FMA Climate Change Position Paper

In February FMA conducted a survey on Climate Change Flood Risk Provisions in Land Use Planning to better understand what policies and planning controls have been adopted by Councils in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

This was followed by a Workshop conducted by Land Use Planning Director Paul Grech at the Sydney FMA Meeting, which showed that there was considerable diversity between Councils as to which planning documents contained climate change flood risk related policies, the nature of the policies, and whether polices were adopted in the first place.

Members saw there would be benefit in FMA developing a Climate Change Position Policy to support Councils in preparing their own policies and to encourage greater consistency between Councils.

Mr Grech said a Position Paper would also assist FMA in progressing discussions with government agencies and other industry representative bodies, as well as challenging media commentary that conflicts with sound floodplain risk management principles.

In order to prepare the Position Paper, a Working Group is being established to formulate the terms of reference, and to define the scope of the paper and the extent of investigations to be undertaken. An invitation is extended for anyone to express an interest in being part of the Working Group by emailing Glenn Evans: eo@floods.org.au