CAPITAL AND
ENVIRONMENT
Natural Capital and Environment
CeRDI undertakes research that enables the development of innovative digital infrastructure to help organisations better understand, measure, report on and manage their interactions with nature.
Our work spans environmental monitoring, applied ecology, natural capital accounting, sustainability reporting, nature-related risk assessment and natural resource management decision support. We combine expertise in environmental and ecological science, accounting, spatial analysis and digital innovation to transform complex environmental data into decision-ready information.
We work with government agencies, industry, investors, environmental organisations and communities to develop the data infrastructure, analytical tools and reporting systems needed to support more effective environmental stewardship at multiple scales.
Food Agility CRC
The Food Agility CRC is an innovation hub creating new digital technologies and services to help the Australian agrifood industry grow its comparative advantage.
Soil CRC
The Soil CRC is bridging the gap between soil science and farm management to assist Australian farmers in making decisions on complex soil management issues.
Australian Dataspaces: From Exemplars to an Enduring National Capability
Enabling data owners to retain control of their data while providing trusted, governed access for others to accelerate research, innovation and evidence-based decision making across the country.
Bogong Moth Tracker
CeRDI is collaborating with Zoos Victoria on an important, multi-year project: a citizen science application to support research and conservation efforts to aid the Mountain Pygmy-possum. The Bogong Moth Tracker web application is used to track observations of Bogong moths which are an essential food source for the possums.
Ecology and migration studies of Latham's Snipe
The Latham's Snipe project was initiated to better understand the ecology and habitat use of Latham's snipe (Gallinago hardwickii), a threatened shorebird species that breeds in Japan and Russia, and migrates to Australia for its non-breeding season (August and March).
Growing Southern Gippsland
Growing Southern Gippsland has been designed to encourage southern Gippsland landholders to identify and target their own climate change knowledge gap needs as they journey through the portal.
Improving water security for farms and lakes in the northern Lake Corangamite area
Research is being undertaken to improve farm water security and farm resilience in response to climate change in the Lake Corangamite area.
LitterWatch
LitterWatch Victoria is a publicly accessible web portal to manage and view litter monitoring datasets contributed by community group and agencies. It collates public, statewide datasets of litter in Victoria that can be easily visualised and used for reporting, planning, policy making and engagement.
National Waterbug Blitz
The National Waterbug Blitz is Australia’s first nationwide citizen science, waterway monitoring event. Citizen scientists will uncover clues for assessing the health of their local waterways and wetlands by exploring and identifying the waterbugs that live in them.
Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue Data Visualisation Platform
CeRDI collaborated with Climateworks Centre to develop the Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue (NCMC) Data Visualisation Platform, an online platform that integrates environmental data from multiple public sources into a single, user-friendly environment.
Natural Resource Management Portal
The Corangamite Natural Resource Management Portal (NRM Portal) is an innovative approach to collaborative, integrated catchment management by providing the tools and information for communities and agencies to identify joint priorities for catchment management. The NRM Portal enables information, knowledge and environmental datasets to be shared, allowing participants to exchange insights about land management in a collaborative online environment.
Rangelands Carbon
The Rangelands Carbon project is developing a remote sensing tool to accurately and affordably measure soil carbon in Australian rangelands.
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River Detectives
River Detectives is a program being offered in some regions across Victoria to support educators to explore local waterways and catchments with students. River Detectives includes hands on activities and supporting resources. CeRDI has recently completed an upgrade to the River Detectives website to integration with the Waterwatch database and interactive maps.
Soil Health Knowledge Base
The Soil Health Knowledge Base is a repository of soil health information for the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority (CCMA) and the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority (GHCMA). It assists land managers and other stakeholders to implement catchment management plans across the region. The Knowledge Base was awarded the 2015 Victorian Spatial Excellence Award and the 2015 Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Award, Environment and Sustainability category.
Southern Right Whale photo identification project
CeRDI has worked with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) and the Arthur Rylah Institute to develop a new citizen science web portal for the State Wide Integrated Flora and Fauna Teams (SWIFFT) website. The portal has been created to support the Southern Right Whale research and photo identification program being undertaken by DEECA in Victoria.
State Wide Integrated Flora and Fauna Teams (SWIFFT)
The State Wide Integrated Flora and Fauna Teams (SWIFFT) is an initiative to advance citizen science by facilitating awareness and the sharing of knowledge in relation to biodiversity conservation and threatened species for Victoria.
Streamlining Sustainability Reporting for Land Managers
CeRDI is leading the Food Agility CRC project Streamlining Sustainability Reporting for Land Managers, in collaboration with the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority, Precision Agriculture Pty Ltd and Southern Farming Systems.
Valuing Urban Wetlands
Urban wetlands are important biodiversity refuges. They contribute to healthy "green spaces" in cities, as well providing habitat for flora and fauna, maintaining water quality, and helping with flood regulation.
Visualising Victoria's Biodiversity
Visualising Victoria's Biodiversity (VVB) is an online portal that provides the Victorian community with access to a wide range of spatial information on Victoria's environmental values, conservation activities and research. The portal federates and visualises environmental data from national, state, regional and local sources in an interactive spatial interface. It also offers the opportunity for the community to contribute information and exchange locally relevant data and knowledge. VVB is a partner site to the SWIFFT (State-wide Integrated Flora and Fauna Teams) initiative.
