technique to train, process, and classify images collected onboard an AUV used in relatively shallow waters with poor visibility and non-uniform lighting. The approach utilises Förstner feature detectors and Laws texture energy masks for image characterisation, and a bag of words approach for feature recognition. To improve classification performance we propose a usefulness gain to learn the importance of each histogram component for each class. Experimental results illustrate the performance of the system in characterisation of a variety of marine habitats and its ability to operate onboard an AUV's main processor suitable for real-time mission planning.

Landscape ecology of the lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha dominica

The Lesser Grain Borer is a major pest of stored grain with a global distribution. This project has, for the first time recorded this pest throughout broad spatial areas, tens of kilometres from grain production or storage. Statistical analysis revealed that different factors such as ambient temperature and the availability of food resources affect R. dominica differently between different habitats. This suggests that, contrary to the prevailing view, this pest is not solely dependent on stored wheat and can continue to persist throughout a range of habitats. These findings have important management implications for Australia's wheat industry.