Transformational Change of Regional Landscapes: Navigating Planetary Limits and Resource Constraints Over the Next Five Decades

The project brought together a group of Australian researchers and managers with a broad range of expertise to identify current and emerging economies (‘drivers’) affecting regional agricultural landscapes and to suggest beneficial transformational changes for successful adaptation. A key challenge in these landscapes is altering how we use the land for ongoing, viable production while increasing native biodiversity. The group:

  • identified the major historical influences on Australian land use and the current social and economic drivers that are likely to increase in the future
  • assessed the condition of five agro-climatic regions (adapted from Williams et al., 2002 and Hobbs and McIntyre, 2005) using a Delphi method. A small (4-person) expert panel scored the impact of historical and future scenarios on ten sustainability indicators (biodiversity, water, soil, social capital, built capital, food/fibre, carbon, energy, minerals and cultural). Five regions were chosen: Southern Mediterranean, Northern tropical, Central arid, North-east subtropical, and South-east temperate. This was an iterative process whereby scores were revisited until internal consistency between regions, scenarios, and indicators was achieved
  • made projections of regional condition under the four global Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) based on van Vuuren et al. (2011)
  • developed recommendations about land use and management, institutional and policy arrangements and social processes that will assist adaptation towards a values-rich vision of Australia in 2100.

Data and Resources

  • HTML

    Meyer W., Bryan B., Campbell C. A., Harris G., Lefroy T., Lyle G., Martin P., McLean J., Montagu K., Rickards L., Summers D., Thackway R., Wells S. and Young M. (2013). Transformational change of regional landscapes: navigating planetary limits and resource constraints over the next five decades. Zenodo

  • XLSX

    Central arid indictors

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    Meyer W., Bryan B., Campbell C. A., Harris G., Lefroy T., Lyle G., Martin P., McLean J., Montagu K., Rickards L., Summers D., Thackway R., Wells S. and Young M. (2013). Transformational change of regional landscapes: navigating planetary limits and resource constraints over the next five decades. Zenodo

  • XLSX

    North-east sub-tropical scenarios

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    Meyer W., Bryan B., Campbell C. A., Harris G., Lefroy T., Lyle G., Martin P., McLean J., Montagu K., Rickards L., Summers D., Thackway R., Wells S. and Young M. (2013). Transformational change of regional landscapes: navigating planetary limits and resource constraints over the next five decades. Zenodo

  • XLSX

    Northern Tropical biodiversity indicator

  • HTML

    Meyer W., Bryan B., Campbell C. A., Harris G., Lefroy T., Lyle G., Martin P., McLean J., Montagu K., Rickards L., Summers D., Thackway R., Wells S. and Young M. (2013). Transformational change of regional landscapes: navigating planetary limits and resource constraints over the next five decades. Zenodo

  • DOCX

    region and scenario description

  • HTML

    Meyer W., Bryan B., Campbell C. A., Harris G., Lefroy T., Lyle G., Martin P., McLean J., Montagu K., Rickards L., Summers D., Thackway R., Wells S. and Young M. (2013). Transformational change of regional landscapes: navigating planetary limits and resource constraints over the next five decades. Zenodo

  • XLSX

    South Mediterranean scenarios

  • HTML

    Meyer W., Bryan B., Campbell C. A., Harris G., Lefroy T., Lyle G., Martin P., McLean J., Montagu K., Rickards L., Summers D., Thackway R., Wells S. and Young M. (2013). Transformational change of regional landscapes: navigating planetary limits and resource constraints over the next five decades. Zenodo

  • XLSX

    South-east temperate region biodiversity indicator

  • HTML

    Meyer W., Bryan B., Campbell C. A., Harris G., Lefroy T., Lyle G., Martin P., McLean J., Montagu K., Rickards L., Summers D., Thackway R., Wells S. and Young M. (2013). Transformational change of regional landscapes: navigating planetary limits and resource constraints over the next five decades. Zenodo

  • HTML

    ro-crate-metadata.json

  • PNG

    Unnamed resource

Additional Information

Field Value
Published (Metadata Record) 03/03/2026
Last updated 03/03/2026
Organisation Australian Federal Government
License License Not Specified
Update Frequency Unknown