Research Overview |
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| Development of an Adaptive Environmental Management framework |
| The overriding aim of this project is to facilitate links between science and policy to better manage World Heritage values in the GBMWHA, particularly in light of unprecedented drivers of change. There is great need to utilise information for capacity building and enabling the development of a spatially-explicit decision framework to ensure the sustainable conservation of the GBMWHA. |
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| Past and Current Ecosystem Condition |
| The past and current spatial extent and condition of ecosystems within the GBWMA will be quantified using two methods: remote sensing and GIS, and biodiversity and natural resource surveys. |
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| Reserve effectiveness |
| Schemes for evaluating the location and design of reserve systems rely upon methods for systematically selecting land units, taking into account reserve size, the number of separate land units within the system and their proximity, configuration, connectivity and shape. This is important because cost-effective options for conservation must be derived from a decision-making process that is quantitative and accountable. This component will explore a variety of approaches to contrast their effectiveness in the decision-making process in order to provide decision makers with the best available information. |
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| Responses to drivers |
| In this project we will focus on rapid climate change, altered fire regimes, invasive species, urban expansion and road development as drivers of change within the GBMWHA. We will spatially quantify the current and future impact of drivers on biodiversity within the GBMWHA. |
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| Modelling ecosystem condition and drivers |
| We will develop spatially-explicit population models of surrogate species to answer questions relating to reserve design, predicted impacts of drivers and the efficacy of different management strategies. Using this approach we will be able to quantify: the response of surrogate species to altered conditions; the efficacy of management decisions in reducing the impacts of altered conditions; and the sensitivity of ecosystem condition to individual drivers and future scenarios of change. |
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