Adaptation action
Over the coming decades in Victoria climate change is expected to mean:
- increased temperatures
- drier conditions
- more frequent extreme events such as extreme rainfall, bushfires and droughts.
Adapting to climate change is about taking deliberate and considered actions to avoid, manage or reduce the consequences of a hotter, drier and more extreme climate and to take advantage of the opportunities that such changes may generate.
Adaptation can take many different forms. It includes education and training about climate change; revising emergency planning responses for more severe extreme weather events; revised planning standards for more vulnerable areas; or it may require more technical and scientific solutions such as developing drought-resistant crops, increasing thermal performance standards for buildings.
Adaptation may also involve managing and assisting our natural assets to improve their resilience to climate change impacts, for example working to identify and establish migration corridors or ‘bio-links’ that join up suitable habitat fragments.
Benefits of early action may help reduce the need for and the cost of remedial action and may also provide some additional benefits in the interim. For example, improving water efficiency will have immediate benefits, but also better prepare us for times in the future when there is less water available.
Preparing for climate change is not something that governments can do alone – it is a shared responsibility that requires partnerships across the community so that individuals, businesses, communities and governments can make to prepare effectively and efficiently.
This section outlines some of the adaptation actions the Victorian Government is taking in response to climate change.
Future Coasts program
The Future Coasts Program will provide detailed mapping of the Victorian coastline that will act as a basis for assessing the physical vulnerability of coastal areas to the impacts of sea level rise.
Key projects and activities
A summary overview of some areas of action being undertaken by the Victorian Government on adaptation.
