To Be Beside the Seaside: Urban Resilience to Climate-Related Disasters in Coastal Cities

Abstract

Climate change increases the intensity, duration and/or frequency of climate-related events such as floods. These events can become major disasters when they occur in vulnerable urban regions. Coastal resort towns and tourism cities can be particularly vulnerable to these disasters due to their geography and highly variable seasonal populations. Moreover, despite the increasing risk, urban development in many coastal cities continues to take place on low-lying land, aggravating existing exposure and vulnerabilities. Resilience has become a popular concept in urban planning and policy especially in the context of adaptation to climate change but it is not an easy concept to understand and articulate in policy goals. These difficulties, coupled with the increasing risks associated with climate-related disasters, call for a reconsideration of the concept and its application in the field of urban planning. Responsibility for building resilience usually falls to local governments but they may lack the necessary resources and struggle to respond. In Australia, there is also a lack of a consistent policy direction across different local government areas.