Climate-resilient landscapes: an adaptation case study in NSW’s Northern Rivers region and the Wet Tropics of Queensland

Project start date: 01/09/2023
Project end date: 30/06/2026
NESP funding: $760,021 (GST-exclusive)

Climate change is escalating the risks to threatened species and ecosystems across Australia. Warming temperatures and changing rainfall patterns pose threats in themselves and may also exacerbate the risks from other threats such as feral animals, weeds and development pressures. In coastal regions, sea-level rise is changing coastal processes and damaging habitat.  

Under such complex scenarios, stakeholders and decision-makers need data, information and tools to ensure that adaptation strategies and actions are appropriate and effective. To be successful, strategies and actions must be accepted by the community and be culturally appropriate, and be informed by local knowledge, including Traditional Knowledge. 

Jagun River Custodians and Heal the Rivers team members at Balun / Richmond River. Photo: Jagun Alliance.

This project will develop climate change adaptation plans for the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales and the Wet Tropics of Queensland. Both regions are home to many threatened species and ecological communities and contain a diverse range of land uses and protected areas, including significant wetlands, national parks, World Heritage Areas, Indigenous Protected Areas and Indigenous Land Use Agreements. They are also places of rapid change: in a 3-year period in the Northern Rivers region, unprecedented drought was followed by bushfires and floods in rapid succession. 

In each region, researchers will work with local community groups, Indigenous organisations, NRM groups and government agencies to design adaptation plans that can be embedded in planning and conservation initiatives. The plans will identify key climate risks for selected species and ecosystems and develop feasible strategies and options to manage these risks. 

Adapting to the conservation challenges posed by climate change is a problem facing all landscapes and communities throughout Australia. The Northern Rivers and Wet Tropics regions provide case studies where approaches and tools can be developed that are transferable to other regions.   

The southern cassowary is affected by extreme weather events. Photo: Michael Douglas.

Key research areas

To assist local communities to develop adaptation plans for focal threatened species and ecosystems, this project will:  

• consult with rightsholders and stakeholders to identify focal species and ecosystems that are Culturally significant and/or threatened (terrestrial, aquatic and coastal) 
• assemble available data on species, ecosystems and current and future climate, then map and assess critical habitat and ecosystem condition 
• build a climate-risk database for focal species and ecosystems and construct climate-risk models under current and projected conditions    
• review and evaluate current adaptation actions and consult with communities and rightsholders on adaptation strategies 
• develop an adaptation plan based on community preferences of what is effective, acceptable and appropriate in their local context. 
  

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Pathway to impact

The research will assist communities to build the climate resilience of threatened species and ecosystems within their regions by: 

• developing a method for climate change adaptation planning that uses tools for community co-design, modelling and spatial planning that are generic and can be applied to any landscape 
• creating a web-based decision-support platform, ‘Northern Rivers Adapts’, that provides community and stakeholder representatives access to maps, data and related information on climate risks and adaptation options and strategies 
• contributing the data, information, guidance and tools from the Wet Tropics adaptation planning to existing decision support tools or through a new web-based platform.

PhD supported research  

Throughout 2024 and 2025, PhD candidate Naomi Ploos van Amstel has explored and documented the Northern Rivers environmental community – their work, their connections, their challenges, and their priorities. Here is a summary of the results. 

This interactive network map was developed with Kumu software, allowing to visually explore the local environmental groups and their connections. A peer reviewed paper on this process and analysis is currently under review.

View the interactive network map

This map allows you to explore groups by name or location, provides basic information including a brief description of the group and contact details (based on online available information), and allows for adding layers of various administrative boundaries, protected areas, population density, and elevation. A peer reviewed paper on the analysis of conservation groups’ activity distribution is currently underway.