Table 7.
Categories of Adaptation | What Is Our Capacity *—In General and for Vulnerable Regions and Groups? | Suggestions for Implementation or Upgrading | Sectors Involved |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
1. Legislative or Regulatory | ||||
• Cost sharing mechanisms for compensation and adaptation initiatives. | N | Only private insurance | Appropriate upgrades of procedures and assessments as climate change projections and assessments dictate. | Treasury, Insurance Planning, Housing Consumer Affairs, Emergency Services |
• Regulations for minimum building standards to withstand extreme events in vulnerable regions. | A | Amend regulations as required | ||
• Regulations regarding fire management, property management to reduce risk of injuries. | A | Amend regulations as required | ||
• Mid to long-term strategies for land use planning that accounts for likely impacts | N | |||
2. Public Education & Communication | Wider community engagement needed Modern communication should be available to all (e.g., broadband) |
Communication Health Local Government |
||
• Improvement in communicating risks of extreme events to vulnerable regions and groups. | I/D | Continued improvement and greater investment required. | ||
• Education of measures to reduce risk of damage or injuries | D | Coordination with Federal government is required. | ||
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of educational materials. | I | |||
3. Surveillance and Monitoring | Access to GP data Up to date environmental and population forecasts Monitoring needs upgraded as required |
Health, Planning, Environment, Climate Research Emergency Services Insurance industry |
||
• Standardization of information collected after disasters to more accurately measure morbidity and mortality. | I | Long-term follow up is not adequate Hospital morbidity data is okay |
||
• Evaluation of responses and health outcomes of extreme events. | I | |||
4. Ecosystem Intervention | Upgrade as needed Mostly mitigation but needs to address adaptation and prediction |
Environment Agriculture Research Water, Planning |
||
• Monitor the effects of altered land use on vulnerability to extreme weather events. | A | - | ||
5. Infrastructure Development |
Emergency system needs to expand to cope with more frequent and more severe extreme events |
Emergency Services, Health, Local Gov’t Planning, Water Energy, Transport |
||
• Create or enhance emergency management—communication, preparation, training, volunteer recruitment, emergency response coordination, resource allocation. | I/D | North-west seen as vulnerable | ||
• Mapping of potential risks from extreme events—location of hazardous facilities, vulnerable properties/people. | I/D | All understood to some extent | ||
• Land use planning and management to minimize impacts from cyclones, flooding and fire (protective structures, controlled burning). | I/D | Need to highlight the necessity to Treasury to upgrade infrastructure as necessary. | ||
6. Technological or Engineering | ||||
• Improvement of systems to provide early and accessible warning to the populations most likely to be affected. | D/A | Systems are in place The main issues are access to information and the community response to early warning systems. |
Expand resources as required | Climate Research Building Health |
• Modification of building codes for structures in vulnerable areas. | ||||
7. Health Intervention | ||||
• Improved training programmes and information on emergency management. | A | Enhance responses to rural and regional areas | Continue development | Health Emergency Services |
Research/ Information | ||||
• Regional assessments of vulnerability to extreme events. | All either I or D | - | - | Whole of Government Health Research Climate Local Gov’ tIndigenous |
• Regional identification of vulnerable communities and individual. | ||||
• Evaluate effectiveness of early warning systems. | ||||
• Further development of early warning systems—tropical cyclones, fires, droughts. | ||||
• Modelling of affected regions |
Notes: * A = adequate, I = inadequate, D = developing, N = not in place. Excerpt from [12]