My research focuses, in a broad sense, on environmental governance. I have special interest in the social and institutional dimensions of environmental change, with focus on collaborative decision-making, and policy and institutional analysis. Particular areas of experience include coastal and marine systems, climate change adaptation, catchment and water management, and common-pool resources governance. The geographic scope of my research includes Australia, Brazil and the Southeast Asia-Pacific region.

Central to my research is the notion of systems of regulations, norms, decision-making processes and property rights (also known as institutions) that govern human-environment interactions. With this regard, I am interested in examining how institutions, at multiple levels and scales, may be designed and changed to improve the governance of social-ecological systems. This includes:

• examining social and institutional responses to overuse and degradation of natural resources and climate change;
• analysing institutional dynamics and interactions at multiple scales (local, sub-national, national, international); and,
• identifying governance attributes that promote (or otherwise) sustainable natural resources use and management.

Examples of recent research include:

• Climate change adaptation at multiple governance levels (local, state and federal) in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR)
• Multilateral environmental governance in the Coral Triangle
• Challenges to the governance of large-scale marine systems in the Coral Triangle
• Stakeholder analysis of the Coral Triangle Initiative
• Environmental, social, economic and institutional limits to climate change adaptation in the GBR (as co-investigator)

Examples of past research include:

• Institutional analysis of catchment management in New South Wales
• Social and institutional dimensions of water management in Brazil