Prof Neville Crossman is a Professorial Research Fellow in Economics. He is currently Program Leader (Adaptation and Innovation) and Government Engagement and Business Development Lead at the One Basin CRC.

He is internationally recognised leader in research and policy for managing land, water and biodiversity. His research focusses specifically on the social and economic benefits of good environmental stewardship and how this knowledge can improve decisions and investments in land and water in Australia and internationally. His 20-year career has spanned the research, policy and private sectors, including as a Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO (2005-2016), private international consultant (2016-2018) and as Lead Economist and Director of Social Economics at the Murray-Daling Basin Authority (2018-2024).

• Ecological economics
• Ecosystem service modelling and valuation
• Water economics and policy
• Natural resource management policy
• Environment-Economic and Natural Capital Accounting
• Climate Change Adaptation

Neville’s achievements of note include:

• Leadership of the 2012 “Assessment of the ecological and economic benefits of environmental water in the Murray–Darling Basin”, the first study to document benefits to the economy of Murray-Darling Basin Plan water recovery;
• Delivery of the UNCCD Drought Risk Assessment and Management Policy and Technical Guidelines, adopted by more than 30 Less Developed Countries for national drought planning;
• Development and leadership of the MDBA Social and Economic work program, including the Social and Economic themes of the Murray-Darling Water and Environment Research Program, Basin Condition Monitoring Program, and 2020 Basin Plan Evaluation.

He has also had numerous international advisory roles (United Nations, European Union, World Bank, WWF) where he contributed leadership and expertise on the science-policy of land and water systems. He has published nearly 70 papers in high-impact international refereed journals with over 13,000 career citations, given over 40 papers at international conferences and had editorial roles on several high impact international journals.

Neville is a member of the newly-formed Water, Environment and Food economics policy group (WEF) in College of Business, Government and Law (BGL) at Flinders University.

The team is comprised of eight distinguished environment and resource economists including award-winning Professor Sarah Wheeler, Professor Neville Crossman, and ARC Future Fellow Professor Alec Zuo, along with two PhD students. Their research aims to enhance the management and allocation of water in the Murray-Darling Basin, evaluate the impacts of water scarcity on regional and farming communities, develop water markets, promote sustainable farming practices, and assess the effects of drought and flooding.

Collaborating with industry and regional stakeholders and led by Professor Wheeler, the team aims to develop policies that tackle Australia's water challenges and the effects of climate change, with a strong commitment to real-world solutions and informing best practices for sustainable water management.

See Flinders News for more information.