Monash University under commission of Geoscience Australia produced an offshore wind capacity factor map assessed at a 150m hub height applying the Bureau of Meteorology 10 year (2009-2018) “Bureau of Meteorology Atmospheric high-resolution Regional Reanalysis for Australia” (BARRA) hindcast model. The wind capacity factor has been calculated using the bounding curve of all scaled power curves for wind turbines available within the Open Energy Platform as of 2021. Average wind capacity factor values were also calculated for the Vestas V126 3.45MW and the GE V130 3.2MW wind turbines and are available in this web map service.

Wind multipliers are factors that transform wind speeds over open, flat terrain (regional wind speeds) to local wind speeds that consider the effects of direction, terrain (surface roughness), shielding (buildings and structures) and topography (hills and ridges). During the assessment of local wind hazards (spatial significance in the order 10's of metres), wind multipliers allow for regional wind speeds (order 10 to 100's of kilometres) to be factored to provide local wind speeds. <b>Value: </b>The wind multiplier data is used in modelling the impacts (i.e. physical damage) of wind-related events such as tropical cyclones (an input for Tropical Cyclone Risk assessment), thunderstorms and other windstorms. <b>Scope: </b>Includes terrain, shielding and topographic multipliers for national coverage. Each multiplier further contains 8 directions.

Of the damage sustained by residential buildings during a severe wind event, a significant portion can be caused by impacts from wind‐borne debris. Furthermore, where such impacts form dominant openings in windward walls, large internal pressures can be generated, consequently leading to substantially increased loads on the building’s structure and hence increased damage to the building’s envelope. Geoscience Australia, together with its collaborators the Cyclone Testing Station at James Cook University and JDH Consulting, have commenced development of a software tool to quantitatively model vulnerability of residential buildings to severe wind. This paper describes the implementation of the methodology presented in Part 1 [1] into the software tool to model wind‐borne debris induced damage. Presented at the 14th Australasian Wind Engineering Society Workshop 2010

Windstorms cause most of the damage to housing in Australia. Population growth is exposing more people and buildings to risks from these wind hazards. Houses and components are currently designed and built to standards aligned with the Building Code of Australia. Regulatory measures including building inspections are meant to ensure acceptable quality of construction. Inspections and post windstorm damage surveys have consistently shown that contemporary houses (post 1980) perform better than older houses (pre 1980) in cyclone and non cyclone areas. However, errors in design and construction found during recent surveys, reduce the resilience of contemporary housing. Geoscience Australia is developing a software tool for assessing the vulnerability of housing, using empirical models, expert opinion, and engineering methods. These models could be used to assess vulnerability of a range of house types and also recommend adaptation measure to account for increases in the intensity of windstorms in Australia.

Damage from windborne debris is a major contributor to the total damage produced by extreme wind of all types. Therefore it is important to incorporate this component into a complete wind-induced damage model, developed for disaster management or insurance purposes. This paper describes the basic methodology for windborne debris damage modelling developed for Geoscience Australia as part of the VAWS model. VAWS is a software tool currently under development that models damage to buildings from severe wind. The implementation of the windborne debris damage model is described in Wehner et al, 2010. Presented at the 14th Australasian Wind Engineering Society Workshop 2010

Monash University under commission of Geoscience Australia produced an offshore wind capacity factor map assessed at a 150m hub height applying the Bureau of Meteorology 10 year (2009-2018) BARRA hindcast model. The wind capacity factor has been calculated using the bounding curve of all scaled power curves for wind turbines available within the Open Energy Platform as of 2021. Average wind capacity factor values were also calculated for the Vestas V126 3.45MW and the GE V130 3.2MW wind turbines.

Monash University under commission of Geoscience Australia produced an offshore wind capacity factor map assessed at a 150m hub height applying the Bureau of Meteorology 10 year (2009-2018) “Bureau of Meteorology Atmospheric high-resolution Regional Reanalysis for Australia” (BARRA) hindcast model. The wind capacity factor has been calculated using the bounding curve of all scaled power curves for wind turbines available within the Open Energy Platform as of 2021. Average wind capacity factor values were also calculated for the Vestas V126 3.45MW and the GE V130 3.2MW wind turbines and are available in this web map service.

