Stephen Dovers – författare

The phenomenon of fire in the Australian landscape traverses many interests and disciplines. At a national level, there is an urgent need for the integration of both the natural and social sciences in the formulation of public policy.

With contributions from 30 leading experts, Australia Burning draws together these issues, under the themes:

The book examines some of the key questions that relate to the ecology, prediction and management of fire, urban planning, law, insurance, and community issues, including indigenous and non-indigenous concerns. It looks at what we need to know to inform public policy, given the present risks and uncertainty, and explores the avenues for closer integration between science, policy and the community.

In Ten Commitments: Reshaping the Lucky Country’s Environment, leading environmental thinkers in Australia have written provocative chapters on environmental issues facing the nation. Each chapter includes 10 key issues that must be urgently addressed to improve Australia’s environment.

The book is organised by ecosystem, by sector and by cross-cutting themes. Topics include: deserts, rangelands, woodlands, tropical savannas, urban settlements, forestry, tropical and temperate marine ecosystems, tropical rainforest, alpine and aquatic ecosystems, coasts, fisheries, agriculture, mining, grazing, tourism, climate change, earth systems, water, biodiversity, policy and institutional reforms, the private sector, human population, health, fire, emergency management, Indigenous land management and energy.

With over 40 experts weighing in on Australia’s most pressing issues, this is a must-read for anyone interested in the environment.

Australian water policy and management are undergoing rapid and immense change in response to drought, technological advances, climate change and demographic and economic shifts. The National Water Initiative and the 2007 Australian Government water policy statements propose a fundamental shift in how Australians will use and manage water in the future.

The implementation of the national water policy presents many challenges – the creation of water rights and markets, comprehensive water planning, new legislative settings, community participation in water management, linking urban and rural water management, and more. Managing Water for Australia brings together leading social sciences researchers and practitioners to identify the major challenges in achieving sustainable water management, to consolidate current knowledge, and to explore knowledge gaps in and opportunities for furthering water reform.

Disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, lost livelihoods and damaged assets and businesses. Yet these consequences and the financial and human crises that follow catastrophes can often be traced to policies unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront, and the lack of institutional capacity to implement planning and prevention or to manage disasters. This book seeks to overcome this mismatch and to guide development of a more strategic policy and institutional framework.

This updated and revised second edition includes new coverage of climate change adaptation, which has rapidly become central to disaster and emergency planning and management. This is an essential handbook for practitioners across the world seeking to improve the quality, robustness and capacity of their disaster management mechanisms.

Disasters both natural and human-induced are leading to spiralling costs in terms of human lives, lost livelihoods and damaged assets and businesses. Yet these consequences and the financial and human crises that follow catastrophes can often be traced to policies unsuited to the emerging scales of the problems they confront, and the lack of institutional capacity to implement planning and prevention or to manage disasters. This book seeks to overcome this mismatch and to guide development of a more strategic policy and institutional framework.

This updated and revised second edition includes new coverage of climate change adaptation, which has rapidly become central to disaster and emergency planning and management. This is an essential handbook for practitioners across the world seeking to improve the quality, robustness and capacity of their disaster management mechanisms.

What are the 10 key issues that must be addressed urgently to improve Australia''s environment? In this follow up to the highly successful book Ten Commitments: Reshaping the Lucky Country''s Environment, Australia’s leading environmental thinkers have written provocative chapters on what must be done to tackle Australia''s environmental problems – in terms of policies, on-ground actions and research. Each chapter begins with a brief overview of the 10 key tasks that need to be addressed in a given field, and then each issue is discussed in more detail.

Chapters are grouped into ecosystems, sectors and cross-cutting themes. Topics include: deserts, rangelands, temperate eucalypt woodlands, tropical savanna landscapes, urban settlements, forestry management , tropical and temperate marine ecosystems, tropical rainforests, alpine ecosystems, freshwater ecosystems, coasts, islands, soils, fisheries, agriculture, mining, grazing, tourism, industry and manufacturing, protected areas, Indigenous land and sea management, climate change, water, biodiversity, population, human health, fire, energy and more.

Ten Commitments Revisited is a must read for politicians, policy makers, decision makers, practitioners and others with an interest in Australia’s environment.

Environmental management involves making decisions about the governance of natural resources such as water, minerals or land, which are inherently decisions about what is just or fair. Yet, there is little emphasis on justice in environmental management research or practical guidance on how to achieve fairness and equity in environmental governance and public policy. This results in social dilemmas that are significant issues for government, business and community agendas, causing conflict between different community interests.

Natural Resources and Environmental Justice provides the first comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of justice research in Australian environmental management, identifying best practice and current knowledge gaps. With chapters written by experts in environmental and social sciences, law and economics, this book covers topical issues, including coal seam gas, desalination plants, community relations in mining, forestry negotiations, sea-level rise and animal rights. It also proposes a social justice framework and an agenda for future justice research in environmental management.

These important environmental issues are covered from an Australian perspective and the book will be of broad use to policy makers, researchers and managers in natural resource management and governance, environmental law, social impact and related fields both in Australia and abroad.