Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
objectives and therefore be designed for restoring ecosystem function:
hydrology, nutrient cycling, maintenance of habitat, and movement of biota.
These will need to be configured with the aid of emerging knowledge of:
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salt storage, groundwater and surface water flows, river form and
function
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biodiversity, including ecosystem function
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biogeochemical process and water quality, and
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carbon sequestration.
There are serious deficiencies in our scientific understanding of the
ecology of rehabilitation processes in Australian ecosystems and landscapes.
We do not know how to reconstruct them. The first step in our search for an
ecologically sustainable agriculture requires that we address agricultural
production as an agro-ecosystem that is part of larger-scale ecosystems and
landscape processes. Knowledge of how best to revegetate land and imple-
ment land uses that are ecologically sustainable and can support viable rural
communities is critical to any regional development plan. At present, we risk
creating new problems while attempting to solve current ones.
In addition to new scientific knowledge and strong economic drivers,
solutions to environmental and natural resource issues require institutional,
structural and social change. People from all sectors of the community must
be involved with scientists from the earliest stages of a program and through
each of its phases: planning, research implementation, monitoring and eval-
uation. Scientific and technological innovation both on farms and in labora-
tories will play a fundamental and increasing role in the development of
sustainable farming. Such innovation requires a paradigm shift by research
institutions, rural communities, funding agencies and governments.
Thus the development of farming systems that do not harm the environ-
ment involves:
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rationalisation of resources
•
a refocus on farming system research within an ecological framework
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adoption of participatory methods of on-farm research, and
•
cooperation between universities, CSIRO and state agencies in
research and development that underpins the development of
ecologically sustainable agriculture.
