21 Jul Comment on Australia’s State of the Environment Report
This week saw the release of the long-awaited State of the Environment report authored by Prof Emma Johnson AO, USYD’s new Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Dr Ian Creswell and Dr Terri Janke.
The report outlines the significant challenges ahead for managing the pressure of climate change on Australian ecosystems. It also highlights the need for better coordination in data management. Coordination and integration are crucial in making science-based decisions informed by data.
Although data collection is universally simple at present, making sense of collected data can be challenging. And DARE specialises in understanding data and quantifying its uncertainty. Uncertainty is a natural part of data and predictions. Clearly defined uncertainty can improve decisions by offering explicit comparisons. It can also help design more sophisticated monitoring systems and can help decide where to get our highest impact for our invested tax dollar.
Our HDR candidates are developing novel algorithms and solutions to assist industry and policymakers in developing strategies that make use of all data, certain and uncertain.