Spatial decision support system for coastal flood management in Victoria, Australia

Coastal climate impact can affect coastal areas in a variety of ways, such as flooding, storm surges, reduction in beach sands and increased beach erosion. While each of these can have major impacts on the operation of coastal drainage systems, this thesis focuses on coastal and riverine flooding in coastal areas. Coastal flood risk varies within Australia, with the northern parts in the cyclone belt most affected and high levels of risk similar to other Asian countries. However, in Australia, the responsibility for managing coastal areas is shared between the Commonwealth government, Australian states and territories, and local governments. Strategies for floodplain management to reduce and control flooding are best implemented at the land use planning stage. Local governments make local decisions about coastal flood risk management through the assessment and approval of planning permit applications. Statutory planning by local government is informed by policies related to coastal flooding and coastal erosion, advice from government departments, agencies, experts and local community experts. The West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (WGCMA) works with local communities, Victorian State Emergency Services (VCSES), local government authorities (LGAs), and other local organizations to prepare the West Gippsland Flood Management Strategy (WGFMS). The strategy aims at identifying significant flood risks, mitigating those risks, and establishing a set of priorities for implementation of the strategy over a ten-year period. The Bass Coast Shire Council (BCSC) region has experienced significant flooding over the last few decades, causing the closure of roads, landslides and erosion. Wonthaggi was particularly affected during this period with roads were flooded causing the northern part of the city of Wonthaggi to be closed in the worst cases. Climate change and increased exposure through the growth of urban population have dramatically increased the frequency and the severity of flood events on human populations. Traditionally, while GIS has provided spatial data management, it has had limitations in modelling capability to solve complex hydrology problems such as flood events. Therefore, it has not been relied upon by decision-makers in the coastal management sector. Functionality improvements are therefore required to improve the processing or analytical capabilities of GIS in hydrology to provide more certainty for decision-makers. This research shows how the spatial data (LiDAR, Road, building, aerial photo) can be primarily processed by GIS and how by adopting the spatial analysis routines associated with hydrology these problems can be overcome. The aim of this research is to refine GIS-embedded hydrological modelling so they can be used to help communities better understand their exposure to flood risk and give them more control about how to adapt and respond. The research develops a new Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) to improve the implementation of coastal flooding risk assessment and management in Victoria, Australia. It is a solution integrating a range of approaches including, Light Detection and Ranging (Rata et al., 2014), GIS (Petroselli and sensing, 2012), hydrological models, numerical models, flood risk modelling, and multi-criteria techniques. Bass Coast Shire Council is an interesting study region for coastal flooding as it involves (i) a high rainfall area, (ii) and a major river meeting coastal area affected by storm surges, with frequent flooding of urban areas. Also, very high-quality Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data is available from the Victorian Government to support first-pass screening of coastal risks from flooding. The methods include using advanced GIS hydrology modelling and LiDAR digital elevation data to determine surface runoff to evaluate the flood risk for BCSC. This methodology addresses the limitations in flood hazard modelling mentioned above and gives a logical basis to estimate tidal impacts on flooding, and the impact and changes in atmospheric conditions, including precipitation and sea levels. This study examines how GIS hydrological modelling and LiDAR digital elevation data can be used to map and visualise flood risk in coastal built-up areas in BCSC. While this kind of visualisation is often used for the assessment of flood impacts to infrastructure risk, it has not been utilized in the BCSC. Previous research identified terrestrial areas at risk of flooding using a conceptual hydrological model (Pourali et al., 2014b) that models the flood-risk regions and provides flooding extent maps for the BCSC. It examined the consequences of various components influencing flooding for use in creating a framework to manage flood risk. The BCSC has recognised the benefits of combining these techniques that allow them to analyse data, deal with the problems, create intuitive visualization methods, and make decisions about addressing flood risk. The SDSS involves a GIS-embedded hydrological model that interlinks data integration and processing systems that interact through a linear cascade. Each stage of the cascade produces results which are input into the next model in a modelling chain hierarchy. The output involves GIS-based hydrological modelling to improve the implementation of coastal flood risk management plans developed by local governments. The SDSS also derives a set of Coastal Climate Change (CCC) flood risk assessment parameters (performance indicators), such as land use, settlement, infrastructure and other relevant indicators for coastal and bayside ecosystems. By adopting the SDSS, coastal managers will be able to systematically compare alternative coastal flood-risk management plans and make decisions about the most appropriate option. By integrating relevant models within a structured framework, the system will promote transparency of policy development and flood risk management. This thesis focuses on extending the spatial data handling capability of GIS to integrate climatic and other spatial data to help local governments with coastal exposure develop programs to adapt to climate change. The SDSS will assist planners to prepare for changing climate conditions. BCSC is a municipal government body with a coastal boundary and has assisted in the development and testing of the SDSS and derived many benefits from using the SDSS developed as a result of this research. Local governments at risk of coastal flooding that use the SDSS can use the Google Earth data sharing tool to determine appropriate land use controls to manage long-term flood risk to human settlement. The present research describes an attempt to develop a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) to aid decision makers to identify the proper location of new settlements where additional land development could be located based on decision rules. Also presented is an online decision-support tool that all stakeholders can use to share the results

