Wheatbelt to face radical rethink on agricultural sustainability

A new study from Murdoch's School of Environmental Science is considering a radical rethink in how natural resource management and policy is tackled in Australia.

Through this study Dr Helen Allison and Professor Richard Hobbs are aiming to fi nd new ways of thinking about the apparently intractable problems facing agriculture in Australia, which in turn can lead to more effective management and policy

'Traditionally we have always dealt with issues such as salinity, eutrophication of water supply or falling farmer terms as isolated problems' Dr Allison said.

'However instead of just treating symptoms, we need to fi nd ways to fi nd actual cures for fundamental issues. In order to do this, we need to treat areas such as the Western Australian wheatbelt as complex systems with many interlinked components, all of which interact, and which are also affected by global economic and social issues. In the past policy and management responses have been piecemeal and incremental, tackling individual components one at a time rather than holistically.'

'This is a tall order, but not impossible. The trick is to discover what are the key fundamental infl uences that are driving change in the system.'

Dr Allison and Professor Hobbs have just begun a three-year project funded by Land and Water Australia to use a new type of theory that tests the resilience of systems, or their ability to withstand and recover from disruption.

'Currently policies are written for systems that are in periods of steady growth, but the important part of a system is its adaptability and ability to avoid collapse through problems such as drought, disease or a collapse in wheat price on a global market,' Dr Allison said.

Dr Allison will develop a systems model and 'flight simulator' which can explore different policy options and their impacts in terms of biophysical, social and economic outcomes.

The simulator will use the Western Australian Wheatbelt as a model for systems across Australia.