Evaluating Geoscience Australia's Groundwater Activities - Impact and Return on Investment Study

The Exploring for the Future program is a world leading program, delivering public geoscientific data and information required to empower decision-makers and attract future investment in resource exploration and development. Geoscience Australia engaged Alluvium Consulting Australia to quantify the impact and value of groundwater activities and outputs to the quadruple bottom line through an evaluation of 2 case studies, namely:

• National Hydrogeological Mapping • The Southern Stuart Corridor project.

This involved understanding the impact pathways for these case studies and the collection of data to be used in a cost benefit analysis. The work sought to provide feedback to Geoscience Australia, stakeholder groups and the broader community on the value of Geoscience Australia’s groundwater activities.

The case study evaluations were facilitated by a series of specific questions, which were developed to guide data collection and the building of a knowledge base around the impact and value of the work in each case study and associated outputs. The questions broadly fell under the following categories:

1. Uptake and Usage
2. Impact
3. Benefit

These evaluations were framed around the program impact pathway developed for each case study. This is a description of how inputs are used to deliver activities, which in turn result in outcomes and impacts (changes) for stakeholders, including the environment.

The primary means of data collection to help answer the key evaluation questions was through online workshops and interviews with key stakeholders for each case study. These were undertaken between March 10 and March 24, 2023. In these workshops and interviews, representatives from industry, community and government agencies were asked if they could identify instances where case study program outputs were used for particular purposes, such as prioritising research or investment, advising Members of Parliament, or education and training. These examples were then explored further to understand what outcomes and benefits were derived from the use of the case study outputs, and how critical were the case study outputs to achieving those outcomes and benefits