Sydney Coastal Councils - System Approach to Regional Climate Change. Adaptation Strategies in Metropolises.

The Systems Approach to Regional Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in Metropolises project is developing and testing an integrated, systems approach to assisting the fifteen Sydney Coastal Councils Group (SCCG) Member Councils in assessing their vulnerability to climate change and the barriers and opportunities associated with adaptation at the Local Government scale. The project also seeks to demonstrate the value of coordinated regional-scale responses to climate vulnerability through Local Government cooperation. The project is a partnership between the SCCG, and the CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship working in collaboration with University of the Sunshine Coast. It is part of the Australian Government’s Department of Climate Change (DCC) National Climate Change Adaptation Program.

To develop and test an integrated (systems) method to generate information about the likely impacts of climate change and feasible adaptation strategies in the Sydney region through integration of existing models, generation of new knowledge where there are significant gaps, scenario; To deepen the understanding of the likely impacts of climate change and resulting adaptation options in the Sydney region; Assess the transferability of the integrated (systems) method to other large urban areas. Improve the capacity of councils to respond and adapt to climate change.

The project will benefit SCCG Member Councils in the Sydney region and other councils in large urban areas by deepening the understanding of the likely impacts of climate change in these areas. Through the identification of the barriers and opportunities to adapting to the impacts of climate change, recommendations and key interventions will be identified that will assist Councils to improve their capacity to adapt to climate change to through future management decisions. Stage two of the project will utilise these recommendations and interventions to design and implement adaptation strategies through demonstration projects. The monitoring of these projects as well as their selection, implementation and their outcomes will be underpinned by the lesson learnt during the first stage of the project. This second stage is currently unfunded, but the project partners continue to seek support to extend the scope of the current project.