Building resilience to Australian flood disasters in the face of climate change

This paper explores important questions that emerge about the resilience of the Australian health system, and ultimately of communities, to the intensifying extreme events we have experienced in recent years in the context of climate change. In Australia, effective long term disaster management and resilience across multiple sectors is strongly influenced by geography, and should be informed by meaningful engagement with rural health services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other local communities in rural and urban areas.

The converging impacts of climate change, extreme events, COVID-19, NCDs, socio-economic inequities, population ageing and urban growth require an integrated whole-of-system response, according to the authors. This should focus on flood- and fire-resilient land-use planning that will reduce community exposure to climate-related risks and systemic vulnerability in the long term, improved housing conditions for low socio-economic households, agile and high value health care, strengthened public health surveillance and emergency warning systems, and a net-zero carbon economy.