Innovation

A remote sensing approach for mapping and classifying riparian gully erosion in Tropical Australia

Recent aerial and ground reconnaissance through the Gulf of Carpentaria has identified riparian gully erosion as one of the dominant contemporary sediment sources to many of the large rivers draining into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Similar processes have also been identified in the Savannah regions of the NT and WA, particularly the Victoria and Ord Rivers. It has also been suggested that broad scale gully erosion of this type and associated local (more)...

The increasing density of shrubs and trees across a landscape

Woody thickening is a global phenomenon whereby the density of trees and woody shrubs is increasing in the landscape. Although most commonly seen in arid and semi-arid landscapes, it also occurs in other environments. This process has a number of impacts on landscape function. Woody thickening can be a naturally occurring phenomenon but is being enhanced by climate change, changes in fire regimes and other human land use activity. Woody thickening influences carbon storage and (more)...

Development of a Riparian Condition Assessment Approach for Northern Gulf Rivers using Remote Sensing and Ground Survey

Modelling impacts of vegetation cover change on regional climate

This study provided new evidence of the interactions, feedbacks and risks of natural climate variability, climate change and land use/land cover change impacting on the Australian continent and how they vary regionally. We reviewed evidence of climate change and underlying processes resulting from interactions between global warming caused by increased concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases and modification of the land surface. The consequences of ignoring the effect of land use/land cover change (more)...

Managing fertigation technologies in citrus orchards

With recent advances in technology irrigators can now more precisely control delivery of mineral nutrients and water to the roots of perennial tree crops. These technologies, collectively referred to as fertigation, provide the opportunity to adopt and implement highly technical management programs, such as open hydroponics, that use drip irrigation to deliver a balanced mixture of nutrients and water. This research bulletin provides an overview of a project, funded by the National (more)...

Facilitating Strategic Engagement between Land and Water Australia, the Natural Resource Management Sector and the Agribusiness Sector

Powerful Choices: transition to a biofuel economy in Australia

The Powerful Choices study uses a biophysical-economics model of the Australian economy to explore the capability of discrete low-carbon technologies to maintain economic growth, ensure energy security and reduce CO2 emissions out to 2051. The approach applies physical laws of thermodynamics and mass balance to established economic structures to ensure that financial dynamics are constrained by physical reality. Renewable electricity (bio-electricity, wind, solar thermal and (more)...

Improving Integration in NRM

Researchers and practitioners in natural resource management (NRM) are faced with multi-faceted knowledge integration considerations. This project analysed integrative concepts and methods from NRM, environmental science, public health, technology and security. It focused on two classes of integration methods - dialogue-based and common metrics-based. The findings are presented as a monograph on dialogue-based methods and a paper on common (more)...