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Landscape modelling
(Savanna.au)
The Issue
A large number of factors must be taken into account whenever a decision is made about managing the tropical savannas. Land managers incoporate a lot of understanding when making decisions. Likewise, simulation modelling allows us to incorporate years of scientific research and understanding and provide predictions that can inform management decisions and investigate the outcomes of future decisions.
CSIRO Research
In partnership with the Tropical Savannas CRC and Colorado State University, CSIRO has developed a version of the Savanna model for Australian savannas. Savanna.au is a process based simulation model which means it tracks changes in a large range of factors important to the tropical savannas such as grass biomass and composition, climate, soil water, runoff and deep drainage, carbon budgets, cattle grazing, litter and fuel for fires at detailed levels. The model is designed to simulate a hillslope (small catchment) or paddock as a management unit. This is valuable for determining the effect of different stocking rates on pasture production and composition or on the amount of runoff and sediment flowing into surrounding creeks and rivers with heavy rainfall.
CSIRO has also developed an index, called the Leakiness Index, to track landscape health from a sequence of aerial photographs or satellite images. The Leakiness Index has been developed with CSIRO colleagues in Alice Springs. The aim of this index is to provide a simple and robust index that can be measured on many occasions to see whether the landscape in question is getting better or worse at retaining valuable resources such as water, nutrients and soil. From these indices a manager can be informed about long term trends in the health of their landscape.
| International Collaboration |
The Savanna.au model has been developed in collaboration with Mike Coughenour, Colorado State University, USA and is based on the Savanna model developed for African savannas.
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| Resources |
Leakiness Calculator
(Application)
Cover based Directional Leakiness Calculator (V2.0)
Leakiness Index web page
(Web Page)
One outcome of the landscape modelling research in Darwin and Alice Springs has been the development of the Leakiness Index.
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Collaborators
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