Modelling for positive change: Bridging science and society

Paper by Session

Papers and abstracts listed by session

Plenary papers

A. Applied and computational mathematics

Stream Leaders: Barry Croke and Georgy Sofronov

The Applied and computational mathematics stream focuses on mathematical contributions to modelling and simulation. This includes development, application and testing of algorithms used in data analysis, model formulation (including component integration), sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification. Examples of areas of interest include inverse problems, machine learning, and industrial applications.
A1. Applied Probability

Session Organisers: Andrea Collevecchio and Georgy Sofronov

A2. Advances In Numerical Solutions For Water Resources Models

Session Organisers: Julien Lerat and Barry Croke

A3. Modelling and simulation for trustworthy data science on challenging datasets

Session Organisers: Lewis Mitchell, Lauren Kennedy, John Maclean and Melissa Humphries

A4. Computational statistics and data analysis

Session Organisers: Georgy Sofronov and Nishanthi Raveendran

A6. Industrial mathematical modelling and simulation

Session Organiser: Simon Watt

B. Biological systems

Stream Leaders: Val Snow and Hazel Parry

Biological Systems welcomes session proposals from a wide range of modelling styles: mathematical, mechanistic process-based, agent-based, systems dynamics, and/or data science approaches as applied to biological and agricultural systems. Topics can be inclusive of models and simulation: from descriptions, to development, to applications. Past sessions have included: uncertainty and sensitivity analysis; image analysis; machine learning and artificial intelligence; advances in agent-based modelling of wildlife and pests; livestock, rangelands, pasture and cropping systems; drought resilience, terrestrial and aquatic food webs, and value chain modelling.
B1. APSIM 30-Year Symposium: Shaping the Future of Agricultural Modelling

Session Organisers: Enli Wang, Zaynel Sushil and Val Snow

B2. APSIM-Development: Advances in Plant and Vegetation Modelling

Session Organisers: Karine Chenu, Edith khaembah and Enli Wang

B3. APSIM Developments: Soil modelling capability (water, nutrients, temperature, climatic inputs)

Session Organisers: Kirsten Verburg, Mike Dodd and Heather Pasley

B4. APSIM Developments: Livestock, pests and diseases, whole farm modelling, cloud computing, etc.

Session Organisers: Dean Holzworth, Val Snow and Adam Liedloff

B5. Agricultural Systems

Session Organisers: Rogerio Cichota, Matthew Knowling and Qiaomin Chen

B6. Integrating data and system knowledge to support decision-making: Advances, applications and lessons learned

Session Organisers: Matthew Knowling and Kirsten Verburg

B7. Optimising farming systems to improve climate resilience and sustainability under water-constraint environments

Session Organisers: Ke Liu, Matthew Harrison and Ranju Chapagain

B8. Innovative Modelling Approaches for Agricultural Systems Sustainability under Climate Change

Session Organisers: Bin Wang, Siyi Li, Puyu Feng and De Li Liu

B9. Advances in agent-based modelling and their statistical challenges in biological, ecological and agricultural systems

Session Organisers: Mitchell Welch and Timothy Schaerf

C. Computer science and engineering

Stream Leaders: Min Chen and Dan Ames

Methods for sharing data and computational resources, integrating models, and building simulation systems integrating various disciplines in the open web environment are rapidly changing with the continual development of new information and communications technologies (ICT) including cloud computing, edge computing, blockchain computing, high-performance computing and high-speed Internet. We encourage the submission of session proposals that provide further insights in novel and emerging computational methods and support decision making to solve comprehensive complex issues – particularly in the environmental domain – in the era of ‘big science’, with advanced ICT.
C1. Using workflow platforms in modelling and simulation

Session Organiser: Paul Cleary

C2. Modelling and simulation of Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS)

Session Organiser: Jonathan Dansie

C3. Digital twins and mixed reality

Session Organisers: Lachlan Hetherton and David Thomas

C4. Open and intelligent modeling and simulation

Session Organisers: Fengyuan Zhang and Zaiyang Ma

C5. Systems for Supporting the Re-use of Data – The Backbone of Digital Transformation

