The council allowed for a 0.8 metre rise in sea level by 2100, but Infrastructure Minister Jeff Seeney wrote to it several weeks ago directing it "to amend its draft planning scheme to remove any assumption about a theoretical projected sea level rise from all and any provision of the scheme".
Noel Carroll, deputy chair of Engineers Australia’s National Committee on Coastal and Ocean Engineering, today said it had worrying implications.
“The most fundamental principles of engineering and risk management – and plain common sense – dictate that professional engineers and councils have a duty of care to the community and professional responsibility to take a long-term view and plan for probable future scenarios,” he said.
“The decision to remove references to climate change induced sea level rise is at odds with decades of scientific research, professional engineering practice and rationality.
“We’ve been providing professional leadership on the necessity to consider climate change in guideline documents since the early 1990s. Our guidelines clearly identify sea level rise as one of six climate change key environmental parameters that must be considered in any risk assessment approach to design and coastal management decision-making.
“Australia’s coastal regions are particularly vulnerable to climate change effects. These include increased loss and damage to natural and built environments in coastal and riparian areas from sea-level rise, storm surge, wave action, inundation, ground water change, and saline intrusion. These are major and real concerns. All governments have a basic responsibility and obligation to plan for and consider scenarios that, while certainly unpalatable, are well within the realms of possibility."
The ABC reported the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) obtained legal advice on the order as it has implications for all coastal councils. LGAQ president Margaret de Wit told it that a new Planning Development Act being drafted will in time provide uniform direction, if not much of a buffer against sea level rise.
