Confronting freshwater security challenges and pathways to resilience.

Aug 12, 2021




Presented by Quentin Grafton

It is critical that we understand the contribution of climate change to water insecurity and yet there are still many challenges to measuring these impacts. How can we plan for freshwater resilience in New Zealand and safeguard our most precious resource?

In this seminar Quentin Grafton will speak on operationalising resilience in response to water insecurity. He will highlight key concepts of socio-ecological resilience and how they can be applied in the context of hydrological drought in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia.

Thursday 12th August @ 12.30- 2pm
Adam Auditorium, City Gallery - Te Whare Toi, Te Ngākau Civic Square, Wellington 
Presenter: Quentin Grafton
Panelists: Julia Talbot-Jones, Christian Zammit, Suzie Greenhalgh
Register for the event (and to receive a recording post event) here.

Presenter:
Quentin Grafton is Professor of Economics and Chairholder UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance at the Australian National University (ANU) and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University. He is an Australian Laureate Fellow, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a former President (2017-18) of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AARES) and a Distinguished Fellow of AARES. He previously served as Chief Economist and Foundation Executive Director of the Australian Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (2011-2013). He is currently the Convenor of the Water Justice Hub, the Editor in Chief of the Global Water Forum  and Policy Forum, and is the Director of the Food, Energy, Environment and Water (FE2W) Network.


The Panel:

Julia Talbot-Jones's work bridges economics, ecology, and resource management. She has an interest in how social arrangements or structures (institutions) solve environmental and natural resource problems. A former NZ-US Fulbright scholar, Julia leads the freshwater programme at Motu Research and is a lecturer at VUW.
Christian Zammit is a hydrologist at NIWA. His research interests include developing improved methods for making hydrological predictions in gauged and ungauged catchments under current and future climate conditions. He currently leads the development of a cross CRI initiative “New Zealand Water Modelling framework (NZWaM)” that aims to generate accurate ensemble hydrological simulations across New Zealand landscape and climate.
Suzie Greenhalgh is a resource economist and Portfolio Leader at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research. Much of her research has focused on environmental policy, economic instruments, and participatory/collaborative approaches to address environmental issues such as climate change, freshwater degradation, and biodiversity loss.

 
The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion and an opportunity for audience Q & A. 

Motu Public Policy Seminars are free to the public, but please subscribe to receive email notifications of Motu's events and publications.

Thanks to The Treasury, the Productivity Commission, Stats NZ and EECA for their generous support.

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