CadaSPACE: A Cloud Based Platform for a low - cost 3D visualization of property rights available in a 2D cadastral registry. An example for urban multi – storey buildings

This paper presents a methodology for a low – cost 3D visualization of property rights in multi – storey urban buildings using available and other relevant open geometric and legal data. An online, free platform is created, named “CadaSPACE”, to support the homogenous visualization of volumetric property units and open property rights included in 2D cadaster. The platform is directly interconnected with open – access pages such as the National Cadastral Portal, Autodesk Online Viewer, Tandem, Google Earth and Online 3D Viewer. It offers a wide range of statistical tools such as tables and diagrams to present, filter and manage the sematic information of the 3D property volumes. An application is presented for the Greek Cadaster. Legal information about the property rights is collected from the open - access cadastral records; building footprints are digitized on the available Orthophotos; architectural floor plans of each individual property unit are either taken from the documents included in the electronic building identity records (under construction) or are provided by the owners, and an approximate BIM (Building Information Model) is created for each building using additional approximate geometric information derived from Google Earth Pro and Streetview. The 3D property units are modelled and visualized as volumes. The whole 3D neighborhood model is uploaded online for further categorization and management through various visual and semantic filters. Considerations for further legal and technical improvements are given towards the implementation of the proposed methodology

Emergency Services Workforce 2030: Changing landscape literature review

The Changing Landscape Literature Review collates a high-level evidence base around seven major themes in the changing landscape (i.e., the external environment) that fire, emergency service, and rural land management agencies operate in, and which will shape workforce planning and capability requirements over the next decade. It is an output of the Workforce 2030 project and is one of two literature reviews that summarise the research base underpinning a high-level integrative report of emerging workforce challenges and opportunities, Emergency Services Workforce 2030. Workforce 2030 aimed to highlight major trends and developments likely to impact the future workforces of emergency service organisations, and their potential implications. The starting point for the project was a question: What can research from outside the sphere of emergency management add to our knowledge of wider trends and developments likely to shape the future emergency services workforce, and their implications? The seven themes included in the Changing Landscape Literature Review are: 1) demographic changes, 2) changing nature of work, 3) changes in volunteering, 4) physical technology, 5) digital technology, 6) shifting expectations, and changing risk. A second, accompanying literature review, the Changing Work Literature Review, focuses on another nine themes related to emergency service organisation’s internal workforce management approaches and working environments

The 45th Australasian Universities Building Education Association Conference: Global Challenges in a Disrupted World: Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Approaches in the Built Environment, Book of Abstracts, 23 - 25 November 2022

This is the book of abstract of the 45th Australasian Universities Building Education Association (AUBEA) conference, which will be hosted by Western Sydney University in November 2022. The conference is organised by the School of Engineering, Design, and Built Environment in collaboration with the Centre for Smart Modern Construction, Western Sydney University. This year’s conference theme is “Global Challenges in a Disrupted World: Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Approaches in the Built Environment”, and expects to publish over a hundred double-blind peer review papers under the proceedings

