Climate disaster and adaptation

Examining universities’ roles and responsibilities to on-campus, neighbouring and more-than-human communities in building climate disaster and pandemic resilience

The Sydney Environment Institute and Sydney Policy Lab are undertaking a new research project to develop a better model and set of practices for how the University of Sydney provides support, expertise and infrastructure for its internal and surrounding communities in disasters and pandemics. It will examine how members of the University’s on-campus and neighbouring communities, academic and professional expertise, local knowledges, resources and infrastructure across its campuses can be activated and mobilised to support local, regional and national efforts in disaster scenarios. The project is attentive to policy considerations and opportunities for policy impact. 

Climate disasters are becoming more frequent and severe through climate change. In 2023 alone, 34 disasters were declared in Australia with 128 local government areas impacted and 160 disaster support declarations (NEMA 2023). This follows the catastrophic bushfires, floods and storms of recent years in addition to prolonged drought and extreme hot weather. As climate change accelerates, and social and economic inequality rises, climate disasters will have increasingly complex impacts on people, other animals and communities around the country. Meanwhile, the impacts of recent climate disasters have been compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic as recovery and displacement is prolonged through disrupted supply chains while social distancing and public health measures had to be balanced against urgent needs to prepare and respond. Broadly, millions of lives were lost while societies and economies were disrupted with severe consequences for mental health and wellbeing. The World Health Organization (WHO 2024) warns there is an urgent need to prepare for and anticipate future pandemic events especially regarding seasonal and zoonotic influenza. 

The University of Sydney is a global university with campuses, clinical schools and research facilities across New South Wales. These are in urban centres (Camperdown and Westmead), bushland interfaces (Camden and Nepean), rural and regional areas (Dubbo, Orange, Broken Hill and Lismore) and elsewhere. Approximately 70,000 students and 8,470 staff comprise its on-campus communities alongside many more living and working nearby. Our campuses are located amid diverse communities, with different groups affected by disasters in distinctive and uneven ways. The University’s geographic, social and economic footprint, and the expertise and infrastructure we have available, represents a significant resource, which could and ought to be made ‘disaster ready,’ and brought to bear in disaster planning and response for future climate disasters, extreme weather and pandemic scenarios. 

This research project asks:

• What is the University’s responsibility to its on-campus, neighbouring and more-than-human communities in relation to climate disaster, extreme weather and pandemic events? 
• What can be learned from how the University’s network of campuses, clinical schools and research facilities have activated in the past to inform future policy and practices?
• How might the University activate its people, communities, resources and infrastructure to build resilience and respond to climate disaster, extreme weather and pandemic events? 
• How can the University foster more cohesive social and multispecies foundations within its community networks to be leveraged in future climate disaster, extreme weather and pandemic scenarios?

The research project’s core questions will be shaped in collaboration with communities in which the work will take place, academics, policymakers and industry experts in early 2025. 

Contributors: Prof David Schlosberg, Dr Kate Harrison Brennan, Prof Danielle Celermajer, Dr Scott Webster

This project examines climate buffer infrastructure in the Philippines.

Researchers examine the costs, benefits, decision-making processes, and business risks linked to infrastructure such as seawalls, wetlands, and mangroves as a means of climate adaptation, and consider their implications for justice.

This project was supported by SEI’s 2024 Collaborative Grants Scheme.

Contributors: Dr Justin See, Dr Sophie Webber, Dr Aaron Opdyke, Dr Sandra Alday, Ginbert Cuaton, Pearly Joy Peja

This project collects data on formal disaster response systems. Building on Sydney Environment Institute research on informal, community-led responses to disaster, the new project will produce a social network map of connections between formal and informal responses to the catastrophic 2022 floods in Lismore.

This project was supported by SEI’s 2024 Collaborative Grants Scheme.

Outputs:

• Findings Report: 'Understanding connections between disaster management agencies and informal and emergent community groups in the Northern Rivers'
• Research Seminar: 'How can disaster agencies and community work together?'

Contributors: Dr Jo Longman, Emma Pittaway, Associate Professor Petr Matous, Associate Professor Ken Chung, Professor Amanda Howard, Associate Professor Margot Rawsthorne

This project focuses on the organisation of spontaneous community networks of support in the wake of shock climate events. Working with partner organisations in the Northern Rivers, Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury regions, the project will examine the community groups who coordinated information, labour, and funding in response to the floods.

Critically, the project addresses two large risks which can undermine this type of spontaneous community response to disasters in the future. The first is the loss or lack of use of community knowledge in the immediate aftermath of disasters, or in preparation for future shock events, and the second risk is the loss of community faith and support for local and state institutions.

The community anger at the federal and state governments after both the Black Summer bushfires and many flood events shows both the potential risk of that breakdown of trust in, and legitimacy of, official responses. This project seeks to investigate whether local council and state support for the work of what was spontaneous community organising, may lower both the immediate risks of future disaster events and the longer-term risk of delegitimised formal institutions.

Contributors: Contributors: Professor David Schlosberg, Dr Jodie Bailie, Professor Danielle Celermajer, Zachary Gillies-Palmer, Professor Amanda Howard, Associate Professor Kurt Iveson, Dr Pam Joseph, Dr Jo Longman, Professor Rosemary Lyster, Associate Professor Petr Matous, Dr Nader Naderpajouh, Emma Pittaway, Associate Professor Margot Rawsthorne, Professor Jakelin Troy, Dr Blanche Verlie, Dr Gemma Viney, Dr Scott Webster

Read more about the research project

This project focuses on the development, dissemination and pilot testing in Western Sydney of a new publicly available Heat Stress Scale (HSS), similar to a UV index.

