Associate Professor Magnus Moglia

Biography

Associate Professor Magnus Moglia is a transdiciplinary researcher with a particular interest in the intersection of quantitative and qualitative methods. He is a Research Theme Leader for Urban Regeneration.

His primary research interests are in exploring cities as social and technical systems, and thereby identifying and exploring the leverage points that could be shifted and enable systems change. The exploration of these transition pathways often includes technological innovation and their adoption drivers and barriers amongst multiple agents; as well as the adaptive and reflexive governance that require forwarding looking capability as well as effective interfaces between community and decision makers.

He was a staff member at the CSIRO from 2001 until 2020 where he was a lead player in CSIRO's future of Australian cities program. Recent highlights includes:

• Leading a series of studies in the Low Carbon Living CRC on the use of Agent-Based Modelling to describe multi-agent processes of adoption of energy efficiency, water conservation, public & active transport as well as solar PV systems;
• Leading a series of futures studies, including The Future of Sydney series of projects for a coalition of government and planning agencies in Sydney;
• Leading a large CSIRO study on the future of Australian Cities, Insights of Future Cities, which included a study into the Future of Darwin;
• Leading the Jobs and Skills Implications of the Climate Transition in Queensland study, for the Queensland Government.
• Being on the steering committee for the Committee of Melbourne’s Melbourne 4.0 project.

He has extensive experience in international research, including being a science leader in the large and award-winning CSIRO-AusAID three-year study on Climate Adaptation through Sustainable Urban Development in Can Tho City, Vietnam. In a large study with ACIAR, he was lead analyst in a multi-year study on the adoption of new technologies such as rice-farming practices amongst small-holder farmers in Laos. He completed a PhD in Environment from the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy. Through this study, he applied complex adaptive systems modelling and thinking to the topic of urban water management, including field studies in Kiribati.

During the Millennium Drought he researched alternative water systems, especially their socio-technical transitions, including leading a large survey and study with the Smart Water Fund on the practical performance of rainwater harvesting systems. His early research at CSIRO, in collaboration with water utilities, included the development of software systems and algorithms to support risk-based management of infrastructure systems, which are now used widely in the water industry (PARMS, etc).