PCT National Workshop | AgWater2050

Towards productive, sustainable agricultural and water systems, and diverse, thriving natural environments by 2050

Visions for a productive Australian agricultural sector and diverse, thriving natural environments can often appear to be conflicting, particularly for irrigated agriculture. Nevertheless, one of the big challenges Australia faces in coming decades is reimagining and transitioning to a future that is both profitable and sustainable.

What is Ag2050?

Through its Ag2050 project, CSIRO has been using futures thinking to create potential scenarios for what agriculture might look like in 2050.  These scenarios have helped identify potential drivers for change on the path to 2050. We need to test and refine these drivers in the context of water.

The AgWater2050 Workshop

The Trust and CSIRO invite Trust Fellows and Friends to a national conversation on 12 March 2025, where we will look at current drivers and trends that will shape water and agriculture towards 2050 and build visions for a sustainable future.

Drawing on futures thinking and human-centred design approaches, Trust Fellows and Friends will participate in a guided and interactive workshop to develop a more robust understanding of water drivers, and to identify future pathways for agriculture and water out to 2050.

Outcomes

We will synthesise outcomes from this interactive workshop into a detailed position paper, without attribution of any information shared. The results and key findings will be communicated with all participants to ensure transparency and sharing of knowledge.

Event Host:  Rosie Wheen, CEO, Peter Cullen Trust

• When:  Wednesday March 12, 1.00-3.00pm AEDT
• Where:  Teams
• Cost:  Free for PCT Fellows and Friends

Presenters:  From CSIRO, PCT Fellows Rebecca Doble (2023),Ashlin Lee and David Lemon (2013)

Rebecca Doble (2023) has over 25 years of experience in water, groundwater hydrology and groundwater dependent ecosystems. Much of this has been at CSIRO, where she has led research projects ranging from flood recharge estimation in the Murray-Darling Basin and Northern Australia, to water security and treatment technology for remote communities, and climate vulnerability and adaptation pathways for Ramsar wetlands. She is currently leading the water component of Ag2050, exploring sustainable and productive futures for Australian irrigated agriculture.

Ashlin is a digital sociologist at the CSIRO, with research interests in the social implications of data and technology. Using social science and design methods to identify and respond to the opportunities and challenges of social and technical systems, Ashlin has worked across a diverse range of domains including digital agriculture, smart cities, health behaviours, artificial intelligence, and surveillance. Ashlin is also an honorary lecturer in Sociology in the School of Sociology, at the Australian National University (ANU), and a member of the Justice and Technoscience Lab  (JusTech) in the School of Regulation and Global Governance, also at the ANU.

For almost 20 years, David Lemon (2013) has been building CSIRO’s research capability in water informatics which is now internationally recognised as world’s best practice. He designs and leads projects aimed at creating new environmental information products and developing models and systems for sharing and managing environmental information. David leads programs of research in social and strategic design. David is also developing the water component of Ag2050.

Fellows and Friends of the Trust have been emailed a link to register – please check your inbox.

We will share the Teams link with all those registered 24 hours prior to the webinar.