Study level

  • Honours

Faculty/School

Faculty of Engineering

School of Architecture and Built Environment

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Research centre

Centre for the Environment

Supervisors

Dr Angela Guerrero Gonzalez
Position
Senior Research Fellow
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Engineering

Overview

The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as intense heatwaves, floods, and bushfires, is triggering disruptive disasters that have a significant impact on communities, ecosystems, and economies. While our national climate change adaptation strategy places a paramount focus on enhancing community resilience, it is crucial to recognise that not all communities face climate risks in the same manner. Diverse communities exhibit varying capacities to respond and adapt to distinct climate hazards. This reality underscores the imperative for more sophisticated risk assessments that account for the multiplicity of climate risks, community-specific differences, and the inherent inequities tied to how communities are exposed, affected, and can adapt to climate hazards. Such risk assessments can be used to identify priority areas with different requirements for the enhancement of community resilience.

Research activities

This project will investigate what and how multiple climate hazards and equity aspects, are being incorporated into current vulnerability assessments. Though a literature review the project will:

  • investigate vulnerability assessment frameworks being used in Australia, identifying equity indicators used when assessing vulnerability to specific climate hazards
  • assess selected vulnerability assessment frameworks using climate equity frameworks.

Outcomes

Anticipated outcomes of this project include:

  • identification of gaps and challenges for multi-hazard vulnerability assessments in Australia
  • dissemination of study findings through reputable academic channels
  • a succinct policy brief for stakeholders and policy makers.

Skills and experience

We are seeking individuals with the following skills and experiences:

  • critical and analytical ability
  • problem solving skills
  • strong communication and effective writing skills
  • background education or research experience in urban or rural planning, social sciences, environmental science, climate change or sustainability studies.

Keywords

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.