and disruptive consequences like power outages , isolated communities , and disrupted road networks . Climate variability and the associated impacts impels us to pursue more agile and more sustainable strategies to build in resilience and adaptation .
Undertaking proactive resilience and adaptation planning by identifying potential hazards and threats , as well as establishing customized adaptation and recovery strategies with reference to similar projects could effectively alleviate likely impacts and ensure that key infrastructure systems continue to function or are quickly restored . The experiences and lessons learnt drawn from the MSFAS post-disaster recovery project will be helpful for other local government authorities across ANZ facing severe climate changes , in delivering resilient and adaptable transport infrastructure that connects people with places and opportunities .
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Figure 5 . Word cloud of survey responses to open questions
wide survey data fosters broader and deeper awareness of climate events , strengthening both proactive and reactive preparedness of authorities and the community . Conventional transport infrastructure appraisal methods tend to overlook some true economic losses ( or benefits ) or hardship experienced by the local community . These losses , such as property value depreciation or losses in productivity or labour markets , are changes to real resources . While there is a vague possibility of off-setting these real changes , namely through transfer of economic benefits or resources between parties or regions ( within a nation ), they pose important considerations in capturing and building awareness of the real effects that people and businesses face . Through a bottom-up communityoriented approach , decision makers in disaster-prone ( or affected ) areas can gain a holistic view to better inform response optioneering , providing an alternative approach to the typical transport guidance top-down approach . This process allows for more informed and appropriate strategic decisions to be made , even if the quantitative analysis is based somewhat on subjective and unverifiable data , because it is a reflection of the Community ’ s perspective .
While the conventional top-down appraisal approach may be mandated by external funders . In terms of securing earmarked funding from a state and national perspective , it does provide comparability of projects . A hybrid project appraisal method consisting of both the survey-based appraisal and conventional top-down appraisal could leverage information available , cross validate appraisal results , and justify investment from different perspectives – a key aspect to bear in mind when dealing with the impact of climate-related incidents on lessadvantaged communities .
Third , weather events have significant impacts ( may be acute or chronic ) on mental and physical health of the local community , which although excluded from the existing top-down economic appraisal due to the qualitative nature , can be factored in throughout project planning and evaluation phases .
The pathway to accomplishing climateadaptive and climate-resilient infrastructure is an urgent and uphill task . During the 2023 Christmas , severe thunderstorms , followed by strong winds , hailstone , torrential rains , and flooding attacked Queensland , causing various chaotic
KYLE BARRIE Kyle is Stantec ’ s Practice Leader – Economics , providing strategic development and economic advice on a range of multi-disciplinary regeneration and infrastructure led projects across the public and private sectors . Kyle is responsible for developing Stantec ’ s Economics service across Australia and New Zealand , building on his extensive experience of and reputation for delivering a variety of socioeconomic impact assessments , multi-disciplinary projects , business cases and regeneration projects . As an applied urban economist Kyle ’ s expertise lies in understanding the relationship between economic development , land use , and urban public policy , with specific experience in securing infrastructure funding that has gone onto shape several local economies . Kyle also holds a first-class MSc in Energy Management and has significant experience in energy-related projects across the UK and ANZ .
YADI WANG Yadi is an Economist at Stantec Sydney . She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sydney specializing in benefit-cost analysis , transport economics , integrated transport planning and land use , and infrastructure project impact assessment with over 5.5 years of research and empirical experience . With an inter-disciplinary background in commerce and project management , she assists clients with multidisciplinary data analysis and reporting , the design , implementation and interpretation of econometric models , and economic decision making .
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