Background | Climate Change Adaptation

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City of Melbourne’s response to climate change

The City of Melbourne has taken many actions to adapt and mitigate climate change and has been recognised for its leadership in responding to both.

The Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2009, the first of its kind in Australia, mapped out our approach for adapting to a changing climate. It undertook an in-depth risk assessment and highlighted key priority areas for action. The Adaptation Action Plan 2010 then outlined more detailed actions we would take to respond to climate change risk assessment. Since then, over 100 actions have been completed and we have clearly demonstrated how a council can adapt to a changing climate.

The City of Melbourne’s Zero Net Emissions by 2020 Strategy was first developed in 2002. It outlined our commitment to mitigate our municipality’s contribution to climate change. In 2014, it was updated to refresh our focus and restate our commitment, and now we will do the same for the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2009.

This background paper seeks to provide an overview of our progress since the strategy was released in 2009, as well as to guide your feedback in order to refresh our Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2009. It includes:

An overview of climate change projections for Melbourne and what this might mean for our city
The progress that the City of Melbourne has made in adaptation
Examples of progress that others have made since 2009

The projections

While we have already experienced some change, more change is projected to occur and at a faster rate. There is, however, uncertainty about how significant the changes will be, when they might occur, and the direction they will take (for example, for rainfall we might see more or less). Therefore we have to be adept at managing these uncertainties and build in flexibility.

Understanding what climate change might mean for our city

Over the past 20 years, Melbourne has experienced many climate events that have affected things that the community values. These events provide us an indication of what might be in-store for us in the future.

Each of these events has affected different components of our city and our community. Under climate change, it is likely that more of these events will occur with greater intensity or at a greater frequency, or both.

We've already made adaptation progress

The focus of the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2009 was to understand our risks and vulnerabilities as a city, and to identify actions to address these in the key areas of heat and the increasing intensity of rainfall events as these two risks were considered to be more immediate risks. This emphasis has shaped much of the work we have done since our strategy release in 2009.

View our achievements in the slideshow below.

Achievement 1 – The Climate Change Adaptation Strategy set the priorities, and the priorities then achieved a life of their own

The Urban Forest Strategy, Total Watermark: City as a Catchment Strategy and the Open Space Strategy are the result of or have reinforced the integration of climate change considerations across a number of key areas within the City of Melbourne.

Achievement 2 – Tangible action has been taken to reduce climate risks in our city

These tangible actions deliver on a number of our priorities. In some instances climate change was the driver of the action, for others climate change adaptation contributed to the business case for their delivery. Highlights include:

La Trobe Street green bicycle lanes - La Trobe Street was also highlighted as an area that required increased tree canopy as part of the Urban Forest Strategy and subsequent precinct planning. This project represented the useful combining of projects, to efficiently achieve the targets in our Urban Forest Strategy, Total Watermark: City as a Catchment 2014, the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2009 and the Bicycle Plan.
Stormwater capture and re-use at Fitzroy Gardens - In response to the millennial drought, a stormwater harvesting system was installed at Fitzroy Gardens in December 2013. The system supplies 70 million litres of water every year, and helps us keep the heritage garden healthy in a changing climate.
Changes to the management of our drainage system - We have investigated various components and locations of our drainage network to inform our drainage maintenance and capital works programs. We have been building a thorough knowledge of our drainage network by video capturing the insides of our drainage network. We have also completed area-specific studies to test how our network might perform in a high rainfall event.

Cyclist riding down a road next to stores

Achievement 3 – Many actions identified in the strategy are now core business

Over the past seven years, our emergency managers have been busy working with many stakeholders to improve how we work together to respond to emergency events. This work has covered off on a number actions identified through the Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan 2010, and now have become business as usual for our emergency management team. Work in this space is now influencing work by other councils.

Brokerage program

In 2014-15, the City of Melbourne established the Heatwave and Homelessness Action Plan, as the homeless were identified as especially vulnerable to heatwaves within the city. The brokerage program provides free swimming and locker passes, movie passes (limited in number), and maps of cool spaces and drinking fountains to homeless service providers to provide to their clients.

Achievement 4 – Evolved understanding of climate change and decision making

Understanding in more detail what climate change may mean for the city was a critical action from the 2009 strategy. We have completed a number of research projects since the strategy’s release, working with specialists from universities in Melbourne, consultants, our neighbouring councils – such as the City of Port Phillip – and international cities like Rotterdam, Copenhagen, New York and Jakarta. We have built our knowledge of the different climate variables and how they might change under climate change.

Achievements include:

Adaptation cost curve to rank adaptation actions based on their ability to mitigate risk (quantified in dollars) and build our resilience (quantified in lives saved, as well as other criteria).
Integrated Climate Adaptation Model, using our enhanced knowledge of climate change and analysing the different benefits that various adaptation options bring when seeking to manage the risk of flooding and urban heat.

Cyclist riding through the city next to a tram

Achievement 5 – Productive partnerships built to deliver outcomes

These achievements were highly dependent on information sharing, collaboration and successful partnerships. Here are just a few:

Emergency management planning - Working with agencies such as Emergency Management Victoria, the Victorian State Emergencies Services, Public Transport Victoria, community service organisations such as Red Cross, Launch Housing, and large operators in our municipality like the Port of Melbourne Corporation.
C40 Delta Cities Network - This network connects people working in delta cities (cities that are situated where rivers meet larger bodies of water) around the world who are tackling similar challenges and opportunities for climate action.
Inner Melbourne Climate Adaptation Network - Brings together a range of government, business and community stakeholders who play vital and sometimes interlinking roles in addressing climate change risks in Melbourne.