Australian Land Use Research Articles

Short-time-series grassland mapping using Sentinel-2 imagery and deep learning-based architecture

In the present work, a deep learning-based network called LeNet is applied for accurate grassland map production from Sentinel-2 data for the Greater Sydney region, Australia. First, we apply the technique to the base date Sentinel-2 data (non-seasonal) to make the vegetation maps. Then, we combine short time-series (seasonal) data and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) information to the base date imagery to improve the classification results and generate high-resolution grassland maps. The proposed model obtained an overall accuracy (OA) of 88.36% for the mono-temporal data, and 92.74% for the multi-temporal data. The experimental products proved that, by combining the short time-series images and EVI information to the base date, the classification maps' accuracy is increased by 4.38%. Moreover, the Sentinel-2 produced grassland maps are compared with the pre-existing maps such as Australian Land Use and Management (ALUM) 50 m resolution and Dynamic Land Cover Dataset (DLCD) with 250 m resolution as well as some traditional machine learning methods such as Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF). The results show the effect of the LeNet network's performance and efficiency for grassland map production from short time-series data. As a result, decision-makers and urban planners can benefit from this work in terms of grassland change identification, monitoring, and planning assessment.

Vegetation cover dependence on accumulated antecedent precipitation in Australia: Relationships with photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic vegetation fractions

The development of fractional vegetation cover products for Australia that resolve cover into photosynthetic vegetation (FPV), non-photosynthetic vegetation (FNPV) and bare soil/rock (FBS) provides a new basis for examination of responses of vegetation cover to long term precipitation cycles, and to explore the interaction between these responses and land cover type, land use and other land surface properties. In this study, the relationship between accumulated antecedent precipitation (AAP) from 1 to 60 months and average monthly FPV and FNPV from the MODIS Fractional Cover Product is examined over a 17 year period from 2001 to 2018. The maximum R2 value, regression coefficients for the maximum R2, and number of accumulated months to the maximum R2 were mapped for each month of the year for FPV and FNPV. Behaviour of responses in relation to land use, land cover, and soil water holding capacity was analysed based on pixel frequencies of classes at sub-region scale in the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia. The analysis showed that FPV is largely dependent upon AAP in the preceding 12 months, however responses to longer periods of AAP also occur in specific land use-vegetation type combinations. The study also showed that positive responses in FNPV could be driven by AAP from as much as 60 months, but that FNPV is reduced in many areas in response to increased AAP. The presence or absence of domesticated livestock grazing as defined by Australian land use mapping was a major influence on response to AAP of both FPV and FNPV with statistical analysis indicating interactions between major natural vegetation type and grazing. In highly responsive areas (R2 > 0.6) monitoring of land condition could be enhanced by testing of regional cover levels for major deviations from the long terms responses that might suggest land management concerns.

Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) Useful Australian Land Use Practice-Suitable for the World

Protection of the Environment and Sustainability goes hand in hand as one mechanism compliments the other. On the other hand, Sustainable Economic Growth can only be achieved if it is linked to Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD). Sustainability can best be described as "Living within the limit of what the environment can provide while safe guarding the environment for future generation, Understanding the many connections between environment, society and economy, and equitable distribution of resources and opportunities". Uncontrolled Green House Gas Emission has caused global warming, sea level rise, change of weather pattern (e.g severe untimely rainfall at unusual location), and alarming increase of natural disasters (Cyclone, Hurricane, Floods, Tsunamis and other natural phenomena). Third world countries are worst affected by the Green House Gas Emission and Global Warming Impact and Bangladesh is one of them. UN has taken a leading role and guiding the world to work together not only to reduce pollution but to make significant contribution in achieving pristine environmental conditions. Under the umbrella of UN, the world is now taking collective action to reduce Green House Gas Emission and Tackle Global Warming Impacts. Concerted efforts must be taken in an accelerated pace to educate at Global, Regional, National and Community level, about the benefits of the above-mentioned concepts and introduce incentive-based programs for mass participation. The environmental cleanup process should start from individual home and gradually extending to community, national and global level to achieve accelerated measurable success. An opportunity must be created to reform land use change, replacing pollution producing industries with environmentally sustainable practices. It is overdue to put through a series of EPA recommended processes to clean up the contaminated land, soil and water and secondly, introduce and adapt an Ecologically Sustainable Development program. The long-term goal should be to expedite and spread the land use change practices to relace the contaminated practices and introduce mandatory adaption of environment friendly technology for the ongoing industrial and business activities to reduce pollution while contributing improving the environment. With a global collective action this world can be transformed into a heaven on earth.

