Environmental, social and economic impacts of the onshore gas industry
CSIRO’s Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance (GISERA) is a national collaboration between CSIRO; commonwealth, state and territory governments; and industry. The Alliance was established to undertake publicly-reported, peer-reviewed research.
The purpose of GISERA is to provide high quality, independent scientific research and information to communities living in gas development regions. The research focuses on environmental and socio-economic topics including:
- Ground and surface waters
- Terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity
- Agricultural land management
- Regional socio-economic impacts
- Human health and wellbeing
- Greenhouse gas emissions and air quality
- Land and infrastructure management.
[Music plays and CSIRO logo and text appears: GISERA, Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance] [Images move through of a group of buildings on the GISERA site, various shrubs and a ute and two caravans on the site and the camera pans around the site] [Image changes to show Damian Barrett talking to the camera and text appears: Damian Barrett, Director, GISERA] Damian Barrett: GISERA is the Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance set up by CSIRO to undertake independent and world class research associated with the gas industry’s operation in regions of Australia. [Images move through of a male working at a desk with four computer screens set up, a male and a female outside on the site and the male and female working inside with a gas canister] GISERA is a collaboration between the Commonwealth Government, State Governments, the industry and CSIRO. [Image changes to show an aerial view of the GISERA site with lots of trucks and equipment] GISERA undertakes public interest research. It’s research on the issues that are of concern to those people who are living in gas development regions throughout Australia. [Images move through of a male working with a piece of equipment, writing in a notebook, looking at a control panel and a close-up view of the piece of equipment] Those communities want more information about the potential impacts and possibly even the benefits of the gas industry operating in their backyard. [Images move through of a male pressing buttons on a control panel, a view of a series of pipes and stainless steel receptacles, and a male pouring vapour into a stainless steel receptacle] GISERA contributes world class, high quality research, that is independent. [Image changes to show a male unscrewing something and then the image changes to show different views of the site and the camera pans around the site as text appears: Greenhouse emissions, Agriculture, Water Resources, Socioeconomic Effects, Biodiversity, Marine Impacts] We focus on a wide range of socio economic and environmental research, ranging from greenhouse gas fugitive emissions issues, potential impacts on agriculture and water resources, socio economic impacts and benefits to communities, possible impacts on biodiversity and even we do research on marine impacts, for example on turtles and dugongs. [Image changes to show Damian Barrett talking to the camera] CSIRO, through GISERA is trying to achieve high quality independent research that can be used for better decision making. It can be used for better policy development and can be used by the community to better understand the operation of the gas industry in their region. [Images move through of a blurry rear view of people walking past the camera] GISERA ensures CSIRO independence in the research that it undertakes by utilising a community dominated committee that assigns funds to projects. [Images move through of pages on the CSIRO GISERA site on the computer featuring the research being done and the camera scrolls down the webpages showing photos and information] Those projects are determined by the community around issues that they’re concerned about. CSIRO’s research under GISERA is 100% transparent. [Image changes to show a car and two vans on the GISERA site and the camera pans around in a clockwise direction] All the research that we do is published on the CSIRO GISERA website so that everyone in the community can investigate, inspect, criticise, question and understand the work that we do in CSIRO. [Music plays and the images flash through of the CSIRO logo on a piece of equipment on the site, two people approaching the equipment, two males in conversation and a male looking at a control panel] CSIRO, through GISERA is the only entity in Australia that’s bringing the significant scientific resources to bear on the concerns and issues of those people who are living in gas development regions. [Music plays and the image changes to show a male and female looking at gas canisters and then the camera zooms in on the female as she turns to look at the camera] [CSIRO and sponsor logos and text appears: GISERA, Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance, gisera.csiro.au]