The South Australian Local Government Association (SALGA) has released a new report into the likely impact of climate change on local government infrastructure.

 

SALGA, which project managed the 20 month long research endeavour in partnership with the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF), said the project was key to shoring up a developing gap in Councils’ future asset management.

 

LGA President, Mayor Kym McHugh, said the research was crucial in protecting the 84 per cent of Australia’s roads, or 650,000 kilometres, that the country’s councils are responsible for.

 

"Scientific data, including that from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tells us that we are likely to experience changes in temperature, rainfall and an increase in extreme fire danger days, sea level rise, and increased frequency and height of storm surge events over the next 50 years," Mayor McHugh said.

 

"Local Government's current maintenance and replacement agenda for hard assets, such as roads, has not previously incorporated the likely effects of climate change and any flow on effects.

 

"As a result Local Government has been limited in our capacity to estimate the financial implications and impacts of changing climatic conditions, particularly on roads which are our major asset.

 

Mayor McHugh said the research data will now be interpreted into an asset management model tool which will be available for use by all 560 Australian Councils to identify the changing climate impact on local roads, which make up in excess of 50% of Local Government's physical assets.

 

Mayor McHugh said the NCCARF project, led by the LGA, was a national first bringing in multi-disciplinary teams from academia, including the University of SA, with Local Government stakeholders, to investigate the data needed to develop a management tool that has a national application.

 

"As a result and when the management tool is built, every Council in Australia will have access to a universal model which will allow them to quantify, that is look at the dollar cost, of climate change impacts on all road surfaces, bitumen or unsealed roads."

 

The NCCARF Report will be available on the following website: http://www.nccarf.edu.au/publications/quantifying-cost-climate-change-impacts