Increased Dust Deposition in New Zealand Related to Twentieth Century Australian Land Use

AbstractMineral aerosols (dust) generated in the dryland regions of Australia have the potential to reach New Zealand through atmospheric transport. Although a large portion of dust in New Zealand originates in Australia, little is known about how dust deposition has varied over time in New Zealand or what may have caused this variation. We used geochemical dust proxies to examine the recent history of dust deposition to two alpine lakes in Kahurangi National Park, South Island, New Zealand. Geochemical indicators suggest that dust deposition began to increase around 1900, with the greatest deposition rates occurring from ~1920 to ~1990. In subsequent decades, dust deposition rates to New Zealand lakes appear to have declined. This rise and fall of dust deposition recorded in New Zealand lakes is consistent with dust records from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, Eastern Australia, and incidents of low visibility due to dust events recorded at Australian climate stations. The dust deposition rate over time also follows the temporal pattern of land use in south and central Australia over the time scale of the twentieth century suggesting a causal linkage. It is possible, and perhaps likely, that drought cycles also affected both emissions and transport pathways but over shorter time periods this was difficult to discern at the temporal resolution of these lake sediment cores. The increase in dust deposition to the high‐elevation regions of New Zealand likely has implications for the biogeochemistry of alpine lakes in the Tasman Mountains.

Aboriginal Voices and Inclusivity in Australian Land Use Country Planning

Following the Australian High Court’s decision in the <em>Mabo </em>case in 1992, it is now instrumental for land use planners to be educated and skilled in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) people’s rights, interests, needs and aspirations in conventional and contemporary land use planning processes to ensure inclusivity within Australian culture and its structures. As an applied science discipline, for land use planning these imperatives include formally recognising ATSI peoples’ long connections with <em>Country</em>, acceptance of the High Court’s rejection of the doctrine of <em>terra nullius</em>, recognition that ATSI people will always retain their special relationship with and responsibility for land and sea <em>Country</em>, but more importantly incorporating Indigenous land planning values into extant Western land use planning instruments (ALGA 1999:225). This paper reviews and critiques the position and alignment of this applied science discipline, from an Indigenous perspective, and its policy and education accreditation governance role in responding to contemporary land use determinations as it impacts upon inclusivity of Indigenous knowledge, law, and policy in practice and educating the future generation of land use planners.

Scenarios for Australian agricultural production and land use to 2050

Australian agricultural land use and production have evolved within an economic and environmental context that may change substantially in terms of productivity rates, resource scarcity and degradation, greenhouse gas abatement policy, climate change, and global demand. We used an integrated systems modelling approach to explore the response of Australian land use and agricultural production to these changes from 2013 to 2050. We found potentially large transitions in spatial and temporal patterns of land use, agricultural production, output rates, and profitability. New land uses such as carbon plantings, biofuels and bioenergy, and environmental plantings competed with food and fibre production, reducing its area. Global outlooks, including the strength of action on climate change and population assumptions, had a strong influence. Capacity constraints and adoption inertia reduced and delayed land use change. Agricultural production and land use were sensitive to productivity assumptions. Despite the competition for land from new land uses, agricultural production increased under most settings, with greatest impact from land use transitions concentrated on livestock production. Agricultural profits also increased under most settings due to higher prices and output rates. Negligible land use change was observed with carbon payments below $50 per tCO2-e, and significant change did not occur before 2030 in any but the unconstrained, high-abatement scenarios. We conclude that transformative land use change is plausible but high levels of food/fibre production can co-exist with non-food land uses motivated by market responses to global change and domestic policy. Thereby, the Australian land sector can continue its significant contribution to global food security while responding to new economic opportunities. Policy settings can influence these outcomes through reducing infrastructure constraints, strategies for enhancing adoption, and research and development in agricultural technology and productivity. Due to the long time frames required to change attitudes and land use and management practices, consideration of the possible impacts of global change on agriculture and potential policy responses is timely.

