New research has mapped public submissions to the National Adaptation Plan. With a cross-party inquiry getting under way, four imagined futures are emerging that present a way forward.
Labour’s ‘Adapt and Thrive’ plan for climate resilience is unlikely to survive the new government’s priorities. But the country cannot avoid addressing its urgent infrastructural deficit.
FEMA runs the largest managed retreat program in the country, Two disaster response experts looked at the demographics of who gets those buyouts and where they go.
Building on floodplains was never a good idea and climate change makes matters worse. But in Queensland, Voluntary Home Buybacks are working for Ipswich, a year on from the devastating floods.
Storms, flooding and other climate-related events highlight the urgent need for a national managed retreat framework. Past experiences suggests it will involve many challenges.
Booming prices for coastal properties are a mark of our reluctance to reckon with the climate change that is already upon us. We must start to properly account for and act on climate risk.
Property buybacks and managed retreat from high-risk areas were once seen as far-off options as the planet warms. Now this ‘last resort’ adaptation to climate change is an urgent priority worldwide.
Managed retreat is already common in flood-prone areas, but what about in neighborhoods at high risk from wildfires? Here are four ways communities can pull back for safety.
Are we setting up individuals and families for ruin by allowing them to build back in areas where they can’t afford insurance? And should taxpayers bear the huge costs of future rescues and relief?
If rural communities plan carefully – and some already are – they can reinvent themselves as the perfect homes for people fleeing wildfire and hurricane zones.
With climate change making more than 30,000 coastal properties potentially uninsurable within the next 25 years, government-led solutions should be fast-tracked.
Many coastal US cities are contending with increasingly frequent and severe tidal flooding as sea levels rise. Some are considering building seawalls, but this strategy is not simple or cheap.
Managed retreat doesn’t always mean leaving. It’s about preserving the essential while redesigning communities to be better for everyone. Here’s what that can look like.
Catherine Iorns, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand is replacing its once groundbreaking environmental legislation with new laws, one of which focuses on climate change adaptation and will include a fund to enable managed retreat.
Today’s risks will be tomorrow’s normal. That means tough decisions have to be made about human settlements having to retreat from areas most at risk, whether from floods or bushfires.
Putting affected people and communities at the centre of difficult relocation decisions must be a priority under laws that replace the old Resource Management Act.