This dataset provides geospatial representation of the Australian wind regions defined in AS/NZS 1170.2 (2021) Structural Design Actions Part 2: wind actions (hereafter “Standard”). The dataset is intended to assist in delineating areas for referencing the Standard – for example in assigning building vulnerability models across the country. The dataset represents Geoscience Australia's interpretation of the definitions set out in the Standard and is intended for internal use only. This dataset is not suitable for design purposes: professional designers should refer to the Standard for assessing the wind region for their projects. In the event of any inconsistency between this dataset and Figure 3.1 in the Standard, the Standard will take precedence. This product has not been formally endorsed by Standards Australia or the relevant Working Groups and subcommittees. References to localities are indicative and use the best available information at the time of production. For further information on this dataset, please contact hazards@ga.gov.au.

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

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

<div>This data submission was provided by the Offshore Energy Pty Ltd (also known as SOTS) to the Commonwealth under clause 8.3 of the Exploration Licence (D2024-46036). The data is Commercial-in-Confidence. </div><div><br></div><div>Under a Memorandum of Understanding dated 30 November 2022 between the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (the department) and Geoscience Australia (GA) it was agreed that the management and sharing of offshore wind energy research and exploration data will be provided to the Commonwealth. This may be a one-off situation until new Legislation is developed. In the meantime, Exploration Licence conditions require the Offshore Energy Pty Limited (also known as SOTS) to submit data to the Commonwealth.</div><div><br></div><div>A SOTS Data Sharing Exchange of Letters was signed on March 2024 (D2024-46035) which outlined the terms under which data will be accepted and managed by GA on behalf of the Commonwealth.</div><div><br></div><div>The data was submitted to GA using the National Seabed Mapping (NSM) Data submission tool using a temporary Amazon s3 bucket. Data was received under three categories (Geophysical & Geotechnical; Meteorological &; Oceans,&nbsp;and Marine Ecosystems &; Ecological - totalling 29.5 TB (1.2 million files). A data listing can be found in the SOTS Exploration Licence data directory (D2024-22376).&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><strong>The department and GA have agreed that GA will:</strong></div><div><em>accept the data on behalf of the department; and</em></div><div><em>store the data in its data management platform and make it available to the department as agreed between us.</em></div><div><br></div><div><em>GA will, acting on behalf of the department, accept the data directly from SOTS.</em></div><div><br></div><div><strong>GA acknowledges that:</strong></div><div><em>the data is provided to the Commonwealth on the terms and conditions of the Exploration Licence;</em></div><div><em>GA accepts the data on those same terms, including in relation to confidentiality and intellectual property; and </em></div><div><em>this exchange of letters does not affect the ownership of intellectual property rights applicable to the data.</em></div><div><br></div><div><strong>GA will store the data securely in its information technology system, with internal access restricted on a need-to-know basis.</strong></div><div><br></div><div><strong>GA acknowledges that it holds and manages the data on behalf of the department for the purposes of the Archives Act 1983 (Cth) and it will consult with the department before destroying any data to ensure the department remains compliant with relevant information management legislation.</strong></div><div><br></div><div><strong>GA must not publish or disclose the data to a third party without SOTS’ prior written consent.</strong></div><div><em>If GA wishes to disclose the data to another Commonwealth agency, it must take all reasonable steps to protect confidentiality including by notifying the receiving agency that the data is confidential and requiring it to accept the data on the same terms as the Exploration Licence.</em></div><div><br></div><div><em>If GA wishes to use or disclose the data outside the terms of the Exploration Licence, it will enter into its own arrangements with SOTS.</em></div><div><em>GA will immediately inform the department if data is accessed, used, and/or disclosed except in accordance with the Exploration Licence and this letter.</em></div><div> </div><div>GA will immediately inform the department if data is accessed, used and/or disclosed except in accordance with the Exploration Licence and the Data Sharing Exchange of Letters.</div><div><br></div><div>Following discussions between NSM staff, the Director of Data Services and the Manager, Data Governance and Catalogue it was agreed that the Geoscience Australia Information Archive (GAIA) would be the best solution to fulfill the requirements of the Data Sharing Exchange of Letters and to ensure the enduring value of the data to the Commonwealth.</div><div><br></div><div>GA Roles and Responsibilities have been outlined in the Lineage and in D2024-46051.</div>

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>

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.

Refined wind vulnerability curves for residential houses in Western Australia. The dataset contains heuristic vulnerability curves for individual communities in WA, initially provided by Geoff Boughton (JCU), and modified by Martin Wehner (GA), in line with commentary from Geoff that the curves are representative of individual houses. The vulnerability would increase in a community situation due to debris generation from upwind houses. An additional curve for the reinforced masonry/concrete roof houses observed in Exmouth is also included.

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.