A research proposal I spent six months preparing has been given the green light! Here’s some of the detail…
Project summary:
Australia has a dry, extremely variable climate with just 100 years of high quality temperature and rainfall observations. This project will greatly extend our records of annual climate variations for south-eastern Australia using pioneering palaeoclimatic techniques.
It will quantify climate variability from Australian documentary records and early weather station data for AD 1788-1900, and annually-resolved palaeoclimate data from AD 1500. This will provide the first multi-proxy reconstructions of annual rainfall, temperature and pressure variations for south-eastern Australia.
This project will allow recent climate variations to be put into a longer-term context, providing an essential foundation for managing future climate change.
National benefit:
South-eastern Australia is in the grip of a severe water crisis due to the worst drought in recorded history and increasing temperatures.
This landmark project brings together a team of Australia’s leading climate scientists, water managers and historians with the common goal of reconstructing south-eastern Australia’s climate history.
Greatly extended record of annual rainfall and temperature variability will allow better planning for water storage and use, and improved testing of climate model simulations.
Improving our understanding of the historical impacts of climate extremes on society will assist with planning for life in a hotter and drier future.
Partner organisations:
1. Australian Bureau of Meteorology
2. Met Office Hadley Centre (UK)
3. Murray–Darling Basin Authority
4. VIC Department of Sustainability and Environment
5. Melbourne Water
6. National & State Libraries Australasia
7. National Library of Australia
8. State Library of Victoria
9. State Library of New South Wales
10. Powerhouse Museum
The project, funded by the Australian Research Council’s Linkage scheme, is worth a total of $950K and will run from mid-2009 to mid-2012.
It gives me a job for three years and money to bring a PhD student, research assistant and part time project manager on board.
More importantly, it will go a long way in strengthening the much needed ties between the sciences and humanities scrambling to understand climate change.
