ABSTRACT

Any city with wide range of natural and cultural assets which make a major contribution to its liveability benefit greatly if various models and data can be accessed in an integrated way at any time using the Web to inform strategic response to climate change and variability, including: flood risk, river rise, sea level rise, extreme temperatures during heat waves, drought and subsequent reductions in soil moisture, and decline in tree health.

Currently climate models exist as a desktop exercise in various formats and in a dis-integrated way. There is a need to develop a decision support system that is spatially explicit and integrates various climate models into one visualisation environment to enable multi-criteria analysis to identify vulnerable areas and then to model possible interventions.

We have developed a Web-GIS based Integrated Climate Adaptation Model (ICAM) for the City of Melbourne. The ICAM provides easy-to-use interface and functions to: (1) navigate to any area of interest to view various spatial layers that aid decision support; (2) view model results related to heat, drought, flooding, river-rise and sea-level rise to identify vulnerable areas; (3) query pervious/impervious statistics for any area (sub-catchment or catchment); (4) conduct intervention modelling to address management issues like potable water consumption, urban microclimate and tree health for various climate change scenarios; and (5) inform relative performance of interventions to apply to mitigate/lessen the vulnerability for the select area.

The ICAM is a strategic decision tool, it shows how it could be used both as a communication tool and to facilitate subsequent detailed design of interventions. The model provides a base on which more sophisticated capability can be constructed over time.