Inland waterways play crucial roles for humankind by supporting many environmental, societal, cultural and economic values, but their management in Australia, and globally, is facing ever-increasing challenges. For example, the effects of climate change, growing footprint of communities and industries, spread of invasive species, intensification of land use, increased water extraction, threats from emerging containments (i.e. new chemicals), etc. are putting waterways under considerable stress. Therefore, unsurprisingly, declines in the health of inland waterways are the norm, and considerable effort is being directed towards their management and restoration.
To maintain healthy waterways in developed landscapes it is imperative to: (1) monitor their condition based on their recognised values, (2) disentangle the effects of multiple stressors, and (3) employ suitable adaptive management frameworks. Furthermore, while western science has unravelled many of the biophysical aspects that underpin the form and function of inland waterways, (4) drawing on the Traditional Knowledge of First Nations people – which has been gained via deep connections to places over numerous generations – can greatly enhance our collective understanding of waterways.
Recently, I explored these themes as a part of a Churchill Fellowship during which I undertook an intensive eight-week study tour across Aotearoa New Zealand, the United States of America (eastern USA, Pacific Northwest). Overall, I visited and/or met with >125 people from >40 organisations, attended two conferences and undertook 105+ meetings (and other various engagement activities). The four regions I visited allowed me to gain cross-continental perspectives on these themes across gradients of governance, politics, water scarcity, organisational structures and resources, scales and levels of environmental degradation. In this presentation, I’ll share some of my key learnings that relate to waterway science and management in Lutruwita/Tasmania and Australia more broadly.