With almost 85% of Australia’s population living in coastal areas, climate change and its potential impacts on public infrastructure have become a significant issue for the Australian government. AECOM’s work on this project began with a high-level risk assessment of 38 sites across Australia, prioritizing the sites at greatest risk across three timeframes: 2040, 2070 and 2100. The initial assessment established a framework to guide future assessments of climate risk at Defence sites, and enabled us to select sites for further investigation and adaptation planning.
AECOM continued to support Defence in the second stage of the study by completing detailed site assessments of 14 sites, which involved physical site inspections to assess current asset condition and facilitate local stakeholder engagement, and then identified measures for adaptive planning.
AECOM performed detailed modeling of coastal erosion and flooding from storm surge and extreme rainfall. Input from CSIRO, ACE CRC and the Met Office informed and validated the selection of climate inputs for this assessment. Our team used existing climate change projections for sea level rise and extreme rainfall to inform the detailed assessments of marine flooding, estuarine flooding and coastal erosion.
In delivering this work, AECOM supported Defence’s internal engagement with the study findings by developing site-based visual summary sheets and animations for use in stakeholder workshops and internal branch briefings. AECOM also facilitated engagement with external stakeholders to discuss broader regional risks and adaptation opportunities.
AECOM produced a suite of reports in recognition of the project’s multiple audiences. For example, we developed an Executive Report summarizing the findings for all sites and broader next steps for senior decision-makers at Defence. We also developed site reports for site and regional managers. Technical reports, by contrast, were developed for each site to support engineering audiences using the project outputs.
Additional Services:
- Climate change and adaptation planning