Pressure on storing water for food production is growing and already there are around 1.8 million dams in Australia, including more than 650,000 in the Murray-Darling basin. Despite their prevalence and importance, there is a lot we don’t understand about farm dams. Dams can create a risk for communities and environments, through exacerbating drought and flood conditions downstream. The higher underwriting risk has now become untenable for the insurance industry which has called for attention to the correlation between business risk and the increased risk of flood and drought under a changing climate that is impacting water storage assets. This research will explore how to develop an integrated dam risk accounting tool that can guide equitable and safe dam management decision-making at the farmer level, whilst also supporting policymakers with improved insight into runoff stored in farm dams for food systems around the world.
- Student type: International, Domestic
- Research degree type: Master of Philosophy, PhD, Master of Research
- Signature research theme: Food, Agriculture and Wine
- Supervisor: Associate Professor Joanne Tingey-Holyoak
