Planning and building more resilient communities

Prue DigbyDeputy SecretaryPlanning, Building and Heritage

National Strategy for Disaster Resilience

• A disaster resilient community is one where...

....Land use planning systems and building control arrangements reduce, as far as is practicable, community exposure to unreasonable risks from known hazards, and suitable arrangements are implemented to protect life and property

Council of Australian Governments, February 2011

DefiningResilience

“The ability of a system, community orsociety exposed to hazards to • resist [or avoid], • absorb,• accommodate and • recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely andefficient manner” UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

Role of planning and building

• BUT resilience is not just about rules

• The role of planning and building controls is nested in a wider web of resilience building actions

• Capacity to resist, absorb, accommodate and recover must involve action to support individuals and communities manage change

Role of planning and building

• Planning and building measures include rules to reducing sensitivity and exposure of new development to hazards...but...

• Planning is also about partnerships and collaborations

• Processes of exhibition, consultation, review and appeal provisions help support the ‘social contract’ needed to achieve community acceptance .

Land Use Planning in Context: Fire

Typical planning elements

Objective application of science

Systematic, authoritative judgement

Inc. discussing agreed limits of risk tolerance

Inc. planning & building responses

PS amendment, MSS review, etc

PLANNING PROCESSES

Existing measuresExisting planning and building measures supporting resilience• State Planning Policy: ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS

– Flooding– Coastal inundation and erosion (inc planning for sea level rise -

0.2 m urban infill to 2040 / 0.8m greenfield by 2100)– Bushfire

• Planning provisions including:– Flood related overlays– Bushfire Management Overlays (newly updated maps and

provisions) – Bushfire protection vegetation clearing exemptions (to create a

defendable area)• Revised construction standards for mapped bushfire prone areas

(updating the Victorian Building Code)

Location, Layout, Siting & design

• Avoid locations where risk cannot be reduced to an acceptable level (i.e. bushfire hazard)

• Where hazards are manageable design settlements and buildings to match the risk

Growth Area Planning

Precinct Structure Planning Guidelines: building in resilience from the beginning

Element 5, Integrated Water Management • Development sensitive to flood risk is not sited on significant flood risk areas.

Element 5 Fire and Bushfire Management

The design response should include: • A bushfire risk management plan ...which sets out how these risks have been

mitigated and how the Country Fire Authority has been involved.

• Are streets designed, located and connected to allow safe and efficient movement of emergency vehicles?

Element 5: Open Space and Natural Systems • How does the location and design of open space take account of climate change,

particularly increased temperatures and extreme weather events?

Dealing with the legacy of past circumstances:

settlements and emergency facilities

Opportunities for supporting more resilient communities

• Review of the 2010-11 Flood Warnings and Response (Govt. response & implementation – in preparation)

• Victoria prepared: Towards a more disaster resilient and safer Victoria. Green Paper, Sept 2011

Applying a modern 'all-hazards' emergency management system to better prepare us for the future. (White Paper – in preparation)

• Regional Growth Plans (2012/2013+)

• Metropolitan Planning Strategy (2012/2013+)

• Living Melbourne, Living Victoria water plan (2012+)

• Climate Change Adaptation Plan (2013)