Centre for Agroecology, Water & Resilience

The Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) is the largest centre in the world driving innovative, transdisciplinary research on the understanding and development of resilient food and water systems internationally. Food and water security is increasingly threatened by factors such as climate and environmental change, loss of biodiversity, conflict and market volatility. New knowledge, policies and technologies are needed to develop systems that are more resilient to change, and which ensure the health of our food and water supplies. Resilient systems are better able to withstand and recover from stresses caused by short-term change or long term events, including natural processes like flooding, or human impacts such as war or water pollution incidents. Through it focus on food and water, the Centre’s research develops and integrates new knowledge in social, agroecological, hydrological and environmental processes, as well as the pivotal role that communities play in developing resilience. Unique to this Centre is the incorporation of citizen generated knowledge – the participation of farmers, water users and other citizens in transdisciplinary research, using holistic approaches which cross many disciplinary boundaries. CAWR also aims to advance resilience science through creative work on a new generation of key issues linked to the governance of food systems, hydrological change, urban agriculture and water, biodiversity, stabilisation agriculture, river processes, water quality and emerging pollutants. The Centre is conducting research in the following themes: - Resilient food and water systems in practice - Fundamental processes and resilience - Community self-organisation for resilience - Policies and institutions to enable resilient food and water systems. There is also a cross-cutting and trans-disciplinary research working group on People's knowledge to which all people are able to contribute insights to the production of new knowledge.