Research stories
Discover how our research creates social, economic and environmental impact and deliver real-world solutions to address complex environmental challenges.
Transforming the land through local empowerment: the story of smallholder irrigation schemes in Africa
For four years, ANU and country partners conducted irrigation research in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
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In the first major study of its kind, we travelled to where renewable energy is expanding in NSW to ask communities how they feel about the changes. While their outlook was generally positive, governments can do more to ensure community support for the transition.
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The Mekong River is the lifeblood of countries in the Mekong region, but the past few years have seen water flows recurringly decline and processes of saltwater intrusion accelerating in the Vietnamese Mekong delta. These transboundary hydrological challenges have detrimental effects on millions of people.
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This week’s report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns global warming is headed for dangerous levels unless greenhouse gas emissions halve this decade. This cannot be achieved without a huge effort from China, the world’s biggest emitter.
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As coal-fired climate change makes bushfires in Australia worse, governments are ramping up hazard-reduction burning. But our new research shows the practice can actually make forests more flammable.
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Geoengineering could pose grave dangers, potentially worse than the warming it seeks to remedy. To understand the risks, we’ve undertaken a risk assessment of this controversial technology.
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In a study published Feb. 7, 2022, a team of climate scientists mapped out where vegetation is creating the highest fire risks across the western U.S. They were surprised to discover that the fastest rate of population growth by far has been in the areas with the highest fire risk.
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Less than 80 years ago, regent honeyeaters ruled Australia’s flowering gum forests, with huge raucous flocks roaming from Adelaide to Rockhampton. Now, there are less than 300 birds left in the wild. Habitat loss has pushed the survivors into little pockets across their once vast range.
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As climate change worsens, bushfires are likely to become more intense and frequent. We must find new ways of managing bushfires to prevent catastrophic events - satellite data can help in this task.
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With the eyes of the world on COP26, researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) say the broader environmental and social implications of extreme emission reduction schemes need to be taken into account.