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University Faculty or Divisional Name
Australia’s Country Towns 2050
Presentation to the NCCARF
Symposium
UNSW
June 2011
Professor Andrew Beer
Regional Co-operation and Development
Forum
Canberra
June 2011
Life Impact | The University of Adelaide
Project Aims
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First, the project will test two hypotheses:
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a) that many inland rural and remote communities are vulnerable to the primary and secondary impacts
of climate change and that this varies by location, industry structure, environment, and remoteness;
b) that public sector and community planning and action can reduce the impacts of climate change on the
sustainability of a settlement and that some forms of intervention will be more effective than others.
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Second, it sets out to inform governments, communities and industry about inland settlement
patterns in a climate change adapted rural and regional Australia
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Third, it will shed light on the sets of processes – environmental, social, economic and
demographic – that will reshape Australia’s rural and regional settlement pattern as a
consequence of global warming. The project recognises that non-metropolitan Australia will be
greatly affected by climate change in ways that differ greatly from the capital cities.
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Fourth, the research seeks to contribute to economically and socially vibrant communities in rural,
regional and remote Australia by developing a suite of tools that assist policy makers evaluate the
probable impact of climate change on both individual communities and groups of settlements,
while at the same time highlighting effective strategies that can be implemented by individual
communities and settlements.
Australia’s Country Towns 2050
• What are the deliverables?
– develop a composite index of climate change vulnerability for all rural and
regional settlements across Australia;
– assess the climate-change readiness of inland rural and regional communities;
– forecast the likely impacts of climate change on non-metropolitan
settlements;
– document the adaptation strategies currently being employed by rural and
regional communities across inland Australia;
– assemble key data sets that can be used to assess the impact of climate
change on rural and regional settlements over the past 20 years and into the
future;
– assemble a ‘toolkit’ of effective strategies for climate adaptation in inland
rural and regional Australia to be used by individual towns/communities, as
well as state and national policy makers;
– communicate the results to governments, other key stakeholders and the
broader Australian community; and
– prepare a series of assessments and policy recommendations.
Intellectual and Policy Challenges
• This research addresses a number of intellectual and policy challenges.
– First, how vulnerable are inland Australia’s rural and remote settlements to
the first order and second order changes that will be ushered in by climate
change?
– Second, which centres and types of settlement will be most vulnerable as a
result of climate change and how is that vulnerability affected by geography,
economy, remoteness and demographic processes?
– Third, how adequate are current measures for addressing the impacts of
climate change and what constitutes ‘best practice’ in this area?
– Fourth, what are the processes, mechanisms and sites (Pike et al 2010) that
build resilience in Australia’s country towns and other regional centres and
how can they be further developed?
– Fifth, what policies and strategies at the national and other levels will best
enhance the resilience and adaptability of Australia’s country towns and
other regional settlements?
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