As Australia prepares for a season of heatwaves, bush fires and other extreme weather events, experts have urged disaster-hit communities to learn from past mistakes and resist the rush to rebuild things the way they were.
Climate change modelling shows that extreme weather events including flash floods, cyclones and droughts are likely to become more common.
However, an international research project involving the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, hosted by Griffith University, has found that communities and governments sometimes fail to adapt to the increasing risk.
“Often, following a disaster, there is an option to ‘build back better’ but this requires considerable political will and financing. It’s more common to simply rebuild in a desire to return to normality as soon as possible,” said Dr Sarah Boulter, Research Fellow at the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, who is presenting her findings at the Australian Academy of Science’s Science for a Green Economy conference in Sydney this week.
“It’s hard to imagine that if disasters increase or worsen under climate change that governments can continue to be relied on as the insurer of last resort.”
The research project, titled Learning from experience – Historical case studies and climate change adaptation, noted that following Cyclone Tracy in 1974, Darwin authorities put a six month ban on rebuilding to allow time to develop a new cyclone-proof building code.
That kind of response, however, is rare, said Dr Boulter.
“In many communities, often there’s a sense that ‘We won’t be beaten by these events’. There is building and construction that goes on that still puts people at risk,” she said.
Sometimes, a lack of communication means people are not even aware they are building their home in a flood plain or bush fire prone area or fail to appreciate the growing risk of disaster striking again.
“With a long, hot summer on the way, I think the experience of heat wave and bush fires in 2009 are foremost in people’s mind and I expect that preparations will reflect many of the lessons from these events. Certainly, with the hot weather we saw last week in the southern states there was considerable and early warning to the community to be aware of the risk of hot weather,” she said.
“What is less clear, is whether the community is more aware of the risk and willing to respond. The challenge for climate change adaptation is to learn from these experiences and develop strategies to convince communities that they are at risk and need to plan and act for the future.”
The upfront expense of climate change adaptation can present a problem for governments in the short term, she said.
“In the face of the climate change, investing in infrastructure that will be resilient under greater pressure — such as electricity supply infrastructure that copes with increased heat, roads that are less likely to be flooded and cut off food supplies and so on — is difficult for both governments and private industry.”
Dr Stuart Corney, a Climate Systems Modeller at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC said there is a lot of research to suggest extreme weather events are going to become more common.
“We have done modelling on flash flooding in Tasmania where a 1-in-200 year event is projected to become more frequent than 1-in-20 years,” he said.
“That changes the way you have to plan for things,” especially long-term infrastructure such as dams, he said.
“Climate change is going to win in any situation. You might get variability, but if the trend is toward increasing fire danger and increasing floods, then it will only get worse.”
The insurance industry and local councils are paying close attention to climate change modelling as they try to manage risk, he said.
“Local councils are worried about it and they want information they can base their decisions on. They know there are planning issues but they can’t make arbitrary decisions because they will be challenged in court over it.”
The federal government has taken steps to combat climate change and is keeping abreast of the research, Dr Corney said.
“However, responding to climate change involves both government and society and ultimately it will involve difficult political and economic decisions on a global scale.”
Sunanda Creagh
Editor at The Conversation
The topic of this article is not whether climate change exists; it is climate change adaptation. Any comment not on topic will be deleted.
Comment removed by moderator.
trevor prowse
retired farmer
In Western Australia , the use of no-till seeding has enabled farmers to grow crops on very little rain. A lot of grain is sown dry , usually one to two weeks before the season breaks. The no-till seeders only disturb one inch of soil out of 7 to 12 inches and the disturbed soil is pressed down around the seed and the hollow that is made by the press wheels causes the rain to germinate the seed. In some cases a fall of 5-10 mm will start the seeds to germinate. The stubbles are not usually burnt…
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Sean Manning
Physicist
Excellent article!
I've often thought more broadly on this subject. For instance, around the world there are many cities and towns built at the base of active volcanoes. Now that we know that these disasters waiting to happen can't be controlled by keeping any particular god happy isn't a sensible idea to move?
it seems that if the frequency of disaster is greater than a couple of generations people all but ignore the risk. The same goes for the old 1/100 year floods etc. Why on Earth would you not account for a 1/100 year flood when it came to urban planning?! Surely we should be looking at the most extreme possible events and safeguarding against those, rather than just leaving the problem for our (potentially) distant relatives?
Ben Beccari
Disaster Manager
By the time a disaster has happened it is already too late to plan to build back better. Town planners need to work with emergency managers to plan where and how infrastructure and properties will be re-constructed after they are damaged or destroyed by disaster. The only place I'm aware of where this happens is Florida: http://www.floridadisaster.org/recovery/documents/Post%20Disaster%20Redevelopment%20Planning%20Guidebook%20Lo.pdf
Unfortunately insurance (both private and for infrastructure, including under Government financed options such as the NDRRA) generally does not encourage building back better. Where a property or asset is located somewhere with a high likelihood of being damaged or destroyed (again and again) insurance arrangements should make provision for building it back to a more disaster resistant standard.
Dianna Arthur
Dianna Arthur is a Friend of The Conversation.
Environmentalist
Insurance companies want to keep costs down. I know from having to make claims for storm damage to my property; insurance companies rebuild to minimum standards set by local & state construction policy.
It is difficult for residents to recover let alone deal with the bureaucracy and limitations that insurance assessors have to implement.
Fire or storm proofing as preventative measures are yet to be on the radar.
Les Tombs
logged in via Facebook
running away from my 100 acre property recently ?14-10-2012,,warned by a massive pall of smoke, sky and highflyiny birds,,awaiting a feast,,,,a matter of a few minutes,,to save the most expensive vehicles3 only plus a ride on mower,,,,,,,,,,thanks to a brave families help,strangers,passing by,,,,,we headed south,,behind the wall of smoke---------watching helplessly as the firewall headed north,------as a single 72 yr old man in caretaker mode,--with no insurance--except the ride on mower--to keep the bush at bay--maybe afew more succulent ground covers instead of grass around buildings,,,miraculously no major damages to buildings--viva el toro[the mower]
R. Ambrose Raven
none
As usual, a toe-in-the-water approach. The theory is all very well, but to wink and hint rather than seriously dealing with the real issues is as unhelpful as always.
Three issues stand out from the tsunami, Queensland and Christchurch experiences:
Read more1. dishonest, mean and tricky insurers. Profit-seeking insurance company attitudes to claims was so bad that Choice made the insurance industry one of the eight winners of its annual Shonky Awards.
2. accidental homeless stayed homeless and…
Robert Tony Brklje
retired
South Australia already has a complete bush fire zone building code incorporated into the Australian Building, it applies when the construction is in designated bush fire zones.
Read moreThe biggest problem will be were land will have to be abandoned due to repeated flooding, especially coastal flooding that could incorporate billions of dollars of now 'under'-water front properties.
Some states will do far better than others. Those states that released a lot of shore front to development will suffer the…