/ The demand for water to support irrigated agriculture has led to the demise of wetlands and their associated wildlife for decades. This thirst for water is so pervasive that many wetlands considered to be hemispheric reserves for waterbirds have been heavily affected; for example, the California and Nevada wetlands in North America, the Macquarie Marshes in Australia, and the Aral Sea in central Asia. These and other major wetlands have lost most of their historic supplies of water and some have also experienced serious impacts from contaminated subsurface irrigation drainage. Now mere shadows of what they once were in terms of biodiversity and wildlife production, many of the so-called "wetlands of international importance" are no longer the key conservation strongholds they were in the past. The conflict between irrigated agriculture and wildlife conservation has reached a critical point on a global scale. Not only has local wildlife suffered, including the extinction of highly insular species, but a ripple effect has impacted migratory birds worldwide. Human societies reliant on wetlands for their livelihoods are also bearing the cost. Ironically, most of the degradation of these key wetlands occurred during a period of time when public environmental awareness and scientific assertion of the need for wildlife conservation was at an all-time high. However, designation of certain wetlands as "reserves for wildlife" by international review boards has not slowed their continued degradation. To reverse this trend, land and water managers and policy makers must assess the true economic costs of wetland loss and, depending on the outcome of the assessment, use the information as a basis for establishing legally enforceable water rights that protect wetlands from agricultural development.

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Irrigated Agriculture and Wildlife Conservation: Conflict on a Global Scale.

Foreword Overview and scope Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Part I. The Challenges: 1. World population and pressures on land, water and food resources 2. Issues in inter-basin water transfer Part II. Inter-basin Water Transfer in Australia: 3. Land and water resources of Australia 4. The Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme 5. Inter-basin water transfer from coastal basins of New South Wales 6. The Bradfield and Reid Schemes in Queensland 7. Three schemes for flooding Lake Eyre 8. The Goldfields pipeline scheme of Western Australia 9. Supplying Perth, Western Australia with water: the Kimberley pipeline scheme 10. Other schemes in Australia Part III. Inter-basin Water Transfer in Other Selected Countries: 11. Inter-basin water transfer in the United States of America 12. Inter-basin water transfer in Canada 13. Inter-basin water transfer in China 14. India: the National River-Linking Project 15. Inter-basin water transfer, successes, failures and the future Part IV. Appendices: A. Some of the Australian pioneers of inter-basin water transfer B. Construction timetable of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme C. Details of diversion schemes from the Clarence River Basin D. Chronological table of the most important events in the Goldfields Pipeline Scheme, Western Australia E. Flooding of the Sahara depressions F. The Ord River Irrigation Scheme G. The West Kimberley Irrigation Scheme H. Some other water transfer schemes in Australia I. Selected technical features of the Central Valley Project in California J. Selected technical features of the State Water Project in California K. Selected characteristics of some of the completed or proposed inter-basin water transfer projects in Australia, United States, Canada, China and India, in chronological order Glossary Index.

Inter-Basin Water Transfer: Case Studies from Australia, United States, Canada, China and India

Modeling the determinants of renewable energy consumption: Evidence from the five most populous nations in Africa

This article explores the impact of the post-2014 podcast resurgence on nonfictional audio storytelling formats. The empirical study comprises themed commentary by five significant US, European and Australian editors who commission and produce audio documentaries and features for broadcast and/or podcast. The article provides insights into the changing role played by public broadcasters, the growth of independent podcast networks and the perceived differences between radio and podcasting as a mode of delivering and receiving audio content. Of particular significance is the belief of senior commissioning editors that podcasting is fomenting a new, more informal, genre of audio narrative feature centred on a strong relationship between host and listener, with content that is 'talkier' and less crafted. The US audio storytelling podcast sector is growing fast, and much of it has links to a public media ethos, but how to resource it without compromising its editorial independence remains unresolved. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Law Publication Details McHugh, S., How podcasting is changing the audio storytelling genre. The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media, 14(1), 2016, 65-82. This journal article is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/2358

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How podcasting is changing the audio storytelling genre

