Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Climate change blocks development on Australian coast

The Herald Sun (Australia): The threat of rising sea levels has persuaded a tribunal to refuse a housing development in South Gippsland. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal said it was "reasonably foreseeable" that climate change would affect the allotments, which could be flooded and storm-damaged. It is believed to be one of the first cases in Australia where climate change has been given as a reason to refuse a coastal development.

In their joint judgment, VCAT's deputy president Helen Gibson and member Ian Potts said the relevance of climate change to planning was at an "evolutionary" stage. But they said they could not ignore the preliminary view of CSIRO scientists that the Grip Rd area of coastline near Toora would experience storm surges and potential flooding.

Ms Gibson and Mr Potts said the CSIRO studies were sufficient to show rising sea levels would change the shape of Victoria's coastline. "In the present case we consider increases in the severity of storm events, coupled with rising sea levels, create a reasonably foreseeable risk of inundation of the subject land and the proposed dwellings, which is unacceptable," they said. In their judgment, they stressed they did not adopt predictions of a 0.3m rise in storm surge levels within 100 years because the claims had not been rigorously tested…..

The Gippsland Lakes in Victoria, Australia. Satellite view by NASA, Wikimedia Commons

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