We were engaged by the Gold Coast City Council to identify the key risks from climate change across the local government area and to test the readiness of the City to sustain or adapt to the impacts of key climate change parameters.
We were engaged by the Gold Coast City Council to undertake a consultancy to provide technical assistance to identify the key risks from climate change across the local government area and to test the readiness of the City to sustain or adapt to the impacts of key climate change parameters such as sea level rise, increased flooding and increased storms and hazard events.
In particular, the study sought to consider and suggest outcomes that might be delivered by the local government planning scheme to drive adaptation to climate change in the City.
Working with project partners HASSELL, the study involved: a desktop review of approaches to adaptation planning undertaken by other local governments in Queensland and across Australia; and a review of how the current planning scheme and other planning programs administered by the Council address climate change issues and how they were planning to deal with future climate change risks.
The study carried out a series of interviews with senior Council planning staff. The results of these interviews were a substantive input to the review process as well as capturing the diversity of views and approaches to dealing with future climate change. The study report provided the key findings as well as a ‘blueprint’ to assist Council in mainstreaming climate change issues into various planning frameworks.
In association with Buckley Vann town planners and the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland (UQ), we undertook a climate change vulnerability and adaptation planning study for the remote centre of Choiseul Bay, at the northern tip of the Solomon Islands.
BMT conducted a climate change impact assessment as part of comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement process for the Sunshine Coast Airport Expansion. The project involved the construction of a new runway (able to accommodate Boeing 787 aircraft), taxiways and apron infrastructure within the Sunshine Coast Airport site which is a low lying heath environment that is bounded by the Maroochy River as well as the open coast at Marcoola Beach.
Seqwater is the Queensland Government Bulk Water Supply Authority and manages over $11 billion of water supply infrastructure - including dams and weirs, conventional water treatment plants, a desalination plant, the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme, as well reservoirs, pump stations and more than 600 kilometres of bi-directional pipeline network. As part of Seqwater's climate change risk management, this project assessed climate change vulnerability of Seqwater's built assets.
The coastal zone of Byron Shire has a history of erosion and inundation related to ocean storm tides and wave attack.