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In early June, a team of Mulloon staff working on the Landscape Function Toolkit (LiFT) came together to share ideas and run some data collection methodologies through their paces.  The day was a culmination of months of research and collaboration and brought together staff from various scientific disciplines with experience as science communicators/educators, landscape planners, remote sensing specialists and engineers. This wonderful interdisciplinary convergence of diverse skills and expertise merged critical thinking and creative flow for a fantastic day together. 

Measuring landscape function is nuanced and complex, requiring a whole of system approach that has led to many conversations around state and transition, flux and flow, metrics, and key aspects of landscape function. Notably, the small water cycle and its importance in a healthy landscape are front and centre of our conversations.  

We began the day in the paddock, alongside Mulloon Creek to put Alex Sun’s (PhD Candidate, Sydney University) ‘Riparian Assessment Scorecard’ to the test, looking at diversity and density of riparian vegetation from trees and shrubs to grasses and forbs.  

 

Photos below left to right: 1. Alex giving instructions to the team before doing the riparian assessment, 2. Peter Hazell at Peters Pond using the phone app version of the structure health scorecard, 3. The team discussing the merits and drawbacks of the Structure Health Scorecard, 4 & 5. Erin Healy reading the Ephemeral Drainage Assessment criteria 

Photo Gallery

From there we moved across to Peters Pond to look at the first in-stream structure built along this creek system. Peter Hazell led the team through the Mulloon Institute’s ‘Structural Health Scorecard’.  This scorecard is used by Mulloon to monitor the Integrity (the structures ability to withstand its intended load), and Function (how well the structure performs its intended task) of instream structures as well as assess the health, diversity and coverage of vegetation throughout the natural infrastructure. 

By mid-morning we were ready to leave the frosty paddock and went in search of warming sunshine and an ephemeral drainage.  We ran through the ‘Ephemeral Drainage-line Assessment: Indicators of stability’ which has been directly adapted from Tongway and Ludwig’s Landscape Function Analysis, before breaking for a well-earned lunch.  

Throughout the afternoon we gathered inside and had a look at a some of the mobile phone apps currently available, and their associated desktop platform. We focused on biodiversity, vegetation and soil assessments, using Covram and SoilMentor.  We ran through their various functions including user friendliness and the speed at which information collected on the app was synced across platforms.  Functionality and information gathered were key focus areas.  

Finally, we wrapped up the afternoon with some discussion on next steps before saying our goodbyes and heading home in various directions.   

Overall, it was a fantastic day and a great opportunity to come together as a team to share knowledge and learning. 

Further information on the LiFT project can be found here. 

The Landscape Function Toolkit (LiFT) project is a climate resilience project funded by the Australian Government under the National Heritage Trust’s Climate-Smart Agriculture Program.