Page 2088 - Week 07 - Thursday, 20 August 2020
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Regarding mental health and wellbeing, workshop participants identified strong and negative physical health and mental health and wellbeing impacts of the extended period of smoke pollution, extreme heat and fire risk. Many people reported experiencing fear, frustration, uncertainty, grief and panic during this time.
Regarding access to information, access to timely and accurate information was identified as a high priority. In general, there was positive feedback on the availability and quality of fire mapping and the communications by the Emergency Services Agency and ESA Commissioner Georgeina Whelan. Suggestions were made about improving availability of first-hand citizen reports, better information on road closures and improving the timeliness and resolution of air quality data. Another recurring theme at the workshops was the importance of community connections during times of crisis. Attendees suggested that community members would have benefited from being more actively involved and empowered to assist. Community members also highlighted the need to improve the quality of existing and new buildings, both for resilience to extreme heat and air tightness for smoke pollution.
The council drew on these community insights along with the experts’ survey and their own expertise to develop 22 recommendations across five themes. The report and recommendations reflect the all-pervasive effects that climate change has on government operations and the broader community, and our built and natural environments. Key recommendations of the report include, first, under the theme of the “pathway to healing”, to learn from community members and organisations to understand how to better support residents to prepare for disasters and extreme events and work with business to plan for crises to minimise economic and social impacts.
Under the theme “communication”, the recommendation was to create an emergency information dashboard to provide clear and timely information to the community and support the provision of independent information on climate change.
Under the theme of “natural habitat”, the recommendation was to undertake a natural landscape inventory to record the status of ecosystems and habitats; actively diversify the landscape to produce a mosaic of different environments to increase landscape resilience, using hazard reduction burns and other methods to manage fire risk; a plan to exclude fire from sensitive areas; and establish a seed bank to enable regeneration of species impacted by more frequent and severe fires.
Under the theme of “urban canopy”, the recommendation was to work to ensure equity of access to trees between old and new suburbs and that street trees are suited to the future climate; to build public understanding of living infrastructure through ongoing communication; establish a fund for the maintenance of trees and gardens in new developments; and address regulations that inhibit roof and vertical gardens.
Under the theme of “built environment”, the recommendation was to address insulation, glazing, sealing and the adequacy of heating and cooling equipment in the new energy performance standards for rental properties; conduct an active program to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings; introduce a best practice scheme to ensure compliance with the national construction code; and identify and publicise crisis refuges for extreme heat and smoke events, well ahead of an approaching crisis.
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