Modelling Australian land use competition and ecosystem services with food price feedbacks at high spatial resolution

In a globalised world, land use change outlooks are influenced by both locally heterogeneous land attributes and world markets. We demonstrate the importance of high resolution land heterogeneity representation in understanding local impacts of future global scenarios with carbon markets and land competition influencing food prices. A methodologically unique Australian continental model is presented with bottom-up parcel scale granularity in land use change, food, carbon, water, and biodiversity ecosystem service supply determination, and partial equilibrium food price impacts of land competition. We show that food price feedbacks produce modest aggregate national land use and ecosystem service supply changes. However, high resolution results show amplified land use change and ecosystem service impact in some places and muted impacts in other areas relative to national averages. We conclude that fine granularity modelling of geographic diversity produces local land use change and ecosystem service impact insights not discernible with other approaches.

A new approach for mapping regional land cover and the application of this approach in Australia

Detailed and accurate land cover data are widely used for various purposes, such as global land use change detection. This study aimed to investigate Australian land use and cover change by using 774 Landsat scenes in 2000 and 2010. The reference data included pictures or high-resolution images from Google Earth, global land cover data, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, and other literature. Australian land cover was automatically classified into nine main classes, namely cropland, forest, grassland, shrubs, wetland, water, artificial covering, bare land, and others, by using a global land cover decision tree developed for computer-based image classification. Obvious mistakes were subsequently modified manually. Finally, the classifications were found to have overall accuracies of 93.24% and 92.79% evaluated by using 2820 and 3820 sample points, respectively.

Sustainable development control? Zoning and land use regulations for urban form, biodiversity conservation and green design in Australia

This paper examines how Australian land use plans incorporate provisions for sustainable urban form, design, biodiversity conservation, and climate change. Despite the long-standing sustainability objectives in state policy frameworks, a survey of 291 comprehensive plans finds implementation within local instruments is far from universal. Differences in patterns of policy adoption, as well as potential explanations for these differences, including geographical location, patterns of residential growth, the socio-economic composition of local communities, political forces, and policy evolution over time, are explored. Overall, areas experiencing more intensive growth tend to have newer plans, which in turn, contain more sustainability provisions, suggesting a responsive rather than repressive relationship between development pressures and regulatory development control.

Natural Hazard Resilient Communities and Land Use Planning: The Limitations of Planning Governance in Tropical Australia

This paper examines how two Australian land use planning systems address the creation of hazard resilient communities in tropical areas. The application of substantive hazard knowledge and how this influences the associated procedures within the planning system is examined. The case studies of Darwin the capital of the Northern Territory, and the beachside suburb of Machans Beach within the Cairns Regional Council in far north Queensland are investigated. Both case study locations have experienced tropical cyclones since settlement and despite their hazard prone locations, both have intensified over their 120 year existence. Moreover, it is predicted that cyclones in tropical Australia will decrease in number, but increase in intensity. It would be rational to assume that industry, community and government would actively pursue planning strategies to negate the risks of natural hazards and the corresponding level of vulnerability to a hazard event. However, neither communities nor planning are driven by rational technical decision making processes. The paper concludes that the rhetoric for creating hazard resilient communities dominates national and state government policy, however this has minimal influence upon the legal framework that protects development rights. It would appear that the safe development paradox is present in the Australian land use planning system, and that the focus of planning is on creating certainty of development rights and achieving efficiencies through urban settlement patterns, as opposed to creating hazard resilient communities.

