Full Title
Development of semi arid wetland conceptual models
Contact Person
Dr Amina Price
Project Team
Dr Amina Price, Dr Ben Gawne, Dr Darren Baldwin, Dr Shaun Meredith, Dr Daryl Nielsen
Funding Body
Murray-Darling Basin Authority
Duration
May 2008 to June 2009
Outcomes
Price A and Gawne B (2009) The Development of wetland conceptual models for Semi-Arid zone. Final Report prepared for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, January, 47pp.
Summary
Conceptual modelling has been identified as a foundation component of environmental monitoring programs, providing an integration of system understanding and identification of complex interactions and relationships between indicators and ecological states or processes (Gross, 2003). A well-constructed conceptual model provides a scientific framework for a monitoring program and justification for the choice of indicators (Gross 2003) (Figure 1). In the case of a multi-stakeholder monitoring program, a conceptual model can also provide a forum for stakeholders to come to a common understanding of the system that is being investigated (Hierl et al. 2007).
