Planning for Climate Change in Natural Resource Management

Stream 2 of the Regional Natural Resource Management (NRM) Planning for Climate Change Fund helped NRM organisations plan for climate change by building their capacity to use climate change information, working directly with climate scientists.

The Australian Government provided $13.6 million for the development of regional climate change information, national climate impacts and adaptation information, and guidance on integrating the information into land-use planning tailored for NRM planners.

Stream 2 of the NRM Fund had three themes:

• National Climate Change Projections: Climate Change in Australia
• Impacts and Adaptation Information for Australia’s NRM Regions
• AdaptNRM

National climate change projections: Climate Change in Australia

The Climate Change in Australia website provides a comprehensive set of climate projections for Australia.

Impacts and Adaptation Information for Australia’s NRM Regions

The projections are region-specific and were produced to help NRM groups in each region understand and manage the impacts of the changing climate. Guidance covers a wide range of material, including technical environmental mapping, vulnerability assessments, carbon sequestration research, and guidance on developing adaptation pathways.

Research outputs for each region are available in the Impacts and Adaptation Information for Australia’s NRM Regions section of the Climate Change in Australia website.

The climate change projections use up to 40 global climate models driven by four greenhouse gas and aerosol emission scenarios and are presented for the eight regions of Australia which will be affected differently by climate change. Results have been prepared for 21 climate variables (both on the land and in the ocean) and for four 20-year time periods (centred on 2030, 2050, 2070 and 2090).

To help improve accessibility, usability and relevancy of the projections for the Australian public, the website houses 14 interactive tools for exploring the data at different levels of complexity. This ranges from the Regional Climate Change Explorer, a tool which presents a statement of projected change for each region, through to a projections data download facility, the Climate Futures Tool. Climate Change in Australia hosts a ‘Climate Campus’ for learning more about climate science and using projections in climate change impacts assessments.

• Climate Change in Australia

AdaptNRM

AdaptNRM (produced by CSIRO and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility) was developed to take national-level adaptation approaches and information sources and make them accessible and relevant for regional planning. There are five modules for AdaptNRM:

• Adaptation planning: the NRM Adaptation Checklist helps planners develop climate adaptation plans
• Weeds and climate change: a summary of knowledge about potential changes in weeds and weed management under climate change, with a framework for developing adaptation-ready weed management plans
• Implications for biodiversity: background about a technique used to model biodiversity and demonstrate how the results can be used to evaluate potential implications of climate change for vascular plants, mammals, reptiles and amphibians
• Adaptation of biodiversity: guides decisions regarding potential on-ground options for considering climate change adaptation in biodiversity management
• Shared learning: provides lessons from engagement with science and stakeholders on adaptation
• For further information, see the Adapt NRM website.