Resilience to climate change impacts: a review of flood mitigation policy in Queensland, Australia

Abstract

The vulnerability of cities to inundation from the impacts of climate change associated with the increased inter-annual variability associated with extreme weather events has been highlighted in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Predictions of an increased intensity of rainfall are likely to result in subsequent flood disaster events. Flood mitigation has been addressed by planning policy in Queensland through the State Planning Policy 1/03: Mitigating the Adverse Impacts of Flood, Bushfire and Landslide (SPP 1/03) which will expire at the end of 2013 under the new Sustainable Planning Act 2009. The effectiveness of the SPP 1/03 was researched using two cases studies from the 2008 floods in Queensland: the rural town of Charleville was compared with the coastal city of Mackay.