Use of planning agreements to support sustainability and environmental preservation

PurposeSustainable values and implementation tools are now more widely included in Australian land use planning and development. Planning agreements are one instrument by which environmental values and preservation can be made more enduring, particularly as planning agreements run with the land. Little has been said about these agreements and the purpose of this paper is to strive to add to the body of knowledge in this area. The aim of this paper is to introduce a contextual framework for planning agreements, drawing on collaborative planning theory and practice. It also demonstrates how planning agreements can been used as a tool to preserve environmental values and principles generally, and more particularly the rich flora and fauna in the surrounding housing estate adjacent to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Cranbourne, Victoria, Australia.Design/methodology/approachThe paper relies on a case study from the municipality of Casey located in the state of Victoria and introduces measures taken, via planning agreements between the municipality and estate developers, to preserve green values and the flora and fauna located in the surrounds of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Cranbourne.FindingsThe case study suggests that, whilst the planning agreements may have established excellent procedure and practice to preserve the flora and fauna at the botanic gardens and in its surrounds, the effectiveness of the planning agreements as an environmental preservation tool has limitations. This may be due to the lack of resources for more effective information dissemination and enforcement. Ultimately, it may have to be left to the goodwill of residents to ensure environmental protection of the botanic gardens and its surrounds is maintained.Research limitations/implicationsAs the housing estate is still a young development, the case study is an exploratory approach. This leaves open the opportunity for further data to be gathered from estate residents into the effectiveness of the preservation and enforcement of the green values and principles raised in the planning agreements. There is also the opportunity to take the study further to ascertain longitudinally, how respectful original and subsequent owners are of the green values planted in the planning agreements.Originality/valueThe analysis of the case study is instructive, particularly as there is a dearth of literature on how effective planning law agreements are as an environmental preservation and sustainability tool.

Closer settlement in the Western District of Victoria: a case study in Australian land use policy, 1898–1914

The promotion of closer settlement in the Australian state of Victoria between 1898 and 1914 was viewed as a panacea to many of the problems that beset the state. The region known as the Western District of Victoria was seen as particularly suitable for the application of land re-settlement policy. The study of this region highlights several important features of the closer settlement experiment in Victoria. First, it illustrates how the basic principles of closer settlement were used to further the interests of particular groups. Second, it highlights the flaws in foundations of the Closer Settlement Act which impacted on the settlers chances of success. And thirdly it points to the disastrous implications of policy implementation that paid little attention to the geographical and economic parameters governing the outcome of farming enterprises.

A modified ecological footprint method and its application to Australia

We present a new calculation of Australia's ecological footprint. Modifications have been made to the concept as originally proposed, in response to its perceived shortcomings: rather than characterising the consumption of the Australian population in terms of appropriated ‘bioproduction’ at world-average productivity, a regional, disturbance-based approach is taken, including actual Australian land use and emissions data. We consider greenhouse gases other than CO 2 and emission sources other than energy use. We re-classify land use and introduce a weighting system to describe the degree of land disturbance. For our calculations, we employ a single-region, static, partially closed input–output framework. Australia's ecological footprint is determined based on actual land use as well as on land disturbance. We set up National Greenhouse Gas and Ecological Footprint Accounts distinguishing imports, domestic consumption, and exports. We investigate variations of the ecological footprint with demographic factors such as income, expenditure, size, and location of households, and draw some policy implications from our results. When determined based on actual land use on all types of land, Australia's ecological footprint is about 13.6 hectares per capita (ha/cap), which is considerably larger than results obtained in previous studies. After weighting, a land disturbance of 7.2 ha/cap is obtained. The per-capita ecological footprint shows a correlation with household expenditure, which can be described by an elasticity η E=0.64. Furthermore, the per-capita ecological footprint decreases noticeably with household size.

Prospects for land use planning in arid Australia.

This paper describes the types of controls available to Australian land use planners, along with a brief survey of current issues in the use and management of the arid zone. The authors discuss possible roles for each of the four main types of available controls (zoning, site and management plans, performance standards and project impact assessment) in the arid zone. They conclude that performance standards and project impact assessment procedures are the controls most likely to prove useful in the management of the arid zone.