HIGH FLYERS THINK TANK
Supported by:
Extreme Natural Hazards
University of Melbourne, Tuesday 30 October 2007
GROUP D: Biological research on resources and infrastructure
Rapporteur: Ms Colette Thomas
Colette Thomas completed an MSc in ecotoxicology and was a scientific consultant before starting her PhD. Her PhD developed a Bayesian belief network for use as a decision support tool for quantitative ecological risk assessment. A tropical seagrass case study based in the Great Barrier Reef provided context for the research. The project provided a prototype tool for investigating system scenarios and responses to alternative management actions to guide and prioritise future monitoring and management decisions. She will be starting in a new position at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems (Davies Laboratory) soon.
Colette’s research uses a probabilistic technique to create a risk assessment framework that can explicitly represent the connectivities and uncertainties of the system of interest. Such frameworks allow major influences and threshold states as well as consequences of interventions to be investigated. Her research uses scenario analysis to identify conditions that promote or impede system health, and assess the consequences of interventions upon the system. Ideally Colette’s research will help develop appropriate prevention, preparation and response strategies for potentially catastrophic events, and improve system recovery for events that cannot be avoided.
