Community Adaptation and Resilience Plan

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Consultation has concluded.

Council is inviting members of the community to share their thoughts and help develop the Corangamite Community Adaptation and Resilience Plan (CARP) aimed at increasing awareness and common understanding of how climate risks might develop and help create more resilient communities.   

Council is committed to enhancing resilience and adaptation planning, drawn from the 2040 Community Vision, led by the community, our Environment and Sustainability Strategy 2024-2034 and the more recent Climate Change Action Plan 2025-2029.  

Six of the most dominant climate risks we face are:

  • Severe storms
  • Flood
  • Drought
  • Heatwave
  • Bushfire; and
  • Coastal hazards of sea level rise, storm tide and costal erosion

Better understanding means we are better equipped to address risk and avoid or lessen impacts.

What is resilience?

Resilience of individuals and communities involves their preparedness for, and capacity to adapt or recover from the impact of natural disasters.  Simply put, community resilience is the ability to “bounce back” from an adverse experience.

But resilience means different thins to different people.

This project will explore community sentiment to natural hazards, understand the values and places most at risk because resilience has a different meaning for the people of Corangamite to the people of Cardinia. We will define community resilience so its targeted, meaningful and supported by the communities we are trying to help.  

How do we improve resilience?

Community resilience and level of preparedness is critical in minimising the effect of climate risks and contributes to a quicker, more effective recovery and lessens impacts to the connectors.

Through understanding the hazards: their behaviour and extent we can better understand our risks. Communities are better equipped to address risk and resilience issues and especially to mitigate or lessen impacts with a strong understanding.

Our personal tolerance to risk can vary as well and is dependent on many factors and circumstances. Tolerance is a personal measure of the risk we are willing to accept. More generally, risk is a function of:

  • the probability or likelihood of an event occurring
  • the things exposed to the hazard (standing in the way)
  • the vulnerability (sensitivity) of the things to the hazard; and
  • the severity of the consequence.

Our ability to recognise exposure, shelter the vulnerable and undertake actions to avoid consequences can greatly minimise impacts to our homes, family and community. 

Why is resilience important?

The stakes will continue to rise without collective, proactive effort to embed resilience in everything we do. In addition to risk to people and homes, in economic terms the projected costs of climate change over the next forty years are unsustainable. We need to break the cycle of reactive response and recovery and inject more focus into those things that will stand us in better stead the next time we are tested.

How does climate risk impact our communities?

Local communities are deeply impacted by the social and economic costs of emergency and weather events. This project will support communities to identify and understand how events may impact the connectors which bind places as effective and productive much-loved places. Impacts are felt across our connected social system:

  • people and social connections are affected through loss of valued places and property, disruption to community fabric, physical and mental health issues, financial stress and population shifts as people move away in search of work or family support;
  • economic connections are affected through disruption to business and therefore employment. Loss of visitor numbers due to damage or access issues, and funds deviated from economic improvement projects to recovery and reconstruction;
  • services and infrastructure connections upon which the community and the economy depends are disrupted such as telecommunications, energy supply, agency support
  • environmental connections which are intrinsic to the region as places of renown are damaged or exposed impacting water quality, river health, shoreline and landscape vistas
  • transport connections including supply chains from other regions, access by visitors, sea and river transport and road transport in and out of the region which are relied upon for business continuity and everyday access to goods and services.  

The project will explore the interconnected nature of the environment, economy, social and community, and the built environment.

Council is inviting members of the community to share their thoughts and help develop the Corangamite Community Adaptation and Resilience Plan (CARP) aimed at increasing awareness and common understanding of how climate risks might develop and help create more resilient communities.   

Council is committed to enhancing resilience and adaptation planning, drawn from the 2040 Community Vision, led by the community, our Environment and Sustainability Strategy 2024-2034 and the more recent Climate Change Action Plan 2025-2029.  

Six of the most dominant climate risks we face are:

  • Severe storms
  • Flood
  • Drought
  • Heatwave
  • Bushfire; and
  • Coastal hazards of sea level rise, storm tide and costal erosion

Better understanding means we are better equipped to address risk and avoid or lessen impacts.

What is resilience?

Resilience of individuals and communities involves their preparedness for, and capacity to adapt or recover from the impact of natural disasters.  Simply put, community resilience is the ability to “bounce back” from an adverse experience.

But resilience means different thins to different people.

This project will explore community sentiment to natural hazards, understand the values and places most at risk because resilience has a different meaning for the people of Corangamite to the people of Cardinia. We will define community resilience so its targeted, meaningful and supported by the communities we are trying to help.  

How do we improve resilience?

Community resilience and level of preparedness is critical in minimising the effect of climate risks and contributes to a quicker, more effective recovery and lessens impacts to the connectors.

Through understanding the hazards: their behaviour and extent we can better understand our risks. Communities are better equipped to address risk and resilience issues and especially to mitigate or lessen impacts with a strong understanding.

Our personal tolerance to risk can vary as well and is dependent on many factors and circumstances. Tolerance is a personal measure of the risk we are willing to accept. More generally, risk is a function of:

  • the probability or likelihood of an event occurring
  • the things exposed to the hazard (standing in the way)
  • the vulnerability (sensitivity) of the things to the hazard; and
  • the severity of the consequence.

Our ability to recognise exposure, shelter the vulnerable and undertake actions to avoid consequences can greatly minimise impacts to our homes, family and community. 

Why is resilience important?

The stakes will continue to rise without collective, proactive effort to embed resilience in everything we do. In addition to risk to people and homes, in economic terms the projected costs of climate change over the next forty years are unsustainable. We need to break the cycle of reactive response and recovery and inject more focus into those things that will stand us in better stead the next time we are tested.

How does climate risk impact our communities?

Local communities are deeply impacted by the social and economic costs of emergency and weather events. This project will support communities to identify and understand how events may impact the connectors which bind places as effective and productive much-loved places. Impacts are felt across our connected social system:

  • people and social connections are affected through loss of valued places and property, disruption to community fabric, physical and mental health issues, financial stress and population shifts as people move away in search of work or family support;
  • economic connections are affected through disruption to business and therefore employment. Loss of visitor numbers due to damage or access issues, and funds deviated from economic improvement projects to recovery and reconstruction;
  • services and infrastructure connections upon which the community and the economy depends are disrupted such as telecommunications, energy supply, agency support
  • environmental connections which are intrinsic to the region as places of renown are damaged or exposed impacting water quality, river health, shoreline and landscape vistas
  • transport connections including supply chains from other regions, access by visitors, sea and river transport and road transport in and out of the region which are relied upon for business continuity and everyday access to goods and services.  

The project will explore the interconnected nature of the environment, economy, social and community, and the built environment.