Professor John Pisaniello

Excludes commercial-in-confidence projects.

Other projects

Industry Reports from 2008

Pisaniello, J. D. and Tingey-Holyoak, J. L. (2016) ‘Inception Phase for Comparative Study of the Legal and Institutional Frameworks for Dam Safety Management’, Final Report prepared for The World Bank, 29 June 2016, WB Project ID: P156243.

Pisaniello, J. D. and Tingey-Holyoak, J. L. (2016) ‘Dam Safety Issues and the Case for Regulation in South Australia: A Discussion Paper’, Final Report prepared for South Australian Government (Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources), 11 March 2016, UniSA Project No. PG 083070.

Tingey-Holyoak, J.L., Pisaniello, J.D. and Gunstone, A. (2016) ‘Indigenous Employment in the Professions in Local Government’, Industry Report prepared under UniSA Research Themes Scheme in collaboration with Swinburne University and LG Professionals Australia, UniSA Project No. PG 082820, forthcoming.

Tingey-Holyoak, J.L. and Pisaniello, J.D. (2016) ‘Water management accounting in the agrifood sector: from innovation to action’, Industry Report for Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UniSA Project No. PG 081777, forthcoming.

Tingey-Holyoak, J.L. and Pisaniello, J.D. (2015) ‘How to Successfully Attract and Retain Indigenous Employees in Local Government: A Pilot Study’, Industry Report for South Australian Local Government Financial Management Group, 11 February 2015, UniSA Project No. PG 081777.

Tingey-Holyoak, J.L., Pisaniello, J.D. and Warnes, J. (2015) ‘Pilot Study on How to Successfully Attract and Retain Indigenous Graduates Employed in Local Government Accounting’, Industry Report for Adelaide City Council, 9 February 2015, UniSA Project No. PG 081410.

Tingey-Holyoak, J.L., Burritt, R.L., and Pisaniello, J.D. (2014) ‘Pilot Study on How to Successfully Attract and Retain Indigenous Graduates Employed in Local Government’, Industry Report for Local Government Association of South Australia, 19 August 2014, UniSA Project No. PG 081859, LGA Project No. 2014.20, available at www.lga.sa.gov.au/page.aspx?u=562&c=37489.

Burritt, R.L., Tingey-Holyoak, J.L., and Pisaniello, J.D. (2014) ‘The need for Engineering accounting: Identifying current and future demand and supply’, Industry Report for The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, June 2014, UniSA Project No. PG 081582.

Burritt, R.L., Tingey-Holyoak, J.L., and Pisaniello, J.D. (2013) ‘Transdisciplinarity of accounting: the case of accounting for water’, Industry Report for The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, April 2013, UniSA Project No. PG 080610.

Pisaniello, J.D. (2012) ‘Safety Monitoring Program for Tailings and Water Storages at a Victorian Sand Plant: Review and Benchmarking against Best-Practice Guidelines’, Industry Report for Geohart Consultants Pty Ltd, December 2012, UniSA Project No. PG 081000.

Willis, K., Pisaniello, J.D., Tingey-Holyoak, J. and Burritt, R.L. (2012) ‘DP0987825:How to manage farm water storage for sustainable and safe catchments- stakeholders and farmers’, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science and Centre for Accounting, Governance and Sustainability Industry Report on stakeholder surveys in SA, NSW, VIC and TAS for Australian Research Council Discovery Project 0987825, June 2012.

Carter, A., Pisaniello, J.D. and Burritt, R.L. (2010) Government Sustainability Policy in Australia: Moving from Rhetoric to Effective Implementation, Centre for Accounting, Governance and Sustainability Occasional Working Papers, No.3, October, University of South Australia, Adelaide, ISSN: 1838-0409 (Print) 1838-0468 (online).

Pisaniello, J.D. (2009) ‘Preliminary Development of a Cost-Effective Flood Capability Design/Review Procedure for Farm Dams in Tasmania’, Industry Report for Tas Govt, Department of Primary Industries and Water, April 2009, UnisA Project No. PG 053974.

Research outputs for the last seven years are shown below. Some long-standing staff members may have older outputs included. To see earlier years visit ORCID, ResearcherID or Scopus

Open access indicates that an output is open access.

Highlights

Books

Chapters

Journal Articles

Conferences

Reports

Other outputs

Book chapters from 2008

Tingey-Holyoak, J., Burritt, R.L. and Pisaniello, J. (2013) ‘Integration of Macro and Micro Sustainability Issues: The Need for “Engineering Accounting”’ in Hrebicek, J., Schimak, G., Rizzoli, G., and Kubasek, M. (Eds) Environmental Software Systems. Fostering Sharing Information. International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Advances in Information and Communication Technology series, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, pp.500-507.

