Overview
The North East Catchment Management Authority is committed to assisting farming businesses make important management decisions based on predicted climate scenarios for the region. Private land holders manage around 50% of the catchments in the North East CMA and are critical for the production of food and fibre, community wellbeing and environmental assets.
It is expected that region-specific impact information will underpin the development of tools that support farming businesses make important management decisions based on predicted climate scenarios.
Project Overview and Outcomes
The North East CMA has initiated the Embedding climate adaptation in Agriculture (ECAiA) to increase the capacity of landholders, communities and local government to adapt to changes in regional climatic conditions. The first part of this four year project has developed spatial tools to help guide discussions about climate adaptation pathways
Partners for this project are North East CMA and six agricultural industry sectors (cropping, grazing, forestry, horticulture, viticulture, dairy) and six local governments. The knowledge and tools developed through the ECAiA will assist councils to support the local agricultural economy. The initiative is funded through the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.
The anticipated climate changes and their modeled impacts on agricultural productivity, in addition to water system balance impacts across the region, are presented in the spatial tools. Read about the project and its outcomes using the below tab.
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LATEST PROJECT NEWS
Moisture probe installed
North East CMA's Embedding Climate Change in Agriculture project is supporting the installation of a moisture probe at Benambra to allow the sharing of soil moisture and temperature information with farmers and soil scientists. Martin Peters from FarmingIT at Meredith has provided the following information and photographs about the installation. This project is supported by North East CMA and Agriculture Victoria with funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program.
- The probe is 2m away from the pole, perpendicular to the fence. It is trenched in like this:
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- The shallowest part of the probe is just over 150mm below ground level, with the cable about 200mm below the surface:
- The probe has eight soil temperature and eight soil moisture sensors equally spaced along its 800mm length. The first sensor is 200mm below the surface and the deepest is at 900mm.
To track information from the sensor, link to this website to show the updated graphs.
- The Soil Moisture Profile graphs show each individual sensor. there is no Y-axis on the graphs because each line is on a different scale. Lines are ordered top to the bottom down the page in the order they go down the profile. This makes it easy to visualise what is going on.
- What you can see is the profile slowly drying out from the top down.
- The Total Soil Moisture graph is simply all of the individual sensors added together.
- The Soil Temperature Profile overlays 4 depths on the same axis.
Over the next 12 months, as there is a complete wetting and drying cycle, there will be a lot more useful information available.
Case studies
Climate webinars
Agriculture Victoria has a series of interactive, online seminars on topics relating to climate and emissions in agriculture. Find them here
Embedding Climate Adaptation in Agriculture in North East Victoria
Lachlan Campbell is the Regional Agriculture Landcare Facilitator for the North East and project leader for the 'Embedding Climate Adaptation in Agriculture' project funded through the National Landcare Program. In this webinar for Agriculture Victoria in September 2020, he shares how the project has used climate change projections and applied these to assess potential impacts on agriculture production in North East Victoria. He also shares the spatial tools and engagement approach that have been developed which help guide discussions about climate adaptation pathways.
About the Tools
Spatial tools have been developed to assist agricultural sector groups, local councils, catchment managers and other stakeholders better understand anticipated changes to the climate over the next 30 years, and the likely implications. Before accessing the tools read about them using the below tab.
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Regional Climate
The climate data presented in the spatial tool includes the latest climate projection information available from CSIRO for North East Victoria. The tool comprises a series of map and graph based views of changes in climate variables. Read about and access the climate explorer tool using the below tab.
Regional Climate Explorer
Water Balance
The anticipated impact of climate change on surface water and its availability for agricultural users and the community is presented in the water balance explorer tool which you can read about and access using the below tab.
Water Balance Explorer
Agricultural Sectors
Spatial tools developed allow you to explore the anticipated impacts of climate change on the following agricultural sectors. Read about and access the tool related to your agricultural sector by selecting one of the tabs provided below.
Cropping Explorer
Horticulture Explorer
Viticulture Explorer
Dairy Explorer
Beef / Sheep Explorer
Forestry Explorer
Local Government
Spatial tools developed assist will councils support the local agricultural economy and a review of planning processes to build in resilience and adaptation to manage the impacts of climate change. Read about and access the local government explorer tool using the tab provided below.
Local Government Explorer
Further Reading & Resources
Find information concerning other relevant projects and resources using the tab provided below.
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