LAND CHANGE DYNAMICS IN AUSTRALIA
Global change impacts on future land-use dynamics in Australia
Researchers
Marco Calderón-Loor Michalis Hadjikakou Brett Bryan
Land cover classification for the year 2000
Summary
Changes in human population, climatic conditions, dietary habits, and a range of other socioeconomic and biophysical factors determine the pace and direction of land-use and land-cover change. In the Australian context, high rates of national agricultural expansion, urban growth and land clearance have resulted from increases in population size and structure, economic growth, improvement in transport access, trade agreements and innovation in technology. New land-uses on the Australian landscape such as mining activities, forestry and carbon farming, and nature conservation add a layer of complexity to current and future land change. Understanding these dynamics has become a critically important task for assessing both the effect of global change on land, and the impact of land change on ecosystem services, biogeochemical dynamics, and natural habitat and species diversity, and sustainability more broadly. In this project we make use of artificial intelligence algorithms for modelling land change at high-spatiotemporal resolution that can help to unravel important features of change dynamics for the whole Australia. We will use the model for forecasting land changes and urban growth and their impacts on Australian biodiversity.