Historical Case Studies of Extreme Events: Introduction to the Case Studies

Throughout 2010, NCCARF developed a suite of historical case studies to examine present-day management of climate variability and the lessons that can be learnt for adaptation to future climate change. This factsheet provides a brief introduction to the Historical Case Studies of Extreme Events Project. A key outcome of this project is a set of 7 freestanding case studies, that together, provide in-depth explorations of our knowledge of present-day adaptation, vulnerabilities and resilience to climate variability and change. An additional outcome is a synthesis of lessons learned, new insights, and an understanding of Australia’s current systems capacity for coping with future climate change [see Project synthesis factsheet/report]. Climate change means more extreme events will occur in the future, and adapting to these events will rely strongly on lessons learnt from past events. Although the parallels between past and future extreme events are not exact, understanding community, institutional and governance responses to climate events, and their interactions, is informative of the conditions that determine the success of future climate change adaptation strategies.