A river is like a mirror: it reflects the care given by people whose lives depend upon it. A scald on red ground or the slow death of a river reveals more than troubled ecological relationships – they are signs of broken social relationships. How people take care of social relationships and how they take care of ecological relationships are the same question. In this paper we emphasise the importance that Aboriginal people place on social relationships for good ecological relationships. In the past few decades natural resource managers have sought Indigenous knowledge relevant to Western ideas of environment, and in doing so, created distinctions between ‘ecological’ and ‘social’ knowledge – this is an artificial ‘white-fella’ separation. Additionally, Indigenous knowledge has been treated as if it were a static archive that need only be extracted and applied to resource development and planning. Instead it is dynamic, adaptive and contextual. As a consequence of compartmentalisation and the assumption of timelessness, the importance of social relationships in ecological relationships has been overlooked. Some research has explored similarities between Indigenous knowledge and the Western concept of adaptive management, and raised the possibility of synergy between them. We agree there are possible connections and opportunities for exchange and further learning between Indigenous knowledge and ecological resilience and adaptive management. However, Indigenous knowledge and Western science belong to different world views. An important task is to explore ways of grappling with this ontological challenge. We suggest a conceptual turn around that we believe could assist in opening a dialogue as well as creating a set of foundational principles for robust ecological and social relationships.

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From the other side of the knowledge frontier: Indigenous knowledge, social-ecological relationships and new perspectives

Using illustrative audio clips, this article offers insights into the historical symbiosis between oral history and radio and the relationship between orality, aurality, and affect that makes radio...

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The Affective Power of Sound: Oral History on Radio

Audio storytelling is booming. From crafted, long-form documentaries to short digital narratives, podcasting, social media and online streaming have liberated audio from the confines of a live radi...

Audio Storytelling: Unlocking the Power of Audio to Inform, Empower and Connect

In an era when audio is increasingly associated with three-minute digital storytelling, the use of crafted oral history in long-form radio narratives deserves to be recognised as a specific genre: the ‘COHRD’ (Crafted Oral History Radio Documentary), a blend of oral history, art and radio journalism. The author, a long-term practitioner of both disciplines, compares the theory and practice of oral history interviewing and the narrative concerns of the radio documentary/feature producer. The article considers how oral history may be enhanced by imaginative treatment and careful crafting, to yield a hybrid ‘COHRD’ form. This combines the creative scope of the feature, the editorial gravitas of the documentary and the ground-breaking personal narratives at the heart of oral history. Radio benefits from the in-depth primary research provided by oral history, which often records the experiences of the marginalised and overlooked. Oral history benefits through broad dissemination and being made more engaging due to the radio documentary/feature aesthetic. The article suggests that the ‘COHRD’ found a nascent expression in the pioneering work of producers such as Corwin (US 1947), Mitchell (UK 1950s) and Terkel (US 1958) and particularly in the Radio Ballads of MacColl, Parker and Seeger (UK 1958-’64). Podcasting has reinvigorated long-form radio narratives, which can now be sourced online as academic research texts. The ‘COHRD’ form is exemplified today in programmes such as Hindsight on ABC Radio National (Australia) and Hearing Voices and Radio Diaries on National Public Radio (USA).

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Oral history and the radio documentary/feature: introducing the ‘COHRD ’ form

This paper maps contemporary trends in Australian and American radio documentary production. The genre is experiencing a renaissance, as can be seen in the growing number of websites, blogs and podcasts dedicated to radio documentary productions. In addition, the number of freelancers wanting to produce radio documentaries has increased dramatically in Australia over the past five years. This paper traces the evolution of radio documentary forms and explores how globalisation of radio listenership via podcasting and sharing of content on social media is beginning to change documentary. It explores how stellar programs such as This American Life (TAL) and Radiolab are influencing storytelling forms in Australia, which are moving away from artful, abstract writing through sound, made popular by European producers from the '60s, towards a more first-person, explicitly narrated format favoured by American producers. The study draws on qualitative in-depth interviews with key radio documentary and feature figures from both the US and Australia. It is a scoping study into the under-researched area of radio documentary, focusing on changing storytelling forms in an internationalised media landscape.

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Siobhan McHugh

Papers

How podcasting is changing the audio storytelling genre

The Affective Power of Sound: Oral History on Radio

Audio Storytelling: Unlocking the Power of Audio to Inform, Empower and Connect

Oral history and the radio documentary/feature: introducing the ‘COHRD ’ form

Not dead yet: Emerging trends in radio documentary forms in Australia and the US