We know that a changing climate brings hotter, drier and more volatile weather impacts, but what does it do to our vines, our tomatoes, or our apples? The Goulburn Valley is known as the food bowl of Australia and is home to many people who heavily rely on these sectors.
The Climate Smart Agricultural Development (CSAD) project was a partnership project delivered by seven councils and the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority in the Goulburn Valley region of northern Victoria, aiming to discover what the climate impacts to our ag sector are likely to be by 2050.
The project saw the development of a spatial assessment tool which has given the project participants the capacity to see the spatial and temporal changes to the production areas of seventeen important regional commodities, and for the first time provides a picture of likely future land use patterns.
Project partners The partnership project was funded by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) through its Victorian Adaptation and Sustainability Partnership Program, together with contributions from the project partners;
Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP)
Online interactive mapping tool The GMCA, Goulburn Broken CMA and Deakin University developed an interactive mapping tool that allows users to see what the yield for a particular commodity might be given future geographic climate contexts.
The tool can be integrated into Council GIS systems and outputs viewed in the context of the local planning system. This allows council planners and decision makers to view the progression of agricultural productivity over time into 2050, and make decisions around economic development, investment and land-use planning. The tools can be used in conjunction with land-use planning, particularly in identifying and prioritising prime agricultural land and facilitating sustainable regional development.