Climate-adapted soil management

This step involves analysing the information you’ve gathered to gain a deeper understanding of how climate risks affect the values of soils. You’ll refine your findings with your stakeholders to validate your approach and build support for adaptation. 

What this stage typically involves 

• Selecting and documenting your analysis approach, including risk assessment, decision-making, and tools and methods used. The size of your analysis will depend on the context and scale of your work.
• Refining and prioritising the list of values that soils support, and the sensitivity of those values to climate change. This will help you prioritise your management actions later. When determining the relative importance of each value, consider stakeholder insights alongside the management objectives of any programs and policies that apply to the site, and the principles of the Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act 2023.
• Understanding the current condition (baseline) of soils at the site so you can measure change and track your progress. To find the baseline, review the sources of condition data you identified in the previous step. Your baseline dataset could cover parameters such as soil organic carbon, soil salinity, soil structure, soil pH, depth of topsoil, soil contamination, vegetation cover, biodiversity, and crop yield data.
• Analysing past, current and projected climate trends and events. This is informed by the climate records and projections you’ve identified and considers how the soil's current condition contributes to climate impacts. For example, the same climate event will likely have a greater impact on degraded soils than on healthy soils.
• Setting a climate-appropriate future condition of the site. This involves focusing on the values that soils support, rather than on specific soil characteristics. For example, a climate-adapted future condition might be for soils to support water quality in an aquatic ecosystem, rather than to maintain the same levels of a certain soil parameter. This allows you to find flexible and effective solutions that work with nature.
• Selecting condition indicators that reflect the key values you want to protect. This will help you achieve your desired future condition and overarching management aim in a way that is feasible in a future climate, rather than trying to maintain the site exactly as it is. For example, you might use an indicator of vegetation cover to measure how well the soil supports native plant growth.
• Ranking your list of climate risks based on their likelihood, severity, timing and consequences for values. To do this, you might use a first-pass risk assessment procedure and generic risk assessment matrix, a threat matrix, or a cost–benefit analysis. Taking a Country-first perspective and talking with local landowners when assessing consequences for values can help you understand the direct and indirect impacts that climate risks may have on all aspects of social, cultural, ecological and economic values. 

This step involves assigning adaptation actions to the climate risks you prioritised in the previous step. You’ll identify actions that offer the best protection for the site’s values within your scope and context, and make a plan for implementation. 

What this stage typically involves 

• Considering if a value can be protected or restored in place, or if transformation, planned relocation, documentation of cultural and social assets, or acceptance of change may be required. For example, it may not be possible to protect coastal soils from increased salinity caused by rising sea levels, so you may need to explore the suitability of nearby areas to support values such as agriculture and wildlife habitat.
• Exploring potential adaptation actions by reviewing current literature around climate-adapted soil management, consulting landholders, and visiting well-managed sites. Check any guidelines relevant to your project (for example, if you are managing soils as part of a carbon scheme).
• Choosing and prioritising actions based on their effectiveness, feasibility, alignment with values and cost of implementation, and your available resources and relevant policy or legislative settings. Depending on your context, you might identify actions such as
  • using leaky weirs to slow the flow of water in streams and gullies to reduce erosion and allow sediments to settle
  • working with local Aboriginal groups to improve soil health through cultural burning
  • using climate-adapted restoration practices to establish vegetation to stabilise riparian zones and soils to reduce erosion risks
  • on agricultural land, transitioning to climate-adapted stock and crops, and regenerative farming techniques to maintain soil health.
• Developing a timeline for implementation. Using a pathways approach helps to schedule actions based on urgency, importance, and any triggers for implementation (for example, when a certain threshold is reached).
• Securing support for implementation in the form of funding, collaboration and equipment. Think about what you’ll need, and how you can source it, for example, access to climate-adapted plant stock for revegetating degraded soils (see Climate-adapted restoration practices), erosion control measures, monitoring tools and technology, and technical expertise, such as soil scientists, engineers, and extension officers to guide implementation.
• Building adaptation actions into routine soil management practices, with a focus on flexibility to alter actions as climate change continues to unfold. 

Regular monitoring will help you track your progress and fulfil any specific monitoring requirements of the Integrated Planning and Reporting framework (for local councils) or the reporting requirements of supporting grants or government programs. 

Depending on the site’s values and risks and the actions you’ve chosen, you’ll likely need a combination of different monitoring methods. 

What this stage typically involves 

• Choosing appropriate monitoring techniques for your context. These could include using field-collected data to test soil parameters, remote-sensing data to measure the extent and diversity of vegetation cover, and monitoring soils before and after a burning event to understand the short-term and long-term effects on soils. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) can help detect early and subtle signs of changing condition – incorporate TEK in your monitoring regime through respectful collaboration with Aboriginal groups and knowledge holders.
• Planning a monitoring regime that suits the values, risks, goals and actions of your adaptation plan. This will support regular data collection to measure changes in the site’s condition (compared with the baseline). For long-term monitoring plans, you may need to increase the frequency of monitoring activities as the climate continues to change.
• Monitoring your identified indicators, along with climate events.
• Reviewing the performance of your actions relative to the baseline and desired future condition and adjusting your approach, actions and priorities according to monitoring data.
• Meeting reporting requirements of relevant programs and policies. If you are managing soils as part of a wider biodiversity or carbon program, you will likely have specific metrics to track and report on. 

Our knowledge of climate-adapted soil management is still growing. Your experiences can inform and inspire other soil managers to incorporate values-based adaptation into their own planning, warn them about potential pitfalls, and provide valuable information to help them make the right decisions for their site. 

What this stage typically involves 

• Sharing success stories that acknowledge the contributions of stakeholders. This includes publishing stories jointly with collaborators, and following cultural safety protocols to ensure that traditional knowledge is shared appropriately.
• Encouraging project participants and stakeholders to champion their own successes and contributions to the project.
• Sharing your lessons (successes and challenges) through social media, newsletters, events and networks such as NSW Local Land Services, NSW Soil Knowledge Network, and International Erosion Control  Association – Australasia.