Over the past year the City of Stirling has been preparing a Coastal Hazard Risk Management and Adaptation Plan (CHRMAP).
A CHRMAP is a strategic, long-term plan that guides the response to existing and potential future risk of impact from coastal hazards. It assesses risk levels at specific planning timeframes 10, 25, 50 and 100 years into the future. It then outlines adaptation pathways to be pursued to minimise risk and vulnerability across these timeframes.
The impact of sea level rise, associated with climate change, is considered in the CHRMAP over the next 100 years. Its influence is based on the projection that the sea level is projected to be up to 1m higher by 2122. Sea level rise will likely increase the risk associated with coastal hazards due to erosion and inundation, which are the two primary coastal hazards examined in the CHRMAP study.
The city’s motion on climate change adaptation passed unanimously at the National General Assembly as part of the Australian Local Government Association’s annual 2022 conference. The city’s motion called on the Federal Government to:
* Develop a sustainable, equitable and efficient national funding model for the implementation of coastal hazard management actions to mitigate coastal erosion and inundation.
* Charge the Productivity Commission with an investigation into an appropriate funding framework that shares the cost of coastal hazard management appropriately among all levels of government and the community.
An important part about creating a CHRMAP is community involvement to understand how people value and use coastal assets, as well as feedback as to whether proposed mitigation strategies are acceptable to the wider community.
The city is now seeking community feedback on the draft CHRMAP. The plan will then go to council for endorsement in mid-2023.
