Professor Janette Lindesay
Areas of expertise
- Palaeoclimatology 040605
- Natural Resource Management 050209
- Climatology (Excl. Climate Change Processes) 040105
Research interests
My principal research interests are in climate variability during the period of instrumental record, and climate change science in relation to vulnerability and adaptation. My current research focuses on integrating multiple influences on low-frequency fluctuations in Australian rainfall, including the potential for deterministic and dynamical seasonal forecasting; climatological aspects of bushfires and drought in Australia; temperature and rainfall trends and extremes; and climate change adaptation. I am also engaged in research into the pedagogy of climate change in academic and professional education.
Biography
I obtained my Honours degree in Geography, Postgraduate Teaching Diploma and Doctorate in statistical and dynamical climatology from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and have worked in academic and research organisations in South Africa, the UK and Australia. In addition to conducting wide-ranging research on aspects of climate and its impacts, I led development and change in the environment and society undergraduate and postgraduate curricula at the ANU for more than a decade. I also convened and taught academic and professional programs and courses in climate science and climate change science and policy at the ANU, and taught by invitation at the United Nations University in Tokyo. I hold a Visiting Professorship at the University of Tokyo; am a fellow/member of a number of professional meteorological societies; and am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). I have been a member of the ANU Climate Change Institute since its inception.
Available student projects
Research projects for Honours, Masters and PhD studies are developed in consultation with prospective students. I supervise projects in climate science, climate change impacts and adaptation, and climate science-policy interaction.
Current student projects
PhD Thesis Research
- Tricia Wilden: Decision-relevant information for effective disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation decision-making in the Pacific
- Elizabeth Dovey: Implications of climate change for natural patterns and processes and for people, policy and practice in the Pacific island small island
Past student projects
PhD and MPhil Theses
- Reforming the anchor institutions for international environmental governance in the 21st century (PhD)
- Weather forecasting and solar energy in Australia (PhD)
- Climate change information for adaptation in viticulture (PhD)
- Large-scale modes of climate variability and south-east Australian rainfall (PhD)
- Holocene environmental change and variability in the tropics from diatom analysis (PhD)
- Landscape susceptibility to drought, fire weather and storms: an historical perspective (MPhil)
- Dendroclimatological reconnaissance of eucalypts in SE Australia (PhD)
- Dendroclimatological studies in the wet tropics of Far North Queensland (PhD)
- Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction from the geochemistry of karst cave deposits (PhD)
- Teleconnections of the El Niño phenomenon: public health and epidemiological prospects (PhD)
- Inter-annual and low frequency ocean-atmosphere variability in the Indian Ocean region (PhD
- Spatial and temporal analyses of Australian pressure and temperature fields (PhD)
Masters Research
- Sources and trajectories of wildfire haze in SE Asia
- Characterising the urban heat island of Jakarta
- Flood response discourses in Metro Manila, Philippines
- Storminess along the Australian east coast
- Developing a carbon accounting system framework for Pakistan
- A prompt indicator of international carbon emissions trends
- Climate change adaptation and human development co-benefits
- REDD+ implementation in Indonesia
- Perceptions of climate change risk and coastal adaptation options
Honours Theses
- Climate policy and emissions reduction in China
- The role of market mechanisms in national emissions reduction policy
- Severe storms in south-eastern Australia
- Observed and simulated relationship amongst ENSO, the IPO and rainfall variability in eastern Australia
- Representations of resilience in the disaster policies of four ASEAN member states
- Migration options for people displaced due to climate change impacts in the Pacific
- Visualising the spatial and temporal dimensions of climate change
- Extreme heat events and heat stress in Singapore and Hong Kong
- Multi-sector urban climate governance: greenhouse gas mitigation in the Australian Capital Territory
- Potential change in the Alliance of Small Island States
- Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction from a sediment deposit in Alexandra Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia
- Simulation of Australian precipitation: comparison of model and observational data
- Geothermal energy potential of the Clarence-Morton Basin, New South Wales
- Process-based modelling of dengue fever and climate in Cairns, Queensland
- Spatial variation in ENSO and the Australian monsoon
- Social networks and adaptation to climate change
- Drought and climate change in south-eastern Australia
- Influence of weather on the prevalence and seasonality of airspora in Canberra, Australia
- Temperature and rainfall trends in the Canberra region
- Predicting fire season severity in southern Australia
- Long-term rainfall trends in the Murray-Darling Basin
- Climate change perceptions in the Australian wheat industry
- Atmospheric factors affecting fire season severity in south-eastern Australia
- Climate science and policy: a case study of carbon sequestration and the Kyoto Protocol
- Synoptic conditions and severe advective frosts in the Canberra viticulture region
- Australian region summer tropical-extratropical cloud bands, ENSO and rainfall
- Interannual sea surface temperature variability in the central southern Indian Ocean
Publications
- Lindesay, J, Dunn, M & Howden, M 2015, 'Spatial and temporal scales of future climate information for climate change adaptation in viticulture: A case study of User needs in the Australian winegrape sector', Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 226-239.
