Australian leaders are being urged to formulate plans to relocate communities most at risk from climate-fuelled natural disasters.
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An Australian National University report calls for a national relocation strategy to provide support and guidance for people needing to leave areas that are no longer liveable due to climate change.
The researchers say policy should be proactive rather than in reaction to the "catastrophic circumstances of a disaster".
A significant percentage of Australians reside in areas increasingly exposed to the effects of climate change, the report states.
ANU Associate Professor Roslyn Prinsley pointed to Climate Council findings that one in 25 homes will be uninsurable by 2030.
"With intensifying floods, cyclones and fires displacing people from their homes, how we relocate our most at-risk communities to keep people safe will become an increasingly vital conversation," she said.
"Developing evidence-based, dynamic risk mapping that better allows us to forecast emerging and future compound climate risks will assist in identifying priority locations."
Using Lismore as a case study, the report says the disaster which ravaged communities in the NSW Northern Rivers region in 2022 highlighted inadequacies in rainfall and water monitoring systems, warning systems and institutional responses.
This resulted in "little time for evacuation or preventive measures", leading to lives lost and destroyed homes and businesses.
The federal and NSW governments two years ago announced a $800 million package to buy back 2000 destroyed homes in Lismore and surrounding areas that were devastated by flooding.
The researchers say there's a need to set up registers of information on resources, infrastructure, available land, machinery and equipment that might be relevant for any planned relocations.
This should also include existing skills and expertise within the community.
Tony Fry, report co-author from the University of Tasmania, said relocation could be "very unsettling and traumatic".
"For most people the sense of loss is unavoidable," he said.
"But relocation can also offer new opportunities and potential improvements in ways of life.
"For this to be possible, the community has to play a major part in what form the relocation might take."
Australian Associated Press