Session Organiser: Ryan McAllister

C6. Emulation of Dynamic Models

Session Organisers: Dan Pagendam and Ashfaqur Rahman

C7. Advancing Machine Learning in Hydrology: Ensuring Reliable, Reproducible, and Validated Applications

Session Organisers: Willem Vervoort, Rajitha Athukorala, Arpit Kapoor and Rohitash Chandra

D. Economics and finance

Stream Leaders: Chia-Lin Chang, Felix Chan and Linh Ho

The Economics and finance stream welcomes proposals from a wide range of issues pertaining to Innovation and Trade, Risk Management, and Climate Modelling. The topics covered by this session include any original research and comprehensive review papers in innovation and international trade, financial risk modelling, and computational finance, and financial markets and climate modelling.
D1. Machine Learning Applications in Economics and Finance

Session Organiser: Felix Chan

D2. Modelling Risk Management, ESG, Climate Finance, Policy Evaluation, and Tourism Economics

Session Organisers: Chia-Lin Chang and Ghialy Yap

D4. International Trade, Supply Chains, and Global Markets

Session Organiser: Linh Ho

D5. Decision-making under uncertainty in economics and finance

Session Organisers: Ranjodh Singh and Felix Chan

D6. Applications of new technologies or methods in economics and finance

Session Organisers: Yongxian Tan and Joyce Khuu

E. Energy, integrated infrastructure and urban planning

Stream Leaders: John Boland, Lui Cirocco and Adrian Grantham

Australia is in the midst of an energy transition.  The move to Electrify Everything is underway.  This revolution requires a myriad of activities in various areas.  This stream focuses on multiple ways infrastructure networks, systems and services contribute to urban renewal, regional development, better liveability and enhanced productivity. Smart data analytics, resource assessment and forecasting, digital twins, real-time modelling and complex network optimisation are becoming essential instruments for planning, managing, protecting and upgrading these systems. The stream can include submissions covering forecasting of renewables, energy efficient building design, microgrid design, precinct infrastructure, and related topics.
E1. Tools for the Energy Transition

Session Organiser: John Boland

E2. Decarbonisation of industrial processes

Session Organisers: John Pye and Ye Wang

E3. Economic modelling for a sustainable energy transition

Session Organisers: Taj Khandoker, Jenny Hayward , James Foster and Paul Graham

E4. AI assessment of distributed energy resources and variable renewable energy systems

Session Organiser: Luigi Cirocco

E5. The Role of Microgrids in Building Resilient, Low-Carbon Communities

Session Organiser: Vanika Sharma

F. Environment and ecology

Stream Leaders: Stefan Reis and Shawn Laffan

Modelling, simulation and software systems play a pivotal role in our understanding of environmental and ecological systems. Complex interactions and relationships require environmental modelling and software tools to underpin and improve decision making in policy and regulatory contexts. Advances in data science, machine learning and approaches to harness big data are key to tackle vast challenges of environmental degradation and global climate change. We encourage the submission of sessions which focus on the development of generic frameworks and integration of models across issues, scales, disciplines and stakeholders. The stream will accommodate sessions spanning a scope from advances in modelling, software and simulation, the development and use of advanced software tools, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary environmental modelling, the integration of models and software tools across issues, scales, disciplines and stakeholders, to the application of novel data science concepts in decision support. This stream is supported and co-led by the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society (iEMSs, https://iemss.org/).
F1. Ecological and environmental modelling using a combination of mathematical and statistical approaches

Session Organiser: Matthew Adams

F3. Modelling for effective climate change adaptation

Session Organisers: Rebecca Doble and Vanessa Round

F4. Exploring the multiple roles of managed water within river basins

Session Organisers: Tanya Doody, Mobin-ud-Din Ahmad and Susan Cuddy

F5. Advancing decision support: Decision tools for building robust and resilient futures

Session Organisers: Takuya Iwanaga, Sam Matthews and Pedro Ribeiro De Almeida

F7. Coupling Models for Agricultural Transformation and Climate Change Adaptation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Best Practices

