Building resilience to sea level rise

Encouraging news was shared, by the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, at the Port Adelaide Environment Forum on October 21st.

Infrastructure SA has submitted in September 2021, in conjunction with the City of Port Adelaide Enfield,  a submission to Infrastructure Australia seeking funding support for local flooding defenses, made necessary by sea level rise and land subsidence.

The funding submission is a result of the Port Adelaide region being one of two national cases studies to test methodologies to develop resilience investment cases. CSIRO and Value Advisory Partners led the project identifying ‘opportunities for mitigation of hazards, beneficiaries, value creation, funding mechanisms and investment pathways’. (See Maggie Hine’s presentation below)

While further advocacy will be needed to ensure that the submission is successful, it does mark a significant step in the State Government addressing local risks  of flooding. The risks have been well known within Government for many years, aided by work that Council began in 2005. More recently ECF has contributed to advocacy efforts.

At the Forum meeting, Maggie Hine, Team Leader Environment and Strategic Planning, PAE and Catherine McMahon, founder of the Estuary Care Foundation  spoke  about what practical action is being taken to manage these impacts to reduce risks and build resilience.

Read more:

Coastal Inundation & Adaptation in Port Adelaide_PAEF_Maggie Hine

Building resilience to sea level rise_Port Environment Forum 2021_Catherine McMahon