Fact sheet

Creating local and regional resilience presents a wide range of challenges and opportunities for councils. A changing climate, increasing disasters and extreme events will impact councils’ owned infrastructure, roads, the local community and the environment. Broader changes across our communities; from local, statewide, national and international stresses, will require councils to develop new systems and programs to withstand, respond and adapt to these.

To overcome these challenges and realise opportunities the 8 northeast councils have come together and jointly invested in a 3-year Partnership Agreement. The Partnership assists member councils to better understand and respond to the changing climate and a wide range of associated social, economic, cultural and environmental challenges. It coordinates and harmonises the councils responses to provide equitable and resilient outcomes for communities.

NTARC was successful in a Disaster Ready Fund from the National Emergency Management Authority.  The collaborative project will develop local and resilience plans and resources to build their capacity and capability, and their community’s resilience and sustainability in the face of increased natural hazards and impacts driven by a changing climate. 

The project will use a best-practice systemic evidence-based approach that builds their long-term sustainability and resilience and aligns to their core functions and services that:

• Strengthens councils’ decision-making by formalising and enhancing governance networks and communities of practice, including the development and/or alignment of resilience and risk reduction strategies

• Is informed by science-led climate scenarios, across a series of resource concentration pathways and at physical, economic and liability dimensions

• Emphasises the core roles and responsibilities of local government and the stakeholders (government and private) to provide transparency, avoid duplication and ensure timely and comprehensive responses

• Builds capacity to strategically embed resilience, particularly in asset management, land use planning and development practice at individual and multiple council levels as well as regionally

• Creates a common platform that allows the identification and interrogation of the exposure and vulnerability of council assets and services to climate impacts and natural hazards 

• Increases the capability and capacity of councils to understand and identify response actions, and shared resources at individual and multiple council levels as well as regionally 

• Positions the councils to enable the scaling of actions and resources, to develop responses across municipalities and regionally 

• Provides for harmonisation and consistency across councils allowing for greater transparency and increased resilience across communities

NTARC was the recipient of a Healthy Focus Grant. The project will see NTARC working with all Tasmanian councils, the Department of Health and the UTAS Menzies Centre to better understand what a changing climate means for the health of our communities and how we can work together to build resilience.

A warmer climate has significant consequences for the health and wellbeing of our communities. Councils, as the tier of government closest to communities, play a most significant role in supporting responses to background warming and intensification of extreme events, as well as transitional impacts. Councils are also critical sentinels and brokers, to other tiers of government and stakeholders, of local and textural needs.

Our project will work with councils, and stakeholders to develop an understanding of their and stakeholder’s roles in responding to the impact of climate change on the health and well-being of communities and developing local responses to increase resilience. It will identify an agreed position and shared understanding that will strengthen and leverage our respective roles, capabilities, and resources.