Climate Science and Knowledge Resources
The South Australian Government is committed to improving the evidence base to help the state make the best decisions, find innovative solutions, and take action to respond and adapt to our changing climate.
Climate change Science and Knowledge Plan for South Australia
The Climate Change Science and Knowledge Plan for South Australia identifies the critical science and information that is needed to inform climate change risk assessment, mitigation, planning and adaptation responses in South Australia. It provides a comprehensive plan to prioritise, coordinate, translate and deliver this climate science and information.
Climate change projections
- Computer modelled climate projections are the best information we have available on our future climate. They help government, industry and community plan for our future.
- The SA Government is working to ensure that nationally-recognised climate projections produced by established climate research organisations are available as part of the state government’s open data principles.
- A range of new climate change projections products will be released in 2022, based on recent climate scenario modelling of the NARCliM project.
- Current climate change projections products are available in the Guide to Climate Change Projections for Risk Assessment and Planning in SA, and through SA Climate Ready.
The Guide to Climate Projections for Risk Assessment and Planning in South Australia provides a summary of the changes in climate that are projected to occur in SA over the coming 80 years, drawing on information from a range of sources, primarily the CSIRO, BoM, IPCC and the Goyder Institute for Water Research.
Carbon faming
The Carbon Planting Guidelines package aims to assist South Australian landholders, industry groups, non-government organisations, and others to make decision about carbon offsets (also known as carbon credits).
View a range of other resources that may assist carbon farming.
Urban heat and tree canopy mapping
The Urban Heat and Tree Mapping Viewer enables the exploration of high-resolution surface temperature data for the Adelaide metropolitan area.
Coasts
The Coastal Flood Mapping Viewer identifies areas that may be vulnerable to coastal flooding at a regional scale as well as allows users to visualise the potential impacts of different sea level rise scenarios.
OzCoasts provides comprehensive information about Australia's coast, including its estuaries, coastal waterways and climate change impact. This helps to generate a better understanding of coastal environments, the complex processes that occur in them, the potential environmental health issues.
Coast Adapt contains material to support coastal adaptation in Australia, including data, guidance materials, decision support and tools, as well as straightforward information.
Adaptation
The National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility publishes a range of information products, including research reports, fact sheets, data, presentations and other outputs that can support climate change adaptation planning and decision making.
Agriculture resources
Primary Industries and Regions South Australia works with primary industries to improve the assessment and management of climate risk and the adaptation of crops to environmental stresses.
The Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s climate and drought research focuses on understanding and measuring the effect of climate variability and change in agricultural industries. They also produce weekly climate, water and agricultural updates, which summarizes recent climatic conditions, notable weather events and their impact on agriculture, water storage levels, irrigation allocations, and commodity prices.
Renewable energy industry resources
The government has a number of resources that can help guide the siting and development of renewable energy developments.
Environmental Reporting
State of the Environment reports are published every four years and provide information on the condition of South Australia’s natural resources and trends in environmental quality. The reports include information related to climate change.
South Australian Environmental Trend and Condition Report Cards are a suite of 41 reports the current condition and trends for key natural assets such as water, native vegetation and soil. They also include information on environmental pressures such as climate change.