Session Organisers: Andrea Kaim and Martin Volk

F8. GIS and environmental modelling

Session Organiser: Shawn Laffan

F9. Ecological Forecasting: Advancing ecological theory and management in Oceania with near-term forecasts

Session Organisers: Belinda Medlyn, Ajitha Cyriac and Alistair Hobday

F10. Applications of artificial neural networks and generative artificial intelligence to environmental problems

Session Organisers: Dave Penton and Ben Leighton

F11. Agricultural Artificial Intelligence Modelling

Session Organiser: Jonathan Richetti and Sarah Hartman

F12. The Future of Vegetation: Advances in Modelling Plant Function and Distribution

Session Organisers: Clare Stephens, Alexander Norton and Belinda Medlyn

F13. Reimagining Croplands: Modeling Carbon Storage and Biodiversity Benefits

Session Organisers: Jinyan Yang, Senani Karunaratne, Chiara Pasut and Sebastian Ugbaje

G. Global change and natural hazards

Stream Leaders: Jason Evans and Jason Sharples

In this stream we are interested in all aspects of global change and natural hazards and their interactions within the earth system. Topical streams may include modelling of natural hazards such as drought, heatwaves, hail, fires, tropical cyclones, earthquakes, and tsunamis. It also covers modelling of global change issues such as climate change, land degradation (including desertification and plant migration), and the relevance for United Nations sustainable development goals. New model developments and modelling of the phenomena, their impacts on human and natural systems, potential techniques for adaptation, and the use of remote sensing data to address these, are all of interest.
G2. Recent Advances of Earth Observations in Climate Change Impact Research

Session Organisers: Yun Chen, Lin Zhu, Tingbao Xu and Catherine Ticehurst

G3. Climate risk assessment for government and industry: Bridging the gap between climate science and actionable insights for decision makers

Session Organisers: Raymond Cohen, Mahesh Prakash, Geoff Lee and Nikhil Garg

G4. Projections of regional climate change: from modelling to applications

Session Organisers: Jason Evans and Marcus Thatcher

G6. Urbanization, Hydro-Meteorological Hazards, and Risk Mitigation

Session Organisers: Guna Hewa and Huade Guan

G7. Tackling the challenges associated with modelling increases in landscape fire effects on human and ecosystem health under climate change conditions

Session Organisers: Stefan Reis, Ivan Hanigan, Massimo Vieno and Damaris Tan

G8. Modelling of bushfire dynamics, fire weather, impact and risk

Session Organisers: Jason Sharples and Tanvir Saurav

G9. Advancing Flood and Tsunami Modelling: Techniques, Applications, and Emerging Technologies

Session Organisers: Jin Teng, Fazlul Karim, Stephen Roberts and Catherine Ticehurst

H. Health and biosecurity

Stream Leaders: Irene Hudson 

The Health and Biosecurity stream focuses on the latest developments, applications and challenges for health and biosecurity modelling. The Australian bushfires and COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the importance of data and systems science methods to support evidence-based decision making for population health. We encourage submission of Health session proposals that deal with (but not limited to): communicable disease, chronic disease, health services and systems, human behaviour and health, climate change and environmental exposures and health risks. Understanding and appropriately managing growing biosecurity threats to the environment, economy, culture and health requires evidence-based, risk-informed and outcomes-focused approaches. There are many opportunities for innovative use of data and models to generate evidence and knowledge for improved biosecurity decisions. We invite Biosecurity session proposals relating to all kinds of biosecurity threats (alien plants, animals and pathogens) and application domains (including, but not limited to: environmental, plant or animal health, agricultural trade, etc.).
H1. Use Of Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning In The Design And Modeling Of Disease, Cancer, And Safety Data

Session Organisers: Sejong Bae, Jong Bae Baek, Karan Singh and Al Bartolucci

H2. Data science and simulation modelling methods in health

Session Organisers: Louise Freebairn, Simon Chiu, William Jones and Geoff McDonnell

H3. Evidence-Based and Optimal Decision-Making in Health Services Research through Simulation and Modelling

