Healthy Landscapes: Landscape Knowledge
Our goal by 2025: Individuals, communities and organisations understand their local landscapes, including their natural, cultural and economic value and how to live safely within them.
There is much we still must learn about Australia’s complex and unique landscapes. Many individuals and organisations are investing significant effort to better understand our local flora, fauna and ecosystems and their relationship to fire and flood. However, it is estimated we have detailed knowledge for just 25 per cent of Australian native species.
The various data sources that do exist are often fragmented, making it challenging to analyse and make decisions about different, complex ecosystems. Different layers of information are required to inform decisions on resilience-focused land management practices and to support recovery after a hazard event, including:
- The relationship of landscapes and species to surrounding communities and land uses.
- The characteristics of landscapes including their ecological value, economic value, cultural value, relationship to fire and flood, and the ecosystem services they provide.
- History, including land and water management practices and previous damage from disaster events.
- Current condition, including soil characteristics and fuel load density that impact the likelihood and severity of fire and flood.
- Methods to improve wildlife outcomes from fires through both prevention and recovery approaches.
- Current land management, water management and risk mitigation practices.
Our opportunity
Through collaborative efforts that link new and existing data sources, we can create a more comprehensive view of Australia’s landscapes and wildlife. This will help build an understanding of the interactions between landscape, wildlife, fire and flood. Information that is accessible, actionable and engaging will help to drive the widespread adoption of locally appropriate resilience-based land and wildlife management practices.
We will work with others to build a national “living landscape” evidence base to better understand disaster risk and ecosystem needs before, during and after disaster events and develop interventions that target landscape and wildlife health and resilience.
In the long term we will create a measurable reduction in the proportion of landscape in the high risk category, reduce fuel loads, increase water availability and quality, create jobs for local communities and reduce carbon emissions.
