HEAT
Adaptation is preparing for more extreme heat in the built environment and its impacts on people
Increased heat is the most direct consequence of climate change and heatwaves are the cause of more deaths than any other natural hazard. The Grampians Region will experience increasingly frequent, lengthy, and intense heatwaves. They will also drive disruptions to agricultural production, supply of fresh food, industry productivity, outdoor work, sport/recreation, energy security in times of peak demand and transport delays across the Region, as well as to ecosystems and biodiversity.
Adaptation plans and actions already underway | Lead agency |
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Department of Health |
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Municipal health and wellbeing and emergency management plans | Local governments across the Region |
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Grampians Regional Emergency Management Plan | Regional Emergency Management Planning Committee (REMPC) |
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Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) | ||
Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance |
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Heat Health Plan (2020), heat health advice / communications and local heat planning | Department of Health and local governments |
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Urban tree canopy projects | Local governments across the Region |
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Municiple renewable energy targets and power purchase agreements | Local governments across the Region |
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Strategic use of shade for outdoor work areas |
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Victoria Energy Upgrades | Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning |
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Leading opportunities
- Embed heatwave planning into municipal health and wellbeing and emergency management plans.
- Mitigation strategies to reduce household energy consumption are also good adaptation strategies.
- Using green financing options to encourage uptake of energy efficiency and climate adaptation measures.
- Increased urban tree canopies, river green links, water sensitive urban design and refuges from the heat and cold weather for vulnerable people.
- Community resilience strategies that emphasise looking out for our neighbours can increase the social capital of those communities.
- Working with developers to improve the quality of new housing stock above minimum standards.
- Retrofitting existing buildings for thermal efficiency.
- Extensive roadside land can be planted out for tree canopy cover and heat reduction.
- Research can identify affordable and accessible ways to retrofit established buildings for greater thermal performance and energy efficiency.
Main barriers
- Many of the heat management challenges are with existing buildings and infrastructure, especially heritage buildings.
- Where heat causes declines in productivity, it affects the Region’s economy, which in turn affects local capacity to invest in climate adaptations.
- Criteria for inclusion on the Vulnerable Persons Registers is restrictive.
- High demand for electricity on hot days can impact the reliability of the transmission network.
- Tree planting programs may not select drought-tolerant species or allow for ongoing maintenance costs.
- Economic settings and planning rules often work against community solutions, which makes heat harder and more expensive for communities to manage.
David Turley from the City of Ballarat
Phil King from Hindmarsh Shire Council
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the First Nations Peoples of the land and waters that we live, care and work upon within the Grampians Region. We respect the continuous culture that has been embedded into history for thousands of years. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.