An integrated decision support framework for ecosystem management at the local scale

Abstract

Ecosystem and landscape management presents a complex array of problems for decision-makers at all levels of government. Land-use planners and natural-resource managers are faced with the dual complexity of incorporating existing policy and planning constraints with scientific understanding about ecosystem and landscape processes, into the decision-making process. This requires enhanced decision-making frameworks, improved access to scientific knowledge, and an ability to apply this knowledge effectively across multiple spatial scales. This paper outlines an integrated decision-support framework and, as part of this framework, describes a decision-making tool (ECO-DECISION) for ecosystem management at the local scale in Queensland, Australia. ECO-DECISION integrates scientific understanding of ecosystems and sustainable landscape management with existing legislative and policy arrangements for native vegetation management. In Queensland, loss and fragmentation of habitat caused by land clearing poses the greatest threat to biodiversity and resource sustainability. ECO-DECISION provides support for the management of native ecosystems on individual, predominately rural properties (hectares), as well as their distribution in larger landscapes (100s-1000s hectares). It works by assigning vegetation-clearing controls to native ecosystems based on rules derived from both existing policy codes and landscape ecological theory. It links property-scale decisions with outcomes over entire landscapes, and evaluates these decisions according to landscape ecological indicators such as patch size and total area. ECO-DECISION demonstrates that spatial decision support tools are an effective means for incorporating scientific research into landscape management and planning.