6 September 2018

There are many and various development plans for WA’s Fitzroy River catchment, including expansion of irrigation agriculture. Informed decision-making requires exploring different possible future development options, their outcomes and trade-offs, and participatory scenario planning is a way to achieve this. Led by Professor Bob Pressey and Dr Jorge G. Álvarez-Romero of James Cook University, the Hub project ‘Multiple objective planning in northern Australia’ is guiding participatory scenario planning to construct and assess the outcomes of alternative development scenarios in the Fitzroy. In July, Dr Álvarez-Romero and Dr Milena Kim, together with other Hub researchers, led the first of three workshops, gathering 40 people from 26 organisations across all main stakeholder groups in the region. The group discussed the meaning of development, driving forces of land use change, and the diverse development initiatives proposed for the catchment. An important goal of this first workshop was to create a shared understanding of past and present events, initiatives and forces driving development in the region, which is central to develop the different future scenarios that will be the focus of the second workshop in November. Read more in this short blog.

Looking back to look forward – a timeline of the Fitzroy catchment, photo Karen Dayman.

Scenario planning team comprising Fitzroy River stakeholders and NESP researchers, photo Karen Dayman.