Information will be delivered on a personalised app and on public-facing displays in order to enhance community resilience to heatwave disasters and avoid the risk of heat-related health problems.

The HSS will provide a simple interpretation of the current and forecasted heat stress risk by integrating not only temperature (typically used by the public to assess risk), but also humidity, solar radiation and wind speed. Using user-defined health (e.g., age, medical conditions, medication) and housing data, an adjusted personalised HSS rating for current/forecasted conditions will also be generated. Associated with each HSS category will be evidence-based strategies to optimally mitigate heat stress risk – this information will be personalised where individual information is available.

In collaboration with key stakeholders in government, health and the community, the HSS tool display and interactive features will be co-designed in a series of public workshops, organised with NGO and public health partners, in August-September 2022. Several different HSS formats will then be tested in Summer 2022-23 by delivering the HSS tool to target heat-vulnerable groups on different platforms (e.g., smartphone app, online calculator, public screens, text messages, radio, TV).

The study will be conducted in a purpose-built climate chamber in University's Susan Wakil Health Building. The chamber allows for environmental parameters to be precisely controlled for research related to heat and health.  

Contributors: Professor Ollie Jay, Professor David Schlosberg, Dr James Smallcombe 

Project partners

-        Heat and Health Research Incubator

-        NSW Reconstruction Authority

Conducting risk assessment is a fundamental step in emergency management planning. While significant advancements have taken place to forecast and map hazard exposure, combining this with meaningful local and contextual vulnerability data remains a significant challenge.

Phase one (this project) will review current risk assessment processes, challenges and needs across the emergency services sectors. The synthesis of literature and practice aims to guide the actions in response to the need for paradigm shift in community risk assessment in the face of climate change. It is expected that the outcomes from phase one will be utilised for the development of a new multi-hazard risk assessment process for the New South Wales State Emergency Service (phase two).

The objective of this project is to improve the understanding of risk assessment by better consideration of both social and physical factors driving vulnerability to disasters in local communities. Researchers are working to understand the practices within the agencies including the New South Wales State Emergency Service, while they synthesise current literature on community risk assessment approaches. The aim of the project is to inform development of future community risk assessment models— with a special focus on dynamic and localised community vulnerability, capability, and capacity data. The main outcome of the project is an improved knowledge base of community risk assessment approaches, enhanced by explicit consideration of social and physical dimensions of local community vulnerabilities to disasters.

Contributors: Associate Professor Nader Naderpajouh, Dr Aaron Opdyke, Dr Ali Hadigheh, Professor Amanda Howard, Professor David Schlosberg, Associate Professor Floris Van Ogtrop, Associate Professor Hao Zhang, Dr Jodie Bailie, Professor Mary Crock, Associate Professor Petr Matous, Professor Willem Vervoort

Funder: Natural Hazards Research Australia

The research team have published their findings report, Community Risk Assessment: Connecting Technical Knowledge with Local and Indigenous Knowledge, with Natural Hazards Research Australia. 

The overall objective of this project seeks to support local governments in urban communities in the Philippines and Indonesia to incorporate climate change into flood risk assessments and mobilise knowledge to realise resilient and sustainable development.

As a result of better understanding the influence of climate change on flood risk, local governments and communities can make more informed decisions on their development pathways. Increased access to flood risk assessments that forecast future changes will serve to not only reduce risk, but also prevent the creation of new risk – a growing concern.

The research will partner closely with local governments to ensure policy action. An action research component will help understand how local knowledge is legitimised to enhance risk reduction strategy adoption. 

Learn more about the project here.

Contributors: Dr Aaron Opdyke, Ms Emily Nabong, Mr Isaac Besarra, Ms Zoe Latham, and Ms Grace Barrett-Lennard. 

Funded by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research.

Climate disasters, including floods, have severe mental health impacts on rural Australian communities, particularly in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Following catastrophic flooding in 2022, the region faced immense strain on its health system, with reduced housing stock, staff personally affected, and extensive damage to health facilities. Research from the University Centre for Rural Health highlights the critical role of grassroots, place-based community groups, mainly led by women, in supporting community wellbeing during disasters.

To build on this, there is a need to better understand how these groups contribute to post-disaster mental health and how health services can leverage their capacities. Since 2022, several initiatives have emerged to strengthen these connections, including the Lismore Wellbeing Collective, the Reconstruction Authority’s Health and Wellbeing sub-committee, Council-led Community Resilience Networks, and the Northern Rivers Community Resilience Alliance, all working to enhance mental health and resilience in the region.

Contributors: Dr Jo Longman, Dr Rebecca McNaught, Plan C, Northern Rivers Community Foundation, and Northern NSW LHD.

The project analyses the indoor environmental quality of Australian social housing. The aim is to inform strategies for building climate-resilient social housing by generating evidence-based insights into energy use, climate impacts, and well-being. The project has the potential for rapid policy translation to help protect households from the effects of climate change and energy hardship.

Contributors: Dr Shamila Haddad