What is sustainability

We define regional sustainability to mean that the social, economic and ecological systems of a region persist indefinitely (see Design for Resilience) without a downward trend in human welfare, degradation of land and water resources, or reduction of options for future generations. Seen in these terms, human use of the NSW rangelands has not been sustainable.

Seeking a historical context

Historical trends are important in providing a context for the development and use of the region. Our analysis gives information on the development of water points, expansion of pastoralism, changes in livestock numbers, wool production, and regional development.

>>> A draft paper is being prepared (PDF 343 Kb)

Developing a project map base

Developing a mapping base in a critical component of any land use planning exercise. Key decisions are needed in the selection of mapping units. Our development of the map base included generation of line work, subdivision of existing data covers, reduction in line resolution while maximising representation of small map units, and selection of the map projection.

>>> View the itemised list of land attributes.

Land use value and compatibility

We used the SIRO-MED process to establish the value of land for various uses. Stakeholders identified actual or potential land uses and told us what characteristics of the land made it more or less suitable for each use. Researchers wrote rules for estimating the suitability of land for land uses, and collected data required by the rules. For example, a rule about Aboriginal spiritual value required data about cultural heritage; a rule about dryland cropping needed data on climate and soils. We used WinLUPIS software to generate maps of 'suitability' or 'land use value' from the rules and data. Fifty five such maps were generated, one for each potential land use. Each map was discussed with the stakeholder group advocating it, and rules were modified until the map accorded with stakeholders' knowledge of the land and the land use.

>>> View the results from the stakeholders' land uses.

There are land use conflicts in the Western Division among Aboriginal peoples, the agro-pastoral and the conservation sectors. We explored conflicts for all sectors by asking stakeholders which pairs of land uses could coexist on the same tract of land. These were presented in matrix form to express the levels of compatibility.

>>> (25 Kb (A3))  Investigate the matrix.

Future scenarios of land use change

Part of the visioning process was the creation of future social, economic and land use scenarios (Third Milestone Report, March 2000). Together with an economic modeller (using an input-output model), we generated scenarios favouring the interests of each stakeholder sector in turn. We estimated impacts of growth in each stakeholder sector on flows of money through the regional economy, household incomes, employment, welfare payments, soil erosion hazard, shrub encroachment, carbon storage and biodiversity. We also explored the implications of climatic change. Outputs were communicated to policy makers so they could take the implications into account in the analysis of current policies and laws, and the design of changes.

Institutional design to support sustainable land use

In keeping with the theory of Psychology underpinning the project, policy makers from 47 organisations were invited to participate in the analysis and design of laws and policies to enhance the sustainability of the Western Division. They participated in the building of a systems model of the laws, policies, physical and economic constraints that determine land allocation within the region.

When understanding of policies, laws and organisations was sufficient, researchers and policy makers proposed changes. They were encouraged to incorporate principles of design for resilience into their proposals. They worked in five groups, each representing the interests of one stakeholder sector. Once preliminary changes to laws and policies had been drafted, each policy group commented on the changes proposed by other groups from the perspective of the stakeholder sector it represented. Each policy group also suggested modifications that would reduce negative impacts on other stakeholder groups, and enhance positive effects. Taking such an holistic approach is a significant improvement over the traditional agency based approach of restricting the analysis to those policies and laws for which one agency is directly responsible.

Evaluation of project performance

Each participant, whether stakeholder or policy maker, filled in a questionnaire at the first and subsequent workshops, and gave us the name and address of a "twin" — a person with similar profession, background and values who is not involved in the project. The twin was approached by 'phone and asked to fill in the same questionnaire. Stakeholders and their control group answered questionnaires during workshops in 1997 and 1999. Participants in the institutional change process (the policy makers) and their control group completed questionnaires during workshops in 1997 and 2000. The results were compared at the end of the project and presented as part of the final report.