Session Organisers: Hadi Khorshidi, Juntao Lyu and Gang Chen

H4. Modelling the impact of environmental pressures on vector-borne and zoonotic disease burdens

Session Organisers: Helen Mayfield, Esther Onyango and Benn Sartorius

H5. Development and applications of simulation models in health economics

Session Organisers: An Duy Tran and Jonathan Karnon

I. Participatory decision-making, socioecological systems, and education

Stream Leaders: Oz Sahin and Kate O’Brien

This stream focuses on all aspects of the human and cultural dimensions of modelling socio-ecological systems (human-environment interactions) using participatory modelling approaches. In particular, this stream welcomes models that integrate key drivers, processes and responses that interact within, and have feedback on, the system that is being investigated. Often, these models incorporate a combination of knowledge and data from a variety of sources, including participation and collaboration of researchers from diverse domains, decision-makers and other stakeholders. Suitable content for this stream includes model development, data and knowledge management, pedagogical culture, application, case-studies, theory, practice, challenges, opportunities and insights into integration for modelling socio-ecological systems through incorporating participatory approaches.
I2. Advancing System Dynamics Modelling: Integrating Emerging Technologies and Participatory Approaches for Enhanced Decision Support in Social Systems

Session Organisers: Hossein Hosseini and Sondoss El Sawah

I3. Agent-based and data-driven modelling of complex social systems in public information environments

Session Organisers: Lewis Mitchell, Mengbin Ye, Keith Ransom and Emma Thomas

I4. Training future modellers for an uncertain future

Session Organisers: Kate O'Brien, Holger Maier, Sondoss El Sawah and Badin Gibbes

I5. Indigenous Modelling and Participatory Approaches

Session Organisers: Cas Price, Malcolm Connolly, Max Fabila and David Post

J. Water resources

Stream Leaders: Jai Vaze and Murray Peel

The Water Resources stream focuses on research into hydrological processes and hydrological modelling tools (landscape and river system) that advance our understanding and management of surface water and groundwater at catchment, regional and continental scales over time scales from hours to decades. We encourage submission of session proposals that deal with (but are not limited to):
J1. Long term shifts in hydrological systems

Session Organisers: Sreelakshmi Cherampatta Mana, Steven Lade, Timothy John Peterson and Murray Peel

J2. River System Modelling for Water Resources Management: Advances and Challenges

Session Organisers: Dushmanta Dutta, Trudy Green, Andrew Brown and Danielle Baker

J3. Novel methods for data collection and predictive modelling in data sparse environments

Session Organisers: Matt Gibbs, Justin Hughes and Cuan Petheram

J4. Responding to the Challenges and Complexities of Urban Water Management

Session Organisers: Trudy Green, Steve Kotz, Leon van der Linden and Mukta Sapkota

J5. Fit for purpose modelling for water resources management

Session Organisers: Avril Horne, Wendy Merritt and Serena Hamilton

J6. Hydroclimate extremes forecasting: from droughts to floods

Session Organisers: Ze Jiang, Ashish Sharma, Fitsum Woldemeskel and Adarsh S

J7. The path forward for hydroclimate risk assessments - advancing science, modelling and management to support decision making in large river basins

Session Organisers: Andrew John, Danlu Guo and Sam Culley

J8. Decision-Making Under Uncertainty in Water Resources Management

Session Organisers: Tze Ling Seline Ng, David Robertson and Jeffrey Newman

J9. Challenges, new concepts and new methods for water resources management

Session Organisers: Jing Yang, Barry Croke, Pan Liu and Yohei Sawada

J10. Advancements in Hydrological Predictions through Novel Sensing and Innovative Modelling Techniques

