Car and transport alternatives are a key sustainability issue.

Assessing development sustainability

CSIRO’s expertise provides critical input into policy and program investment decisions for sustainable development.

• 1 December 2005 | Updated 14 October 2011

• The capability
• How CSIRO uses it

The capability

CSIRO models the flow of materials and energy through the economy and environment and gives detailed assessments of development sustainability and the best options to support sustainability in Australia.

We do this by working at national, state, and regional scales to understand and approach real-world sustainability challenges through describing and measuring the underlying systems in novel ways.

We research and develop assessment procedures and tools that provide insight into past, present, and possible future trajectories of resource use change, and the environmental, social and economic impacts of particular policies and investments.

By understanding these impacts and interactions Australia will be better informed to make future development and resource use decisions.

Our assessment tools include:

• measurement/evaluation
• data collection and accounting procedures
• scenarios and assessment tools.

We have developed the CSIRO National Physical Account and Policy Resource, which features conceptual and computerised models, data and control parameters of human and natural impacts on Australia's physical system such as the OzEcco and the Australian Stocks and Flows Model (ASFF).

How CSIRO uses it

Enabling society to make well-informed choices about national resource policy, management and investment options is a key challenge for Australia. 

CSIRO addresses this challenge by bringing together information about the environment, community needs and the economy to produce scenarios that can be used in decision making.

Working with rural and urban communities, CSIRO applies futures modeling to provide strategies, tools and principles that help plan and invest in the future by maintaining and sustaining:

• ecosystems
• biodiversity
• long-term growth.

Futures modelling is also used in the Government and various industries to help make decisions on planning and policy.

Our work covers many industry sectors including mining, energy, tourism, agriculture and fisheries.  Projects have examined specific regional communities as well as Australia as a whole.

Examples include:

• projects modelling sustainability and performance of the environment and industry under various population scenarios
• a recent project analysing the environmental, social and economic performance of the entire Australian economy.

Our research also considers climate change and its impact on

• biodiversity
• management of water
• cropping
• pastoral lands.

Learn about the work CSIRO does in Energy Modelling & Decision Support.