Pisaniello, J. D., Spassis, A. and Burritt, R. L. (2013) ‘An engineering/accounting tool for minimising the cumulative flood threats of rural catchment dams’, in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, Climate Change Management Series, W. Leal Filho (ed.), Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, Chapter 36, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-31110-9_36, pp.553-571.

Dam, T., Burritt, R. L. and Pisaniello, J. D. (2013) ‘How effective is small dam flood safety accountability and assurance policy in Vietnam?’, in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, Climate Change Management Series, W. Leal Filho (ed.), Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, Chapter 29, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-31110-9_29, pp.437-461.

Tingey-Holyoak, J., Pisaniello, J.D. and Burritt, R.L. (2012) 'Private Dam Safety Accountability and Assurance: Moving from Minimum to International Best Practice Policy Benchmarks', in Social and Environmental Accounting: Research Advances and New Perspectives, P. Arena and E. Cardillo (Eds.), ARACNE Editrice S.r.l., Rome, pp.199-222.

Selected non-refereed publications and presentations from 2008

Pisaniello, J. D. and Tingey-Holyoak, J. L. (2016), ‘Comparative Study of the Legal and Institutional Frameworks for Dam Safety Management: Approach and Methodology’, Presented at Parallel Technical Session ‘Getting to Scale on Dam Development and Safety’, 5 April, World Bank Annual Water Week Conference, Washington D.C., 4 – 8 April 2016.

Pisaniello, J. D. and Tingey-Holyoak, J. L. (2016), ‘Comparative Study of the Legal and Institutional Frameworks for Dam Safety Management’, by invitation presented at International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) 84th Annual Meeting and Symposium at multiple sessions including (1) ICOLD Board, (2) ICOLD Technical Committee on Dam Safety, (3) ICOLD Europe Club, (4) ICOLD Asia-Pacific club and (5) Dam Safety Implementation Workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa, 16 – 20 May 2016.

Pisaniello, J. D. and Tingey-Holyoak, J. L. (2016), ‘(i) Small dam safety; (ii) Portfolio Risk Management, (iii) Transboundary dams; and (iv) International rivers’, Four separate workshops delivered at World Bank Annual Water Week Conference, Washington D.C., 4 – 8 April 2016.

Tingey-Holyoak, J.L. and Pisaniello, J.D. (2015), ‘Overcoming water sharing risk in Australian agriculture: Policy and practice for vulnerable farmers, communities and environments’, Guest Lecture to Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 6 October 2015.

Pisaniello, J.D. and Tingey-Holyoak, J. (2013), ‘Cost-effective design/review tools for farm dams in Tasmania – Spillwaysafe Tasmania’, Presentation and workshop given at Dept of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Hobart, Tasmania, November 13-14, 2013.

Hawks, H., Carter, A., Burritt, R. L. and Pisaniello, J. D. (2013), ‘When advice gets personal’, InTheBlack CPA Australia magazine, itbdigital.com, Nov 2013, pp 55-58.

Pisaniello, J.D., Tingey-Holyoak, J. And Burritt, R.L. (2012). ‘Water Storage - Appropriate small dam management for minimising catchment-wide safety and drought threats’, Water Engineering Australia magazine, Engineers Australia, July 2012 Edition, pp. 22-23.

Carter, A., Burritt, R. L. and Pisaniello, J. D. (2012) ‘Pre-1970 use of environmental management accounting in a ‘stock and crop’ enterprise’, Research paper presented at 5th Accounting History Symposium (30 June) held as part of Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) Conference, Melbourne, 30 June - 3 July 2012.

Pisaniello, J.D., Tingey-Holyoak, J. and Burritt, R.L. (2012). ‘Appropriate small dam management for minimising catchment-wide safety and drought threats’, Global Water Forum, UNESCO, 3 April 2012, pp.1-3, www.globalwaterforum.org.

Pisaniello, J.D., Tingey-Holyoak, J. and Burritt, R.L. (2012). ‘Appropriate small dam management for minimising catchment-wide safety and drought threats’, GWF Discussion Paper 1212, Global Water Forum, Canberra, Australia, pp.1-5, Available on line at: http://www.globalwaterforum.org/2012/04/03/appropriate-small-dam-management-for-minimising-catchment-wide-safety-and-drought-threats/.

