Wen WU
PhD Student
Telephone: +61 2 6268 8987
Fax: +61 2 6268 8786
Email: w.wu@student.adfa.edu.au
Location: PEMS Sth, Room G33
Field of Study - Oceanography
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Hua Wang
Co-Supervisor: Dr David Paull
Coastal management issues of Australian Defence Force activities in Australian marine protected areas
Environmental management of military activities is of growing global concern by defence forces. As one of the largest landholders in Australia, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is increasingly concerned with sustainable environmental management. Environmental management tools are employed to manage environmental performance, and the Environmental Management System (EMS) is used widely by the ADF. This project focuses on the Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA) as a research example to examine environmental management activities by the ADF. SWBTA is one of the most significant military training areas in Australia . With its maritime part within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) and the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA), and abutting Queensland's State Marine Parks, it is an important region with high environmental, ecological and heritage values. Therefore, it is difficult and complex to manage Defence activities in such an environmentally sensitive Marine Protected Area.
On the basis of reviewing the Environmental Management System (EMS), this project will focus on how the ADF EMS operates during military training, and how effective the Defence EMS is in minimizing environmental impacts and improving environmental performance in SWBTA. To sufficiently measure the Defence EMS effectiveness, the study will use the ISO 14031 Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE) to develop a systematic environmental performance indicator framework by selecting a suite of environmental performance indicators (EPIs) specific to SWBTA. This framework will combine the EMS and the EPE through the EPIs. It can be used for identifying gaps between the ISO 14001 requirements and the Defence EMS steps, evaluating the ADF environmental performance, and examining whether the EMS is effective. This study will further the knowledge of Defence environmental management practice, especially in a marine environment. It is expected to form systematic evaluation outcomes on SWBTA and provide stakeholders and environmental managers with references on day- to-day environmental management activities in this area, and other military sites in the future.