Historical Case Studies of Extreme Events

A suite of case studies has been developed examining present-day management of climate variability and the lessons that can be learned for adaptation to future climate change.

Although the parallels are not exact, understanding community, institutional and governance responses to climate events, and their interactions, is informative of the conditions that determine the success or failure of climate change adaptation strategies.These projects examined case studies of seven historical extreme events including Cyclone Tracy, the 2009 heat waves in southern Australia and the northern Queensland floods of 2008.The outcome is a set of freestanding case studies that together provide in-depth explorations of our knowledge of present-day adaptation, vulnerabilities and resilience to climate variability and change.

These historical case studies are now complete, and the reports available from the individual project pages below.

The Historical Case Studies:

• Learning from experience: Historical Case Studies and Climate Change Adaptation - A synthesis report
• Case study: Drought and the future of small inland towns
• Case study: Resilience and water security in two outback cities
• Case study: Impacts and adaptation response of infrastructure and communities to heatwaves: the southern Australian experience of 2009
• Case study: Adaptation Lessons from Cyclone Tracy Part I:
• Case study: Adaptation Lessons from Cyclone Tracy Part II: Institutional response and Indigenous experience of Cyclone Tracy
• Case study: East Coast Lows and the Newcastle-Central Coast Pasha Bulker Storm
• Case study: Storm Tides
• Case study: The 2008 Floods in Queensland

Download a two-page summary of each Historical Case Study (1.8mb)

View the Innovative Research Universities Historical Case Studies Poster

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