NESP Project 2.3 – Weed invasion, fire and ecosystem failure: catchment scale scenario modelling to improve planning and management

Note: Revised with additional activity: Remote sensing of high biomass grasses

This project will collate existing information on impacts of land change/transformation on ecosystem function, collect additional data where necessary, and model the likely scenarios of changes in ecosystem function, including fire regimes, over the next 30 years. We aim to adapt and validate fire behaviour models (in collaboration with Landgate WA and Bushfires NT) to apply to areas that have been converted to pasture or forest and areas transformed to dense gamba grass within the study area and elsewhere in the savanna region. We will use this information to model future fire behaviour in the study area, impacts on ecosystem function and predict potential ecosystem failure to improve planning and management practice.
This project will also develop and test remotely sensed methods to map the distribution of gamba grass and other high-biomass grasses at a scale, reliability and cost suitable to be a mechanism for monitoring in the two draft ERF savanna fire management determinations. The project will be developed and implemented in consultation with the DoEE to ensure that the approach is suitable for ERF applications