An Exploration of Flood Risk Management and the Potential of Integrating Lay and Indigenous Knowledge

This project will explore and critique the history of flood risk management across Australia, flood risk management elsewhere and the transferability of these strategies to Australia, with the integration of indigenous knowledge. The project will offer original and impactful data to be used in the understanding and development of effective flood risk management strategies.

These developments will aid in the resilience and involvement of indigenous communities vulnerable to flood risk, while providing valuable information on effective, and transferable management techniques to environmental management agencies in Australia and elsewhere.

Globally, the value of traditional environmental knowledges (TEK, incorporating local, lay or indigenous perspectives) for improved environmental management is increasingly recognised, particularly where indigenous rights to, and relations with, the environment are being restored as part of moves towards decolonising and racial justice. For example, New Zealand's Whanganui River has been given legal status (personhood) with Maori representation, while Ecuador's Constitution has enshrined nature rights.

Elsewhere, TEK do not feature greatly in environmental law or management structures despite frequent campaigns by lay/indigenous groups against environmental degradation (e.g. protests regarding Patagonian mining proposals).