<div>The region of coastal South East Queensland (SEQ) is a large concentration of population, industry, and infrastructure important to the economy of Queensland and of Australia. The region is also subject to severe storms that generate damaging winds, particularly as result of thunderstorm and tropical cyclone activity. Older residential housing has historically been the most damaged in such storms, contributing disproportionately to community risk. This risk posed by severe wind is not well understood, nor are the optimal strategies for managing, and potentially reducing, this risk. In this hazard context, this project was initiated based on a joint proposal developed by Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES), Geoscience Australia and the six coastal local governments in SEQ in January 2020. The objective was to gain an improved understanding of the wind risks in this region and to develop actionable information that could inform future strategies to manage and reduce risk in these areas, with broader application to other local government areas. The project proved to be of great interest to a broader range of stakeholders, including the insurance industry, some of whom became formal partners, while others participated as observers. </div><div><br></div><div>The management of wind risk requires a sound evidence base for decision makers. While the information developed in this project has significant uncertainties, the outcomes are considered a representative view of wind risk in a coastal region that is home to nearly 60% of the Queensland population. The work has developed an improved understanding of the three primary risk elements of wind hazard, residential exposure and vulnerability. This has been achieved through a broad collaboration that has entailed the sharing of data, domain expertise and consensus building. This, in turn, has been translated into an assessment of scenario impacts, local scale risk, and the nuancing effects of resilience on the outcomes. An exploration was carried out of the effectiveness of a range of retrofit strategies directed at addressing the residential buildings in our communities that contribute the most wind risk in South East Queensland. The outcome are expected to be a valuable resource for all the project partners and stakeholders in the areas of planning, preparation, response, recovery and strategic mitigation.</div>

<div>The Severe Wind Hazard Assessment for Queensland arose as a project to better understand the potential impacts of tropical cyclones (TCs) on population centres and elements of critical infrastructure in Queensland. The rationale for the project was reinforced by lessons from Severe Tropical Cyclone (STC) Debbie, the direct and indirect impacts of which affected a significant area of Queensland, stretching from Bowen to the City of Gold Coast and Northern New South Wales between 28 March and 7 April 2017, resulting in 14 mostly flood associated deaths, and more than A$3.5 billion in direct losses. The intent of the project is to explore and assess a range of scenarios that extend beyond the contemporary recollection of severe events in order to challenge decision making for rarer but higher-consequence events. The scenarios described in the report can be used to improve planning for severe tropical cyclone (TC) events and their impacts. This includes developing a better understanding of how the capabilities of emergency services and supporting elements may be impacted in actual events.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Scenarios were selected from the catalogue of synthetic events (i.e. events that did not actually occur but whose occurrence was as probable as those that did occur) generated for the 2018 Tropical Cyclone Hazard Assessment (TCHA; Arthur, 2018), in consultation with Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) and those local governments involved within the project. Two TC events were modelled for each location for this project – a Category 3 and a Category 5 TC -with ‘favourable’ tracks for impact analysis. In all scenarios, consideration was given to regional historical analogues for the selected synthetic tracks to better relate the scenario outputs to known or “lived” events. These categories were chosen as they represent events with a moderate and very low likelihood with respect to intensity, based on historical observations. This also accounts for the future climate of less TCs but more intense occurrences, highlighting the different impacts arising from different events. It is important to emphasise and understand that each individual TC event will be different and lead to different impacts.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div>

The national Tropical Cyclone Hazard Assessment (TCHA) defines the severe wind hazard posed to Australia based on the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones making landfall around the Australian coastline. Contact us at hazards@ga.gov.au if you need further information. URL: https://www.ga.gov.au/about/projects/safety/tcha <b>Value: </b>The TCHA provides vital information to emergency managers, town planners and infrastructure owners to plan and reduce the threat of tropical cyclone hazard on the Australian coast, and for the insurance industry to understand the tropical cyclone risk as an input to pricing insurance premiums. The TCHA is a key data source to calculate local cyclone impact models for the development of evidence-based disaster management plans, evacuation plans or inform infrastructure planning or mitigation strategies. High risk areas can be identified and prioritised for further analysis, or to extract scenarios to explore risk mitigation and community safety at a local and regional level. The TCHA includes a catalogue of synthetic tropical cyclone events (including tracks and wind fields), hazard profiles for selected locations across Australia, and maps of annual recurrence interval (ARI) wind speeds due to tropical cyclones. Geoscience Australia provides essential evidence based information to government and emergency managers around Australia to improve our communities' ability to prepare for, mitigate against and respond to natural disasters. <b>Scope: </b>Continental scale.