Visualising Victoria's Groundwater
Visualising Victoria’s Groundwater (VVG) is an innovative technology offering a real-time, centralised site for Victoria’s ground water information, a resource normally invisible to the public. VVG consolidates data from over 400,000 bores from four authoritative sources together with Victorian aquifer information with features that include spatial visualisations, hydrogeological models and historical records and maps. In 2018, an updated and modernised VVG portal was launched offering extensive new functionality and content.
Waterwatch and EstuaryWatch
Recently redeveloped by CeRDI, the Waterwatch and EstuaryWatch portals are companion sites supporting two significant citizen science programs that monitor the health of Victorian waterways and estuaries. The portals provide essential resources for all members to access current information and data, as well as providing the public full access to data and knowledge generated by the programs.
An evaluation of proponent environmental data under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act
This collaborative project between CSIRO Land and Water, CeRDI and ThinkPlace aimed to explore proponent data generation as part of the referral process under the Commonwealth EPBC Act 1999. The primary goal was to determine the value and nature of environmental impact assessment (EIA) data and their potential for reuse in other areas of government decision making.
Aquatic Ecology Hub
CeRDI is working with The Victorian Government Aquatic Ecology Hub to develop a website and a database of aquatic research and monitoring projects in order to enhance access to, and sharing of, key information and projects.
Beach Usage Research
CeRDI has been commissioned by the Barwon Coast Committee of Management to undertake research to understand and inform a range of complex coastal usage and environmental management issues being experienced across the Barwon coast. The research will provide an evidence base about the social, seasonal and culture issues that influence how different community groups use and identify with the coastal environment throughout the year.
Wildlife Survey Open Data Collections
The project, funded by the Australian National Data Service (ANDS), provides open access to research data from two Federation University wildlife surveys: An avian study undertaken in the Boola Boola Forest area of Gippsland in south-eastern Australia; and a systematic study of birdlife in the Lower Jinsha Valley in western China.
Elissa Ashton-Smith
Elissa commenced her PhD with CeRDI in February 2019. Prior to this, she was working in the Natural Resource Management sector as a Landcare Facilitator. Elissa’s PhD explores the impacts on coastal communities and ecosystems from increased urbanisation, population change and seasonal variation. The research builds upon work that CeRDI completed for Barwon Coast investigating the attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours of the general community in relation to coastal management and beach use around Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove.
The conservation and management of sandy beach ecosystems: exploring the divergence between policy, science and socio-cultural expectations for stewardship and use
In order to address the rate and severity of deterioration in ecosystem health and biodiversity, transformative change is needed across economic, social, political and technological domains.
Hannah Faraone
Hannah commenced her PhD with CeRDI in 2024 in collaboration with RMIT University and the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action (DEECA). Her research will explore the relationship between anthropogenic litter and birdlife in the Greater Melbourne region. This will include field and desktop investigations into the types of interactions that occur (i.e., ingestion, entanglement, use as nesting and breeding material), as well as the related impacts (i.e., mortality, injury, breeding success). This PhD draws on previous work completed by CeRDI and DEECA, including the creation of the database, LitterWatch (a state-government initiative used to collect litter data from Victorian community groups that is consistent and comparable). The PhD will also include a 3-month internship with DEECA that will involve supporting the management and maintenance of the LitterWatch portal.
Hannah completed a Bachelor of Science and Honours degree with RMIT University in 2022 and a Graduate Certificate in Environment with the University of Melbourne in 2023.
Year PhD commenced: 2024
The impact of macrolitter on birdlife in the Port Phillip Region and Greater Melbourne
Supervisors: Primary Supervisor is Assoc Prof Birgita Hansen. Secondary Supervisors are Dr. Nick Schultz (Federation University) and Dr. Jackie Myers (RMIT).Industry Supervisor is Kimberley MacDonald (DEECA).
Saundra LeClair
Saundra, a Master’s by Research candidate, is a conservation professional with over a decade of experience working in bird ecology, citizen science, and habitat management across Canada and Australia. Saundra’s academic journey began with a Diploma in Wildlife Conservation Technology in Canada, followed by a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Natural Resources, where she completed an honours project on biodiversity mapping and land acquisition priorities. These studies laid the foundation for Saundra’s dedication to integrating scientific research with on-ground conservation action.
Year MSc commenced: 2025
Resources
Visualising Victoria's Groundwater (10:36)
An interoperative web-GIS that federates groundwater data from disparate sources to assist groundwater researchers and help water managers make the correct choices for the sustainable use of a precious resource. www.vvg.org.au.
Natural Resource Management Portal (6:55)
The Natural Resource Management Portal pilot project is testing how online mapping can be used to match local and regional priorities for catchment management in the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority region. www.ccmaknowledgebase.vic.gov.au/nrmpp.
Tracking the Migration of Latham's Snipe (8:56)
Hokkaido Television Broadcasting have produced a short YouTube documentary on their visit to Canberra in January 2017.
Tracking moths and lights off – involving community in conservation - Darcie Carruthers - Zoos Vic (3:00)
SNIPE - The Latham's Snipe Project (24:21)
This is the story of a bird that breeds in Japan and Eastern Russia, and then flies to Australia each year. After spending summer in Australia, it goes back to the Northern Hemisphere and does it all again!
Podcast - Weekend Birder (26 minutes)
https://www.weekendbirder.com/episodes/79-lathams-snipe-with-birgita 
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