An innovative approach to predicting future raw wood flows across the Green Triangle Region
With a projected harvest of over 300,000 hectares of plantation forest processed in the next decade, the Green Triangle Region of South Australia and South West Victoria is facing significant transportation infrastructure and community environment related issues. Timber growers proactively explored the impact of their industry on the region’s transport infrastructure and communities by predicting future raw wood flow volumes and potential truck movements across the region’s roads.
As no off-the-shelf solution existed to solve this problem SERIC innovatively developed its own spatial solution to model future harvest volumes and preferred regional transportation routes. The cost-effective solution provides the means to efficiently model and test a number of scenarios relating to potential future transport options, and helps explore the impact those options may have on the region’s roads and communities. The results of the modeling have significantly exceeded the stakeholder’s expectations and benefited a wide variety of interested organizations. Local and State governments utilize results for transport and community planning, while Regional development boards improve planning and lobbying for regional development and infrastructure investment. Private industry has employed results for various economic cost benefit and feasibility studies. The significant success of the project is due to a combination of factors including the facilitation of collaboration and sharing of commercially sensitive information between numerous industry and government organizations, and the wide distribution and utilization of the final outputs by multiple organisations that are in a position to influence and effect the sustainability and prosperity of the region and its communities. The project has been a catalyst for regional cooperation and initiated ongoing investigations into the region’s transport intensive industries, transportation infrastructure impacts and future requirements.