The Community Adaptability Tool: Securing the wealth and wellbeing of rural communities

Environmental and economic changes are impacting on rural and regional Australia. Drought, drying, floods and fires persistently impact on peoples’ livelihoods and wellbeing. Significant policy changes for example, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, as well as the cycle of resource booms, impact on the viability and live-ability of our communities. Rural communities are increasingly faced with the need to adapt in the face of change but they often do not have access to the specific information needed to inform their decisions. Even when the information is available, it is rarely in a form which communities find either usable or acceptable.

This project developed a methodology, the Community Adaptability Tool, for enabling communities to assess their socio-economic sustainability in the face of many change processes. This report describes ‘concept testing’ of the specific discipline-based (economics, demography, community development, sociology and social research) components of the Community Adaptability Tool, as well as testing of the extent to which they could produce useful socio-economic indicators which communities could use to inform their decision making. Examples have been included of the information collected in three case study sites (Waikerie, St George and Gunnedah).