The Launching a Blue Economy project has placed UOW and Global Challenges at the forefront of global research in the field of Blue Economies. This project’s aims are to use innovative, integrated and cross-sectoral research to promote a sustainable development model to maximise the social, environmental, and economic benefits derived from the oceans. The Global Challenges Blue Economy research agenda has been growing since 2016 from an initial seed grant. This has since resulted in a number of additional research projects. Three ‘sub-projects’ currently fall under the Blue Economy umbrella.
Launching a Blue Economy
Laying the foundations for a southern NSW Blue Economy
This is the largest of the active Blue Economy projects being undertaken in UOW. Now in the second stage of the study, the project is designed to put previously identified strategies into practice by working with more organisations and assessing what blue economy base exists in the region, what areas the region are excelling in, what the challenges are, where opportunities exists, and where the region has a competitive advantage.
This project aims to ‘take stock’ of the existing state of play in relation to Blue Economy opportunities focusing on five key areas: ocean accounts, spatial mapping, social and cultural values, the governing system and innovation. This project is listed as a pilot project for a United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), in their exploration of ocean accounting methodologies.
By exploring the concept of blue economies and creating an optimised example here on the South Coast of NSW the Global Challenges research aims to change the way the world uses its oceans to improve the lives of those dependent on it.
On World Oceans Day of 2019 the team launched an interactive online story mapping tool to engage communitiesand encourage them to have their say on what will make a sustainable and successful Blue Economy.
Media
- Making The Blue Economy A Sustainable Reality, Forbes, 21 June 2019
- Oceans a part of economy under new 'blue' project, Illawarra Mercury, 9 June 2019
- South Coast communities invited to road test the ‘blue economy', UOW Media, 6 June 2019
The team
Principal Investigator: Dr Michelle Voyer
Ocean accounts
- Dr Shanaka Herath
- A/Prof Charles Harvie
- Prof Alistair McIlgorm
Spactial mapping
Social and cultural values
- Dr Susan Ballard
- Dr Chris Brennan-Horley
- Vincent Bicego
- Jen Saunders
- A/Prof Michael Adams
Governing system
- Genevieve Quirk
- Prof Robin Warner
- Richard Kenchington
- Mary Kaidonis
Innovation
- A/Prof Faisal Hai
- Lana Kajlich
- Dr Hugh Forehead
- Astrid Vachette
- Prof Pascal Perez
Sun, sand, sea and sustainability (S4): developing a sustainable tourist community classification methodology
In partnership with Shoalhaven City Council, this project is specifically focused on addressing the challenges of strategic planning in relation to sustainable marine tourism. The aim of this research project is:
- To develop a methodology which classifies communities according to a range of characteristics which will constrain or enhance sustainability objectives, such as population size, visitation levels and infrastructure availability.
- To assess the vulnerability of destinations to pressures which will impact the sustainability of these communities, and their associated tourism growth.
This system of classification will be trialled in the Shoalhaven City Council (SCC) area, and will ultimately assist SCC to tailor tourism planning, marketing and service provision to meet the needs of different ‘types’ of coastal communities.
The team
- Dr Emma Heffernan (team leader)
- A/Prof Faisal Hai
- Dr Fariba Ramezani
- Dr Michelle Voyer
- Dr Troy Heffernan
- Prof Richard Kenchington
- Dr Greg Kerr
- Dr Anna Lewis
Transmedia narratives: the southern NSW blue economy
This project is exploring narratives and visual representations of a Blue Economy’. It aims to use transmedia mapping to:
- draw connections between human engagements with the south coast and the stories, systems, and practices that shape human‐(ocean) relations locally.
- seek a nuanced understanding of the ways cultural expression such as art and writing not only represents the ocean, but also creates community, defines public and private space, and helps shape the rhetoric and decision making involving the ocean’s stewardship.
- contextualize scientific and policy analysis by including the historical, humanistic, social, emotional, and cultural dimensions that inflect and affect them.
The team
- Susan Ballard (team leader)
- Vincent Bicego
- Jen Saunders
- Dr Sarah Hamlyton
- A/Prof Michael Adams
- Jade Kennedy
- Dr Lucas Ihlein
- Dr Chris Brennan-Horley
- Michelle Voyer
