Rural Solutions SA is implementing a whole-of-business climate change strategic program.  This initiative is a response to the IPCC   and Suppiah reports which indicate the possible directions and scale of change in climate, and to the Federal Government policy directives. 

Rural Solutions SA recognises that climate change generates both constraints and opportunities in formulating and delivering appropriate robust response strategies in the management of climate sensitive systems.  These systems include key geophysical and biological systems such as water, coastal and ecological systems, food supply, landscape scale processes, and health of humans, animals and societal structures, over a range of planning periods.

What is the evidence?
The evidence compiled by the IPCC (2001; 2007) and Suppiah (2006) is based on the modelling of climate data  which indicates the following possible directions and scale of change in climate: the changes most likely to occur are in air temperature – where the projected annual temperature increases (both day and night), all seasons warm, with associated prolonged heat waves and sharp temperature transitions.  The incidences of frosts are likely to change. There are likely to be anomalies in rainfall with regard to timing, quantity, intensity, and seasonal and spatial distribution. Changes in evapotranspiration rates, wind speed and wind direction remain to be determined. 

Risk management
These changes in climate will lead to changes in geophysical, biological and socio-economic systems (IPCC, 2007).  Determining the scope and range of such changes, either accompanied or followed by an assessment of the risks and vulnerabilities to the impacts of climate change, will contribute to the formulation of response strategies. An analysis of comparative risks will be important for identifying priorities for adaptation action and planning.

Examples include:

• The risk of enhanced water erosion if episodic rainfall intensity increases in areas where slope and soil type predispose the land to water erosion;
• The risk of increased wind erosion in areas with a coincidence of loose, dry, bare soils and strong winds;
• Whilst changes in the evapotranspiration rates need to be determined, it is likely that in regions that are historically warmer and drier such as the mallee, arguably the evapotranspiration rate will increase and drive changes in soil conditions, water availability; affect agricultural yields and alter their susceptibility to pest and pathogen infestations; 
• The combination of sea level rise and human developments may contribute to the loss of coastal wetlands and mangroves, resulting in the removal of protective buffers which reduce the impact of storm surges, in sum there is likely to be an increase in damage from coastal flooding;
• Human health,
  • particularly in the young and the elderly, is likely to be affected by prolonged periods of high temperatures,
  • changes in the spatial distribution of infectious disease vectors, and
  • increases in seasonal production of allergenic pollen season;
  • A likely increase in the incidence and magnitude of bushfires.

The aim of Rural Solutions SA is to provide services which enable stakeholders to enhance their resilience and response capacity to the temporal and spatial effects of climate change . This will occur through increased knowledge and planning which is cognisant of effects and potential remedial action. The establishment of strategic partnerships will be a feature of the program.

Currently Rural Solutions SA manage and deliver on-ground solutions in a range of business areas that encompass land and water management – revegetation, land rehabilitation, forestry, marine and aquaculture fisheries, water management systems, mine operations plan development and mine rehabilitation, horticulture (food and wine), waste management education, regional development strategies, and special industry development projects. Rural Solutions SA has community focused programs that are locally based across rural South Australia, including Indigenous communities programs.  

All of these businesses and programs are climate change relevant.  Additional scope exists in the collaborative determination with NRM boards, Universities, local governments, industries, et al., of the risks and vulnerabilities that natural systems, communities, and regions are exposed to, their capacity and required resources necessary to adapt, and their approaches and methods to achieve sustainability.

How can we lead and be proactive?
Rural Solutions SA has the capacity to provide both leadership and direct delivery consultancy services to a number of key stakeholder groups.  These capacities are demonstrated in the following examples of climate change projects below. Future directions could include the provision of direction in achieving sustainability at the regional scale through undertaking consultation to acquire vulnerability mapping of adaptation capacity and risk; integrate climate information into biological data sets; conduct training with local government and farming communities to acquire land use planning responses to climate change.

The Climate Change Program seeks to better position Rural Solutions SA in the market place as a credible, innovative and capable consultancy service provider. We aim to develop and implement strategies and practical approaches across our diverse business operations that generate dependable natural resources which are sustainable, adequate, resilient and adaptable to the projected influences of global warming.

Our Current Involvement
Current Rural Solutions SA collaborative climate change projects

• Community perceptions of climate change impacts on natural resource management in the Mount Lofty Ranges. Author/s: Douglas Bardsley and Craig Liddicoat Report No: 2007/23ISBN: 978-1-921218-65-1
• Improving options for managing changing climatic and economic environments through addressing soil constraints  (NLP funded)
• Pasture Cropping using native grasses. The project is innovative, aiming to integrate perennial native grass pastures into low rainfall cropping systems (NLP funded)
• Native grass broad-acre establishment in marginal lands (NLP funded)
• A Vision for native grasses to address landscape change across SA (NLP funded)
• Guidelines for ecological fire management to reduce CO2 emissions. (DWLBC funded)
• Climate change and land capability- advancing the SA NRM Plan (DWLBC funded)
• Rural Solutions SA is involved in a project with DWLBC/CSIRO and Peter Housten re Potential climate change impacts on the SA Apple Industry.
  

[1] International Panel on Climate Change: Third Assessment Report, 2001, and Fourth Assessment Report, 2007.

[1] Schneider, S.H., S. Semenov, A. Patwardhan, I. Burton, C.H.D. Magadza, M. Oppenheimer, A.B. Pittock, A. Rahman, J.B. Smith, A. Suarez and F. Yamin, 2007: Assessing key vulnerabilities and the risk from climate change. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson, Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 779-810.

[1] Suppiah, R., B. Preston, P.H. Whetton, K.L. McInnes, R.N. Jones, I. Macadam, J. Bathols and D. Kirono, 2006.  Climate change under enhanced greenhouse conditions in South Australia.An updated report on: Assessment of climate change, impacts and risk management strategies relevant to South Australia.

[1] Cells with an area of about 200 km².

[1] Climate change in IPCC usage refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. It refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.