Session Organisers: Hae Na Yoon, Lucy Marshall, Seokhyeon Kim and Viraj Vidura

J11. Ecohydrological Modelling

Session Organisers: Patricia Saco, Jo Owens and Jose Rodriguez

K. Hydroclimate

Stream Leaders: Yongqiang Zhang and Conrad Wasko

This stream focuses on the research fields between climate and hydrology. With continuous climate change in the past several decades and the foreseeable future, our understanding of the hydroclimate continues to evolve, and the complexity in forecasting, predicting, simulating, or attributing change, means many processes, and their interactions, remain not completely understood. However, new data sets, statistical tools, modelling techniques, and advances in computing are all providing us opportunities to improve the understanding of the hydroclimate. We invite session proposals from a wide variety of disciplines that analyse and model all aspects of the hydroclimate, from rainfall, to streamflow, evapotranspiration, groundwater, temperature, and their related hazards. We encourage session proposals aiming to improve our process understanding, untangle uncertainties, and attribute changes across all time and spatial scales in the hydroclimate.
K1. Modelling Complexity: New Approaches for Water, Environment and Society in Large Basins

Session Organisers: Okke Batelaan, Seth Westra, Neville Crossman and Ariella Helfgott

K2. Statistical, post-processing and verification methods for environmental prediction

Session Organisers: James Bennett, Rob Taggart, Fiona Johnson and Benjamin Owen

K3. Advancing Drought Monitoring, Prediction, And Resilience For Sustainable Development

Session Organisers: Muhammad Abrar Faiz, Yeonjoo Kim, Yongqiang Zhang and Faisal Baig

K4. Understanding and modelling catchment behaviour in a variable and changing climate

Session Organisers: Keirnan Fowler, Murray Peel, Tim Peterson and Ziqi Zhang

K5. When models fail: lessons learned from false starts, wrong turns and dead ends

Session Organisers: Fiona Johnson, James Bennett, Mark Thyer and Keirnan Fowler

K6. Advancing hydroclimate forecasting: methods and applications

Session Organisers: David Robertson, Mark Thyer, Andrew Schepen and David McInerney

K7. Understanding hydrological extremes: trends, drivers and impacts

Session Organisers: Conrad Wasko, Yongqiang Zhang, Zhenwu Xu, Wenyan Wu, and Chiara Holgate

K8. Watershed flood regime changes and their prediction

Session Organisers: Yongyong Zhang, Quanxi Shao and Yongqiang Zhang

L. Water quality

Stream Leaders: Andrew Western, Danlu Guo and Anna Lintern

Poor water quality has social, economic and environmental consequences, and maintaining good water quality is key to sustaining human life. While we still need to understand fundamental water quality processes, we increasingly have a need to model new and emerging water treatment systems, emerging chemicals, the impacts of climate change and land and water management on water quality, and interactions between socio-economic systems and water quality. We invite session proposals that focus on monitoring, modelling and analyses of all aspects of water quality across all environments   including natural, agricultural, urban, peri-urban catchments, as well as rivers, groundwater, lakes, estuaries and other receiving waters.
L1. Catchment Water Quality Modelling

Session Organisers: Danlu Guo, Sandy Elliott and Jiping Jiang

L2. Advanced Lake, Reservoir, Wetland and River System Modelling

Session Organisers: Tony Weber, Matt Hipsey, Liliana Pagliero and Michael Barry

L3. Modelling water quality treatment and management

Session Organisers: Anna Lintern and Mukta Sapkota

L4. Modelling Erosion and Pollutant Dynamics

Session Organisers: Melanie Roberts, Anna Lintern, Danlu Guo and Ulrike Bende-Michl

M. Operations Research

Stream Leaders:  Simon Dunstall and Hasan Turan

The Operations Research (OR) stream seeks high-quality contributions from across the broad spectrum of OR methods, techniques and applications in academia, defence and industry. Techniques may include (but are not limited to) mixed integer-linear programming, constraint programming, metaheuristics, and modelling and simulation through to more recent approaches in matheuristics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and data sciences (DS). Applications areas may include (but are not limited to) emergency management and natural hazards, defence, transport, logistics, mining, agriculture and healthcare. We encourage collaboration between academia and industry in both session proposals and paper submissions.
M1. OR methods and applications

Session Organiser: Simon Dunstall

M2. Simulation modelling and analysis

Session Organisers: Hasan Turan and Honglei Xu

M3. AI for Optimization: Methodologies and Applications

Session Organisers: Sevvandi Kandanaarachchi and Reena Kapoor