Modelling the benefits of habitat restoration in socio-ecological systems

Decisions affecting the management of natural resources in agricultural landscapes are influenced by both social and ecological factors. Models that integrate these factors are likely to better predict the outcomes of natural resource management decisions compared to those that do not take these factors into account. We demonstrate how Bayesian Networks can be used to integrate ecological and social data and expert opinion to model the cost-effectiveness of revegetation activities for restoring biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. We demonstrate our approach with a case-study in grassy woodlands of south-eastern Australia. In our case-study, cost-effectiveness is defined as the improvement in native reptile and beetle species richness achieved per dollar spent on a restoration action. Socio-ecological models predict that weed control, the planting of trees and shrubs, the addition of litter and timber, and the addition of rocks are likely to be the most cost-effective actions for improving reptile and beetle species richness. The cost-effectiveness of restoration actions is lower in remnant and revegetated areas than in cleared areas because of the higher marginal benefits arising from acting in degraded habitats. This result is contingent on having favourable landowner attitudes. Under the best-case landowner demographic scenarios the greatest biodiversity benefits are seen when cleared areas are restored. We find that current restoration investment practices may not be increasing faunal species richness in agricultural landscapes in the most cost-effective way, and that new restoration actions may be necessary. Integrated socio-ecological models support transparent and cost-effective conservation investment decisions. Application of these models highlights the importance of collecting both social and ecological data when attempting to understand and manage socio-ecological systems.

Aid, growth, policies and fragility

The impact of aid on per capita income growth has been a particularly controversial topic among researchers and policy-makers alike. Most studies agree that growth would be lower in the absence of aid. This is evident from comprehensive literature surveys of aid and growth studies, including Hansen and Tarp (2000), Morrissey (2001), McGillivray et al. (2006), Mekasha and Tarp (2011) and Clemens et al. (2012). There is no such agreement in this literature regarding what might be described as the contingencies on which the impact of aid on growth is partially dependent. Debate over this topic is intensive and a failure to reach agreement over it is arguably the principal failing of the aid–growth literature owing to the potential guidance such agreement could provide for the selection of interventions aimed at improving aid effectiveness. Debate on aid–growth contingencies commenced after publication of the pioneering econometric investigation of Burnside and Dollar (1997, 2000). Burnside and Dollar multiplicatively interacted aid with a measure of policy, and found that aid only had a positive impact on growth in developing countries with good fiscal, monetary, and trade policies. Subsequent studies have sought to test the robustness of the Burnside and Dollar result, test for the relevance of different contingencies, or both. No study has been able to replicate the Burnside and Dollar result, and as such there is widespread concern in the research community over its robustness.

User centric design, data analysis and performance of snowboard bindings

This study focuses on soft boot snowboard bindings by looking at how users interact with their binding and proposes a possible solution to overcome such issues. Snowboarding is a multibillion-dollar sport that has only reached mainstream in the last 30 years its levels of progression in technology have evolved in that time. However, snowboard bindings for the most part still consist of the same basic architecture in the last 20 years. This study was aimed at taking a user centric point of view and using additive manufacturing technologies to be able to generate a new snowboard binding that is completely adaptable to the user. The initial part of the study was a survey of 280 snowboarders focussing on preferences, style and habits. This survey was generated from over 15 nations with the vast majority of boarders on the snow for five to fifty days a year. Significant emphasis was placed on the relationship between boarder binding set-up and occurrence of pain and/or injury. From the detailed survey it was found that boarder's experienced pain in the front foot/toe area as a result from the toe strap being too tight. However boarders wanted tighter bindings to increase responsiveness. Survey data was compared to ankle and foot biomechanics to build a relationship to assess the problem of pain versus responsiveness. The design stage of the study was to develop a binding that overcame the over-tightening of the binding but still maintain equivalent or better responsiveness compared to traditional bindings. The resulting design integrated the snowboard boot much more into the design, by using the sole as a "semi-rigid" platform and locking it in laterally between the heel cup and the new toe strap arrangement. The new design developed using additive manufacturing techniques was tested via qualitative and quantitative measures in the snow and in the lab. It was found that using the new arrangement in a system resulted in no loss of performance or responsiveness to the user. Due to the design and manufacturing approach users have the ability to customise the design to their specific needs.

The Power of words: Central bank communication and currency markets.

This thesis investigates the effect of central banks communication on exchange rates. It is found that Bank of Canada speeches had a dampening effect on the Canadian dollar exchange rate while Reserve Bank of Australia speeches did not have an impact on the Australian dollar exchange rate.