Students win Australia-Netherlands challenge with tool to engage communities in coastal development
Students of the University of New South Wales and the University of Wollongong won this year's edition of the Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge.
One of the winning entries was the CoastalEngage, a decision making tool that enables local communities to engage in coastal development.
The winners were announced at the Floodplain Management Association National Conference in Brisbane, Australia on 21 May.
Award ceremony at Brisbane city hall.
Let's talk resilience
The Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge was initiated after the Queensland floods in 2011 to exchange knowledge on floods and droughts between Australia and the Netherlands. Ambitious students and young professionals from across Australia are challenged to contribute their own ideas for a more climate-resilient Australia.
The theme of the third Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge was 'Let's talk resilience'.
Two winning teams
After several selection rounds, the four best teams were invited to present their ideas at the FMA National Conference in front of four hundreds flood management experts and a jury, chaired by Dutch Consul-General, Mr. Willem Cosijn.
Ultimately, it was the teams consisting of Tom Perfrement and Tracey Lloyd, students at the University of New South Wales and Raymond Laine and Ashlee Clarke, graduates from the University of Wollongong, who came out on top.
Tom and Tracey won with their idea for a composite resilience index as a way to make resilience more measurable and provide government better direction for action.
Raymond and Ashlee (on top photo) presented an online tool called CoastalEngage, to engage local communities with important trade-offs and decisions relating to coastal development.
Traineeship in the Netherlands
The winning teams will be doing a unique traineeship over the coming six months, including a 3-week program in the Netherlands and participation in the International Water Week in Amsterdam in November 2015.
Says Tracey Lloyd, from one of the winning teams: "It was a great opportunity for us to join this competition. We are passionate about helping Australia to strengthen its capacities in the face of climate change and are really looking forward to working with experts from both Australia and the Netherlands to further develop our ideas."
Read also on this website
● SIWW2014: Kick-off 3rd Singapore-Netherlands Water Challenge at Dutch pavilion, 6 June 2014
● Floating village wins first Indonesia-Netherlands young water talent award, 3 April 2014
● Mapping solution for twitter data on flooding wins 2nd Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge, 26 September 2013
● Zhoa Qian of Harbin Institute of Technology wins Holland Water Challenge China 2011, 15 June 2011
More information
Holland Water Challenge
Gregor van Essen, Managing Director
gregor@hollandwaterchallenge.nl
www.hollandwaterchallenge.nl