From micro-climate research to regional capacity building programs, local government collaboration is paying dividends in the Hunter. Bradley Nolan writes.

Climate change is a global problem, but one expressed differently from Brisbane to Broome to Ballarat. In the Hunter and Central Coast regions of NSW, we’re using an innovative statistical approach to get to grips with the likely regional and even sub-regional scale impacts of climate change.

The Hunter & Central Coast Regional Environmental Management Strategy (HCCREMS) has since 2007 been working with Newcastle and Macquarie Universities to identify and project climate change impacts across the region.

The work, supported by the NSW Government’s Climate Action Grants Program, was considered essential to more accurately inform the risk assessment and adaptation planning processes of councils, government, industry and community groups in the region.

Projected changes have been determined using a process known as statistical downscaling, the first time in Australia it has been used on this scale. It’s a term given to techniques used to derive values for climate variables at a regional or sub-regional level from the coarse scale output of Global Climate Models. The key benefit is that it provides a richer understanding of the drivers of weather patterns within a region and how they are likely to change.

The researchers first identified the key synoptic types that drive climate variability in the region, then their relationships with Bureau of Meteorology historic records, for the key climate variables. Next, the CSIRO Mk3.5 Global Climate Model was used to identify projected changes in the frequency of these key synoptic types based on sea level pressure (SLP) output data generated by the Global Climate Model.

Finally, our understanding of how the region’s weather is impacted by these key synoptic types was combined with forecast changes in their frequency to project likely changes in key climate variables, including temperature, rainfall, humidity, evaporation, water balance, extreme events, sea level rise, extreme sea levels and wave climate.

As a result, we have been able to project likely annual and seasonal changes in these climate variables for three distinct climate zones across the 35,000 square kilometre region over three successive time horizons of 2020-40, 2040-60 and 2060-80.

For example, it projects seasonal changes in rainfall, including decreases of approximately 12.5 per cent in the coastal and central zones during winter and increases of approximately 13 per cent during spring. A significant 33 per cent drop in autumn rainfall was also projected for the western zone.

To more specifically analyse and interpret the research findings, four case studies were developed covering bushfires, extreme events in the coastal zone, human health (heat stress) and the Hunter wine industry.

This information will now be used to inform the risk assessment and adaptation planning processes to be rolled out during 2010/11 by our member councils of Gosford, Wyong, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle, Port Stephens, Cessnock, Maitland, Singleton, Dungog, Muswellbrook, Upper Hunter, Gloucester, Great Lakes and Greater Taree.

Sustainability focus
HCCREMS has also received two grants from the NSW Environmental Trust to roll out council-focused sustainability capacity building programs.
‘FOCUS on Sustainability’ aims to empower member councils to develop, adopt and embed sustainability practices into their operations. It has two main program areas: staff education and capacity building (and community education) on the one hand, and council environmental compliance management on the other.

The Sustainability Compliance program will help develop a range of programs, starting with the design and implementation of enhanced internal systems to increase compliance outcomes while decreasing costs and inefficiencies.

It will also identify, develop and deliver innovative tools and mechanisms to manage issues better such as: stormwater, sediment and erosion control; building and development standards; illegal dumping; and development assessment processes. And it will create a regional repository for sustainability compliance resources.

To facilitate these outcomes, HCCREMS and officers from the 14 councils are currently developing a Regional Compliance Policy that includes provisions for education, use of incentives, administration systems, licensing, consents and auditing procedures in addition to investigations and enforcement.

Development of guidelines and standard operating procedures will promote consistency between councils and create the ability to run cross-council enforcement activities to strengthen outcomes.

It will also develop a risk-based prioritisation methodology that will:
• Create standard criteria that will allow council officers to manage issues and incidents proactively following agreed and transparent procedures, and cease operating reactively;
• Identify industries and development types that are higher environmental risk;
• Assess and rank incidents depending on a range of variables such as level of risk to human and environmental health, where the complaint was from and likely action.

Accredited for success
The compliance project integrates nicely with HCCREMS’ Sustainability Education and Capacity Building project by identifying required training and education materials of all councils and developing the appropriate content.

Already, more than 40 compliance officers from across the region have received training in investigative interviewing and evidence gathering and they will soon be able to participate in the NSW Ombudsman’s training on dealing with unreasonable complainants. In the coming months, an accredited training package will be developed that will continue their capacity building and providing participants with a qualification on completion.

Council educators are also being engaged in the delivery of projects on climate change and energy reduction. In June, the FOCUS on Energy Reduction community program will be launched, with 68 libraries across the region and three council offices providing Energy Meter Kits to the public for loan.

This program is the second largest in Australia – with 90 kits – and is the only one that includes a personal energy efficiency commitment enabling council educators to contact residents after borrowing the kit to discuss their energy behaviour and engage them in future sustainability initiatives.

The kits include a Power Usage Meter, a home energy assessment workbook and a guide to a more energy efficient home. Residents can assess the energy requirements of their appliances, the ‘standby’ demand, how much they cost to operate and their greenhouse emissions. It provides easy to follow examples on how to reduce energy consumption.

Materials and resources developed by the program will be available on the HCCREMS website, joining existing downloads such as a Community Climate Change presentation and a new councillor induction manual on governance and ecologically sustainable development. The Hunter Councils are at the forefront of the grassroots sustainability drive.

Bradley Nolan is regional sustainability program manager for Hunter Councils. More at www.hccrems.com.au