We highlight the importance of developing and integrating fundamental information at a range of scales (regional to national to local) to develop consistency, gain ownership, and meet the needs of a range of users and decision makers. We demonstrate this with a couple of case studies where we have leveraged national databases and computational tools to work locally to gain ownership of risks and to develop adaptation options. In this sense we endorse the notion of combining top down and bottom up approaches to get the best outcome.

Climate change is expected to increase severe wind hazard in many regions of the Australian continent with consequences for exposed infrastructure and human populations. The objective of this paper is to provide an initial nationally consistent assessment of wind risk under current cli-mate (residential buildings only), utilizing the Australian/New Zealand wind loading standard (AS/NZS 1170.2, 2002) as the measure of the hazard. This work is part of the National Wind Risk Assessment (NWRA), a collaboration between the Department of Climate Change and En-ergy Efficiency and Geoscience Australia (both Federal Government Agencies). It is aimed at highlighting regions of the Australian continent where currently there is high wind risk to resi-dential structures (current climate), and where, if hazard increases under climate change, there will be a greater need for adaptation. This assessment was undertaken by separately considering wind hazard, infrastructure ex-posure and the wind vulnerability of residential buildings. The methodology has determined the direct impact of severe wind on Australian communities, which has involved the parallel devel-opment of the understanding of wind hazard, residential building exposure and the wind vulner-ability of residential structures. We provide a map of the current climate wind risk for residential housing, expressed as annualized loss based on the wind loading standard as a proxy for the wind hazard. We also explore issues with the nationally consistent methodology through a validation process that considers a 'buildings level' assessment for four case-study regions utilizing an im-proved understanding of building vulnerability with respect to severe wind hazard.

Extreme events in a changing climate A climate event is 'extreme' when it (or a series of events) occurs with greater intensity, frequency or duration than is normally expected. Every region of the world experiences extreme events from time to time and natural climate variability already produces extreme events in Tasmania. This includes heat waves, cold waves, floods, droughts and storms. Extreme events can have devastating and wide ranging effects on society and the environment, impacting infrastructure, agriculture, utilities, water resources and emergency planning.

This presentation will provide an overview of some of the work currently being undertaken at Geoscience Australia GA) as part of the National Coastal Vulnerability Assessment (NCVA), funded by the Department of Climate Change (DCC). The presentation will summarise the methodology applied, and highlight the issues, including the limitations and data gaps.

The term "Smartline" refers to a GIS line map format which can allow rapid capture of diverse coastal data into a single consistently classified map, which in turn can be readily analysed for many purposes. This format has been used to create a detailed nationally-consistent coastal geomorphic map of Australia, which is currently being used for the National Coastal Vulnerability Assessment (NCVA) as part of the underpinning information for understanding the vulnerability to sea level rise and other climate change influenced hazards such as storm surge. The utility of the Smartline format results from application of a number of key principles. A hierarchical form- and fabric-based (rather than morpho-dynamic) geomorphic classification is used to classify coastal landforms in shore-parallel tidal zones relating to but not necessarily co-incident with the GIS line itself. Together with the use of broad but geomorphically-meaningful classes, this allows Smartline to readily import coastal data from a diversity of differently-classified prior sources into one consistent map. The resulting map can be as spatially detailed as the available data sources allow, and can be used in at least two key ways: Firstly, Smartline can work as a source of consistently classified information which has been distilled out of a diversity of data sources and presented in a simple format from which required information can be rapidly extracted using queries. Given the practical difficulty many coastal planners and managers face in accessing and using the vast amount of primary coastal data now available in Australia, Smartline can provide the means to assimilate and synthesise all this data into more usable forms.

The Garnaut Climate Change Review commissioned by Australia's State and Territory Governments examined the impacts of, and possible policy responses to, climate change on the Australian economy. This presentation discussed the methodology developed for the Review by Geoscience Australia and the outputs which provided an assessment of the impact of tropical cyclone (TC) hazard on communities in northern Australia. The study utilized predicted changes in the maximum potential intensity (MPI) to define changes in the wind hazard and storm surge potential. The MPI sets a thermodynamic, theoretical upper limit for the distribution of TC intensities for a given vertical temperature and humidity profile and a given location. Associated storm surge impacts were developed using a simple relationship between TC intensity and storm surge height and adopting the IPCC fourth assessment global mid-point sea-level rise predictions. We considered the impact on the residential building stock of severe wind and storm surge hazards associated with a number of IPCC climate change scenarios. Changes in residential building stock, for over 500 coastal statistical local areas (SLA's) from Southeast Queensland anticlockwise to Perth, were forecast using Australian Bureau of Statistics population projections through to 2100. A Probable Maximum Loss (PML) curve for each study region was obtained by considering the return-period hazard over the range from 50 to 5000 years. The average annual cost to the region due to tropical cyclones across this wide time period (5000 years), often referred to as the 'annualised loss', was evaluated for each SLA. Expressing the annualised loss as a percentage of total reconstruction demonstrates the intensity of the risk to a particular community, which is not so evident in simple dollar loss figures.

