The Role of Spatial Data in Understanding Climate Change Risk  

Authors / CoAuthors

Schneider, J. | Nadimpalli, K. | Cechet, B.

Abstract

The development of climate change adaptation policies must be underpinned by a sound understanding of climate change risk. As part of the Hyogo Framework for Action, governments have agreed to incorporate climate change adaptation into the risk reduction process. This paper explores the nature of climate change risk assessment in the context of human assets and the built environment. More specifically, the paper's focus is on the role of spatial data which is fundamental to the analysis. The fundamental link in all of these examples is the National Exposure Information System (NEXIS) which has been developed as a national database of Australia's built infrastructure and associated demographic information. The first illustrations of the use of NEXIS are through post-disaster impact assessments of a recent flood and bushfire. While these specific events can not be said to be the result of climate change, flood and bushfire risks will certainly increase if rainfall or drought become more prevalent, as most climate change models indicate. The second example is from Australia's National Coastal Vulnerability Assessment which is addressing the impact of sea-level rise and increased storms on coastal communities on a national scale. This study required access to or the development of several other spatial databases covering coastal landforms, digital elevation models and tidal/storm surge. Together, these examples serve to illustrate the importance of spatial data to the assessment of climate change risk and, ultimately, to making informed, cost-effective decisions to adapt to climate change.

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

69598

Contact for the resource

Keywords

• External PublicationConference Paper

( Theme )

• climate

( Theme )

• DEM

( Theme )

• GIS

( Theme )

• risk analysis

( Theme )

• environmental

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

Publication Date

2009-01-01T00:00:00

Creation Date

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

Access - restricted

Use - license

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Purpose

Maintenance Information

unknown

Topic Category

geoscientificInformation

Series Information

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Unknown

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Reference System

Spatial Resolution

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