Informing major government programs for rural transport infrastructure in northern Australia

Abstract

New or expanded agricultural industries in northern Australia require efficient and reliable supply chains and transport to domestic and international markets. A major challenge in the north is long transport distances of over 1000km between production and markets, along a sparse rural road/rail network that is largely unsealed and disrupted by seasonal flooding. To provide a comprehensive view of transport logistics costs and benefits due to infrastructure investments and regulatory changes in agriculture supply chains, the Australian Government commissioned CSIRO to develop the Transport Network Strategic Investment Tool (TraNSIT). TraNSIT optimises transport routes for up to hundreds of thousands of enterprises and millions of vehicle trips between farms and their markets, providing modelled input into operational and investment decisions. As part of a major Australian Government initiative, TraNSIT was used to directly inform the A$100 million 2016 Beef Roads Program targeting transport infrastructure investments across northern Australia. It was used to evaluate the transport savings for 60 road upgrade submissions, where the total construction cost exceeded A$3 billion. This paper highlights the innovations and experiences of using TraNSIT to inform the Beef Roads Program.

The Impact of Transport Infrastructure on Rural Industrial Integration: Spatial Spillover Effects and Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneity

“…There is a basic consensus in relevant studies that transport infrastructure facilitates the development of regional economies and industries [41,42], and for the development of agriculture and rural industries, the driving role of transportation infrastructure remains [43]. Existing studies have provided evidence from Africa [44,45], Australia [46], and the Americas [47]. Using data from China, this study confirms the role of transportation infrastructure as a driver of rural industrial integration.…”

“…At the same time, the efficiency of transportation and factor flow can be improved, and its cost reduced through the connection and combination of different transportation modes to drive the development of the integration of rural industries. While improving the degree of road and railroad construction, the transportation support measures are updated with the help of information and weather forecasting technologies [46]. High-quality agricultural development is promoted through transportation planning.…”

“…Connecting various regions through transportation facilities while focusing on transportation diversification brings into play the positive external effects of rural industrial integration. Given the wide gap in the quality of development of rural industrial integration in different regions, the government can improve regional transport infrastructure, build road and railway networks [57], and open up the "last mile" [46] to promote the deployment of resources between regions and improve the efficiency of factor production. The areas with better development of rural industrial integration drive the surrounding areas with slower development of rural industrial integration, narrow the development gap of rural industrial integration between regions, and realize the joint improvement of the quality of rural industrial integration development between regions.…”

A Comprehensive Assessment of Floodwater Depth Estimation Models in Semiarid Regions

“…In this case, although bird breeding at a site is not accurately predicted, the overall statistics could still explain which scenario is preferable. Examples of these kinds of integrated approaches include assessment of changes to flow dependent ecosystems in the MDB (Bark et al., 2016) and planning to improve supply chains resilience to flooding in regional agricultural areas (Higgins et al., 2018).…”

TraNSIT: Application to Australian agriculture

“…The Australian Beef industry data was incorporated prior to this project (Higgins et al 2016) and used detailed industry provided data. Transport volumes between enterprises were based on 2009 to 2013 with live export based 2014/2015 figures.…”