Balcerak, E. and Pisaniello, J.D. (2012), 'Small dams need better management', Eos Transactions, American Geophysical Union magazine, Vol 93 No 12, p. 132.

Pisaniello, J. D. (2011) ‘Big problems for Australia’s small dams’, International Water Power and Dam Construction, industry journal, Vol 63, No 3, March 2011.

Dam, T., Pisaniello, J. D. and Burritt, R. L. (2011) ‘Small dams: a big cause for concern in Vietnam’, International Water Power and Dam Construction, industry journal, Vol 63, No 4, pp.18-22, May 2011.

Pisaniello, J. D. (2009) ‘Addressing on-farm surface water storage management issues in Australia for sustainable and safe catchments – lessons for Vietnam’, Combined Presentation, Workshop and Tour conducted for Vietnamese Delegates from Ministry of Science and Technology, Vietnam Academy for Water Resources and Institute for Water and Environment, University of South Australia, Adelaide, 20 July 2009.

Current Research

I am a lawyer and engineer possessing engineering, law and policy modelling experience developed from a law degree (Hons A), a civil engineering degree (Hons 1), a trans-disciplinary PhD, an ARC APD Fellowship, 2 x ARC Discovery Projects (DP0210229 and DP0987825), a large RIRDC project and many other national and international water projects over the past 20 years.

I am currently a Research Professor in the UniSA Business Academic Unit at the University of South Australia. I am Research Leader of the Sustainable Engineering, Accounting and Law Group that focuses mainly on trans-disciplinary research projects in the water sector both in Australia and internationally. My research has always been trans-disciplinary in nature as I am both a Civil Engineer and a Lawyer, and in recent years I have also gained expertise in social science, accountability and sustainability accounting type research. In summary, my research and consulting capabilities comprise:

• developing and integrating best-practice engineering design/review, accountability and legal compliance into cost-effective models, coupled with
• comparative analysis of international systems (eg review and comparison of engineering technologies, processes and standards used, and the policies, laws, regulations, institutions and financing arrangements adopted in varying contexts and jurisdictions) to identify lessons, benchmarks and elements of better practice, and
• consultation and engagement of communities and policy makers (eg quantitative and qualitative surveys/research of stakeholder attitudes, perceptions and behaviours to determine necessary behaviour change), to assist Australian or overseas government policy and law reform, thereby
• overall promoting and facilitating equity, sustainability and safety in areas such as water resources and conservation, planning, development and environmental law, dam management and flood safety, and water-related public and environmental protection policy. 

Research Career and Highlights

Since obtaining my PhD in 1998 until 2006, I was predominantly a Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Centre for Comparative Water Policies and Laws in the School of Commerce at the University of South Australia. In 2007 I was appointed a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Accounting, Governance and Sustainability (CAGS) in the School of Commerce. In 2008 I was competitively awarded a place in UniSA’s inaugural Research Leadership and Development Program. In 2010 I was appointed an ARC Assessor by the Australian Research Council. In 2012 I was also appointed Associate Director of CAGS. In 2014 I founded the Sustainable Engineering, Accounting and Law Group in the UniSA Business School which I have led to date. In late 2016 I was appointed Associate Research Professor at UniSA and in 2022 I was promoted to Research Professor of Engineering Law. My work has been in the areas of water management and resource sharing, hazard and risk assessment, safety assurance policy, dam safety, sustainable development, environmental management, comparative law, and stakeholder consultation and attitudinal surveys. I have worked tirelessly to educate State Government representatives in Australia on the latent issues and associated policy needs in the area of private dam management and flood safety: this has led to securing $600,000 of national competitive core research funds from the Australian Research Council (2 x Discovery Grants) and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, as well as over $400,000 of collaborative support from other organisations including state government departments, councils and water boards and Australian industry and professional bodies to undertake necessary research. I have developed a cost-effective flood safety design/review model for private dams based on my PhD work leading to trademarking of the SpillwaySafeâ technology and subsequent commercialisation. At the international level I have worked with the World Bank and Vietnamese and Chinese governments to undertake comparative law studies in the dam safety area. As a result the Australian Water Partnership in 2015 endorsed me to partner on their improved water resource management projects in the Indo-Pacific region. In 2016-2020 I was awarded $800,000+ to undertake a global study involving 51 country case studies and comparative analysis to inform the development of legal, institutional, technical and financial frameworks and models for dam safety management appropriate for varying country circumstances.