The role of water markets in climate change adaptation

Abstract Water markets were first introduced in Australia in the 1980s, and water entitlement and allocation trade have been increasingly adopted by both private individuals and government.Irrigators turned to water markets (particularly for allocation water) to manage water scarcity and Governments to acquire water for the environment (particularly water entitlements. It is expected that further adoption of water markets will be essential for coping with future climate change impacts. This report reviews the available literature related to the relationship between southern Murray-Darling Basin (sMDB) water markets and anticipated climate change effects; the economic, social and environmental impacts of water reallocation through markets; and future development requirements to enhance positive outcomes in these areas. The use of water markets by irrigators can involve both transformational (selling all water entitlements and relocating or switching to dryland) and incremental (e.g. buying water allocations/entitlements, using carry-over, changing water management techniques) adaptation to climate change. Barriers to both adaptations include: current and future climate uncertainty; poor (or non-existent) market signals; financial constraints; information barriers; mental processing limits; inherent attitudes toward or beliefs about climate change; institutional barriers and disincentives to adapt. A better understanding of trade behaviour, especially strategic trade issues that can lead to market failures, will improve the economic advantages of water trade. There remains community concerns about the impacts of transfers away from regional areas such as reduced community spending and reinvestment; population losses; loss of jobs; declining taxation base, loss of local services and businesses, regional production changes; and legacy issues for remaining farmers. However, it is hard to disentangle these impacts from those caused by ongoing structural change in agriculture. Rural communities that are most vulnerable to water scarcity under climate change and water trade adjustment include smaller irrigation-dependent towns. Communities less dependent on irrigation are better able to adapt. Further, where environmental managers use water markets to deal with water variability and to ensure ecological benefits, irrigators are concerned about its impact on their traditional use of markets to manage scarcity. Climate change and water scarcity management are intertwined, suggesting that policy, institutional and governance arrangements to deal with such issues should be similarly structured. Water users will adapt, either out of necessity or opportunity. The cost of that adaptation at individual, regional and national levels—particularly to future water supply variability—can be mitigated by the consideration of the existing advantages from future opportunities for water marketing in Australia

Small is Necessary

Does small mean less? Not necessarily. In an era of housing crises, environmental unsustainability and social fragmentation, the need for more sociable, affordable and sustainable housing is vital. The answer? Shared living - from joint households to land-sharing, cohousing and ecovillages. Using successful examples from a range of countries, Anitra Nelson shows how 'eco-collaborative housing' - resident-driven low impact living with shared facilities and activities - can address the great social, economic and sustainability challenges that householders and capitalist societies face today. Sharing living spaces and facilities results in householders having more amenities and opportunities for neighbourly interaction. Small is Necessary places contemporary models of 'alternative' housing and living at centre stage arguing that they are outward-looking, culturally rich, with low ecological footprints and offer governance techniques for a more equitable and sustainable future

Statutory frameworks, institutions and policy processes for climate adaptation : Final Report

Funded under the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, this study addresses two objectives: To assess the extent to which existing statutory frameworks, associated institutions and policy processes support or impede national adaptation planning and practice, and To make a significant contribution to the development and implementation of a strategic national policy framework. The rationale for conducting this study was two-fold. First, that significant climate change is unavoidable and that it is in Australia’s national interest to adapt to those changes. Climate impacts are many and varied, direct and indirect, hard to predict and quantify generally but particularly at the local scale, and impacts will inevitably affect all sectors and jurisdictions. For this reason, it is a complex policy problem. The IPCC, for example, identifies ten key areas of impact for Australia including increasing frequency and intensity of extreme events such as droughts, bushfires and floods, higher peak temperatures for longer periods of time, and sea level rise. Despite the lack of hard economic data with respect to costs and benefits that might underpin formal business cases to determine precise levels of investment needed for adaptation, the case to adapt is compelling considering the projected effects to Australia’s economy, infrastructure, communities, environment and human life. Second, Australia’s capacity to adapt to climate change will rely on robust, efficient, transparent, fair and flexible institutions which build a resilient and enabling environment in which the necessary behavioural change can occur. While humans and our institutions have a remarkable capacity to adapt to all manner of change, this can occur at great cost to society as a whole or certain segments of it without the guiding hand of judicious policy intervention. This report synthesises our key findings against the two project objectives. In doing so, it focuses on (i) where institutional arrangements currently support or impede climate adaptation policy, and (ii) where revisions or new institutions may be required, and the potential for a strategic national policy framework to achieve those reforms