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MOSAIC

MOSAIC is an integrated spatial optimisation framework for exploring future land use and management options at regional and landscape scales. Critical spatial interactions and linkages such as resource use externalities, transport costs and habitat configuration are supported explicitly. MOSAIC provides the capability of identifying the social, environmental and economic trade-offs of changing the way land is managed in particular landscape contexts. MOSAIC is currently implemented as a plug-in to the EcoPlan software developed by Environment Australia. The user interface provides GIS functionality and utilises wizards to define scenarios — which specify how landscapes are valued—- and to develop allocations — which specify how each part of the landscape is managed.

Microstation and Geographic Information Computation (MAGIC)

MAGIC is a water balance model, applying dryland salinity hydrological processes to predict the effect of changing land uses and some engineering structures (drains, pumping)on stream flow and salinity of catchments from 1 - 3 000 sqkm (steady state).

Land Use Planning and Information System (LUPIS)

LUPIS is a micro computer spatial decision support system developed to facilitate the ranking of competing landuses or management regimes. The ranking reflects the degree to which each landuse collectively addresses issue induced guidelines and the importance of achieving each guideline. To identify preferred landuse or management strategies taking into account exercise specific guidelines proposed in response to user goals.

Land Use Options Simulator (LUOS)

The LandUse Options Simulator (LUOS) is designed to help rank land use change options on the basis of the environmental services provided by the land use change.

Floodplain risk methodology

FRM combines the regional-scale Floodplain Wetland ImPacts (FWIP) model and the Flood Inundation Model (FIM). The FWIP model predicts floodplain and wetland areas at risk of salinisation from high shallow groundwater caused by groundwater inflows to the floodplain and the installation of weirs to regulate the river, as shown below. The FIM is used in the FRM to assess potential environmental flow options aimed at benefiting riparian vegetation.The FRM should be considered a rapid assessment tool whose role is to identify areas where irrigation and weir pools increase the risk of salinisation, to prioritise areas for collecting detailed data or modelling to facilitate decision making, or to explore the implications of policy decisions.

Flood Innundation Model

GIS based model used to estimate the area of floodplain under inundation under certain flood scenarios. This model is part of the Floodplain Risk Methodology tool.

C-PLAN

C-PLAN is designed as a decision-support system which, together with Arc View, maps the options for achieving explicit regional conservation goals. The C-PLAN algorithm selects areas of land or water at an iterative manner based on the extent or number of features that are located within a site.

CLASS (Catchment Scale Multiple-Landuse Atmosphere Soil Water and Solute Transport Model)

CLASS is a physically based distributed eco-hydrological modelling framework that can be used to predict land-use effects at paddock, hillslope and catchment scales. Effects of climate scenarios predicted by stochastic climate models as well as the effects of spatio-temporal climate variations within a catchment can also be analysed. CLASS includes seven tools that can be used for water balance, solute balance and vegetation growth modelling, terrain modelling, recharge, discharge and lateral flow modelling and streamflow routing. The CLASS catchment modelling approach allows for explicit connectivity of landscape elements within a catchment to be able to predict effects of land-use changes in upslope properties not just at the catchment outlet but also at the downslope properties.

CATSALT - Catchment Salt Balance

CATSALT is a group of models that gives decision makers information at the scale of catchments of up to about 2,000 sqkm in area about 1. How water and salt move from the land to streams; 2. What is physically feasible in terms of salinity management actions based on land-use change 3. The downstream impacts of land-use changes made across catchments; and 4. Cumulative impacts of land-use changes. Objective is to measure landuse impact on streamflow, to evaluate intervention scenarios, to apply applicable form property to catchment scale and to develop linkages with appropriate DSS tools.

Catchment Assessment Tool

The Catchment Assessment Tool is capable of assessing the on-site/off-site impacts of landscape intervention on catchment hydrology, biodiversity, water quantity and quality. The model incorporates the widely used 3PG model to simulate forest production, a pasture dynamics module to simulate grazing enterprises and cropping modules all explicitly linked to a three-dimensional groundwater model. The framework can operate from the broad scale to the land management scale and is capable of assessing the trade-off between agronomic and engineering options to control recharge or groundwater discharges. Other features include a stream routing algorithm and a GIS user interface with extensive pre- and post-processing functionality.