- Reardon-Smith, K, Farley, H, Cliffe, N et al 2014, 'The Development of Virtual World Tools to Enhance Learning and Real World Decision Making in the Australian Sugar Farming Industry', International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 17-23.
- Whan, K, Timbal, B & Lindesay, J 2014, 'Linear and nonlinear statistical analysis of the impact of sub-tropical ridge intensity and position on south-east Australian rainfall', International Journal of Climatology, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 326-342.
- Dunn, M, Howden, M & Lindesay, J 2013, 'Experiences of user engagement and perceptions of user needs: providers of future climate information on the usefulness of the information they provide users for decision-making', International Congress on Modelling and Simulation MODSIM 2013, ed. Piantadosi, J., Anderssen, R.S. and Boland J., Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand Inc., Australia, pp. 580pp.
- Bannister-Tyrrell M., Williams, C.R., Ritchie S.A., Lindesay J.A., Mercer, G.N. and Harley, D. 2013, 'Weather-driven variation in dengue activity in Australia examined using a process-based modeling approach', American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, vol. 88, no. 1, pp. 65-72.
- Folland, C, Scaife, A, Lindesay, J et al 2012, 'How potentially predictable is northern European winter climate a season ahead?', International Journal of Climatology, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 801-818.
- Heinrich, I, Weidner, K, Helle, G et al 2009, 'Interdecadal modulation of the relationship between ENSO, IPO and precipitation: insights from tree rings in Australia', Climate Dynamics, vol. 33, pp. 63-73.
- Brookhouse, M, Lindesay, J & Brack, C 2008, 'The Potential of Tree Rings in Eucalyptus pauciflora for Climatological and Hydrological Reconstruction', Geographical Research, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 421-434.
- Lindesay, J 2005, 'Climate and drought in the subtropics - the Australian example.', in Linda Courtenay Botterill, Donald A Wilhite (ed.), From Disaster Response to Risk Management, Springer, The Netherlands, pp. 15-36.
- Allan, R, Reason, C, Lindesay, J et al 2003, 'Protracted ENSO episodes and their impacts in the Indian Ocean region', Deep-Sea Research Part II: Tropical studies in oceanography, vol. 50, pp. 2331-2347.
- Lindesay, J 2003, 'Climate and Drought in Australia', in L Botterill & M Fisher (ed.), Beyond Drought: People, Policy and Perspectives, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, pp. 21-48.
- Lindesay, J 2003, 'Fire and climate in Australia', in Cary, G., Lindenmayer, D., and Dovers, S. (ed.), Australia burning: fire ecology, policy and management issues, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, pp. 32-40.
- Mackey, B, Lindenmayer, D, Gill, M et al. 2002, Wildlife, fire and future climate: A Forest Ecosystem Analysis, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.
- Woodruff, R, Guest, C, Garner, M et al 2002, 'Predicting Ross River Virus Epidemics from Regional Weather Data', Epidemiology, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 384-393.
