Adapted future landscapes – from aspiration to implementation

This project sought to integrate a stakeholder engagement process called envisioning with the development of a web based planning interface called the Landscape Futures Analysis Tool (LFAT, http://www.lfat.org.au/lfat/). The LFAT developed through this project enabled easy assessment of the possible implications for land use and water resources arising from climate change, commodity prices and carbon pricing. Implemeted in the Eyre Peninsula and South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resource Management (NRM) regions, the LFAT found that it will be possible to adapt to a changing climate if changes in land use are made. The LFAT also highlighted that policy incentives are likely to be needed to guide and encourage changed practice. Use of the LFAT helped to demonstrate to end users that: (1) agricultural opportunities in the region rest on the adoption of different management regimes or changes in land use on soil types identified as being negatively impacted by climate change; (2) in both study regions, conservation priorities became concentrated in more southern latitudes and higher altitudes as warming and drying increased; and (3) a large gradient exists in carbon sequestration potential from the drier to wetter areas with economically viable carbon plantings indicated only in the wetter areas.