The 2002 report to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) <i>Natural disasters in Australia: Reforming mitigation, relief and recovery arrangements</i> advocated a 'fundamental shift in focus towards cost-effective, evidence-based disaster mitigation'. The report stated that in Australia there was a 'lack of independent and comprehensive systematic natural disaster risk assessments, and natural disaster data and analysis'. One key solution proposed to address this gap in our knowledge is outlined in Reform Commitment 1 in the report: <i>Develop and implement a five-year national programme of systematic and rigorous disaster risk assessments</i>. This framework is designed to improve our collective knowledge about natural hazard risk in Australia to support emergency risk management and natural hazard mitigation. The natural hazards covered are those defined in the report to COAG: bushfire, earthquake, flood, storm, cyclone, storm surge, landslide, tsunami, meteorite strike and tornado. Many events have demonstrated that the importance of natural hazards does not lie simply in the generation and passage of events such as severe storms or floods, but in the wide-reaching and profound impacts that these events can have on communities. Risk 1 is defined as: A concept to describe the likelihood of harmful consequences arising from the interaction of hazards, communities and the environment. This framework focuses on risk assessment for sudden onset natural hazards to underpin natural hazard risk management and natural hazard mitigation. The framework does not focus on risk management or mitigation, although its outcomes support and benefit these. The framework covers the following risks arising from natural hazards: financial, socio-economic, casualty, political and environmental risk. Each of these risks contributes to the overall impacts of natural hazards on communities . This framework is aimed foremost at those who seek an improved evidence base for risk management of natural hazards, in all levels of government. The framework is also intended for risk assessment practitioners, researchers and information managers. The primary driver of the framework is the need to develop an improved evidence base for effective risk management decisions on natural hazards. Developing this improved evidence base will also deliver on COAG Reform Commitment 1. Other key drivers include: - Cooperative approaches across all levels of government to managing natural hazards; - A consistent approach to natural hazard risk assessment; - Risk management for cross-jurisdictional and catastrophic disasters; - The potential impacts of climate change from possible changes in the frequency or severity of weather related natural hazards; - Increasing exposure of populations to natural hazards through demographic change and increases in personal assets.

A study of the consistency of gust wind speed records from two types of recording instruments has been undertaken. The study examined the Bureau of Meteorology's (BoM) wind speed records in order to establish the existence of bias between coincident records obtained by the old pressure-tube Dines anemometers and the records obtained by the new cup anemometers. This study was an important step towards assessing the quality and consistency of gust wind speed records that form the basis of the Australian Standards/NZ Standards for design of buildings for wind actions (AS/NZS 1170.2:2011 and AS 4055:2006). The Building Code of Australia (BCA) requires that buildings in Australia meet the specifications described in the two standards. BoM has been recording peak gust wind speed observations in the Australian region for over 70 years. The Australia/New Zealand Wind Actions Standard as well as the wind engineering community in general rely on these peak gust wind speed observations to determine wind loads on buildings and infrastructure. In the mid-1980s BoM commenced a program to replace the aging Dines anemometers with Synchrotac and Almos cup anemometers. During the anemometer replacement procedure, many localities had both types of anemometers recording extreme events. This allowed us to compare severe wind recordings of both instruments to assess the consistency of the recordings. The results show that the Dines anemometer measures higher gust wind speeds than the 3-cup anemometer when the same wind gust is considered. The bias varies with the wind speed and ranges from 5 to 17%. This poster presents the methodology and main outcomes from the assessment of coincident measurements of gust wind speed.

Climate change is expected to increase severe wind hazard in many regions of the Australian continent with consequences for exposed infrastructure and human populations. The objective of this paper is to provide an initial nationally consistent assessment of wind risk under current climate, utilizing the Australian/New Zealand wind loading standard (AS/NZS 1170.2, 2002) as a measure of the hazard. This work is part of the National Wind Risk Assessment (NWRA), which is a collaboration between the Australian Federal Government (Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) and Geoscience Australia. It is aimed at highlighting regions of the Australian continent where there is high wind risk to residential structures under current climate, and where, if hazard increases under climate change, there will be a greater need for adaptation. This assessment is being undertaken by separately considering wind hazard, infrastructure exposure and the wind vulnerability of residential buildings. The NWRA will provide a benchmark measure of wind risk nationally (current climate), underpinned by the National Exposure Information System (NEXIS; developed by Geoscience Australia) and the wind loading standard. The methodology which determines the direct impact of severe wind on Australian communities involves the parallel development of the understanding of wind hazard, residential building exposure and the wind vulnerability of residential structures. We provide the current climate wind risk, expressed as annualized loss, based on the wind loading standard.

Some of the most visible consequences arising from climate change are sea level rise and more intense and frequent storms. On the open coast and low lying estuarine waterways these impacts will lead to the increased risks of inundation, storm surge and coastal erosion that can damage beaches, property and infrastructure and impact on a significant number of people. Understanding the potential risk of these coastal hazards is critical for coastal zone management and the formulation of adaptation responses, while early action is likely to be the most cost effective approach to managing the risk. Geoscience Australia (GA) is assisting the Australian Government's Department of Climate Change to develop a 'first pass' National Coastal Vulnerability Assessment. GA and the University of Tasmania (UTas) are developing fundamental spatial datasets and GIS modelling tools to identify which land areas of the Australian coast are likely to be physically sensitive to the effects of sea level rise, storms and storm surge. Of special interest is to identify sensitive areas where there is significant property and infrastructure that will be the focus of a more detailed study in a second pass assessment. A new national shoreline geomorphic and stability map or Smartline, developed for the project by UTas, is a key new spatial dataset. The Smartline is an interactive, nationally-consistent coastal GIS map in the form of a segmented line. Each line segment identifies distinct coastal landform types using multiple attribute fields to describe important aspects of the geology, geomorphology and topography of the coast. These data enable an assessment of the stability of the coast and its sensitivity to the potential impacts of shoreline erosion (soft coast) and inundation (low-lying coast), providing a useful indicative coastal risk assessment.