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This paper uses a 30 m record of valley alluviation in the Lockyer Creek, a major tributary of the mid-Brisbane River in Southeast Queensland, to document the timing and nature of Quaternary fluvial response. A combination of radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating reveals a sequence of major cut and fill episodes. The earliest aggradation phase is represented by a basal gravel unit, dating to ~220 ka (marine isotope sub-stage 7d), and although little evidence supports higher fluvial discharges during MIS 5, a MIS 3 fluvial episode characterised by incision and aggradation dates to ~60 ka. A penultimate phase of incision to a depth of 30 m prior to ~14 ka saw the lower Lockyer occupy its current position within the valley floor. The Lockyer Creek shows evidence of only minor fluvial activity during MIS 2, suggesting a drier LGM climate. The appearance of alternating fine- and coarse-grained units at about 2 ka is notable and may represent higher-energy flood conditions associated with a strengthening of El Niño Southern Oscillation activity as observed in the flood of 2011. The aggradation rate for this Holocene floodplain unit is ~11 times higher than the long-term rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents potential impacts of climate change on rainwater tanks outcomes such as water savings, reliability and water savings efficiency under two projected climate change scenarios; RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 utilising a case study using rainfall data from four stations within the city of Brisbane, Australia. Historical rainfall data were collected from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology website for the selected stations. Projected daily rainfall data were collected from Australian government data portal for the same stations within Brisbane. Using an earlier developed daily water balance model, eTank potential annual water savings were calculated for several weather and climate change scenarios with varied roof areas and rainwater demandValues of 'Seasonality Index (SI)', a commonly used factor representing rainfall variability within a year, were explored to validate earlier developed relationships between SI and water savings efficiency through rainwater tanks. It is found that in most cases water savings in future periods are expected to decrease and such decrease is not necessarily attributed to the expected decrease in rainfall amounts in future, rather also affected by future reductions in rainwater tank reliability. Linear relationships between potential future water savings and reliabilities for all the stations are found. Relationship between SI and water savings efficiency was established, and it is found that the relationship slightly varies with an earlier developed relationship using historical data. Compared to earlier established relationship, for lower SI values water savings efficiency is expected to become better, while for higher SI values the water savings efficiency is expected to become worse. Also, an increase of roof area from 100 m2 to 200 m2 will cause an average increase of water savings efficiency by 25% and an increase of rainwater usage from 200 L/day to 300 L/day will cause an average increase of water savings efficiency by 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on multi-dimensional aspect of dam engineering is gaining momentum because of massive flood destructions in lives, ecosystem and development including Wivenhoe dam flood in 2011, Oroville dam's spillway incident 2017 and the Europe's widespread flooding in 2021. The aim of this study is to capture and review research activities in dam science since 1980. A case study of the Wivenhoe dam Brisbane Australia, focusing on its design, catchment, water storage and flood mitigation capacity, management procedure, climate change and historical rainfall pattern has been carried out to conclude why such a catastrophic flood event happened in Brisbane in January 2011. The methodology applied in the study includes related literature review followed by documentation and analysis of reports and data of Queensland Water, Wivenhoe Alliance and Flood Commission. Reviewed literatures indicated that dam failures are primarily associated with improper design, inadequate monitoring in construction period and poor management (operational) practices. In the case of the Wivenhoe dam flood, the report of the Flood Commission of Inquiry Australia was that the dam was operated so that its flood mitigation was near optimal. Whilst the operators were found to be at fault for not following the Operation Manual, it was found that the manual was confusing and difficult to follow, and therefore, they were cleared of all liability. Hence, it is difficult to conclude what would have actually happened if the Wivenhoe dam operators had released more water earlier, author's reasoned outlook about the flood mitigation measures used at the time is to ask the question "was reasonable discretion" used during the flood. In the light of the warnings that the dam operators were given even as far back as December 2010 about the strong La Nina, it would seem that operators made sub-optimal decision about water releases and hence "reasonable discretion" wasn't applied properly. Hence, it can be said that the Brisbane Flood 2011 was a dam release type flood basically related to poor management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines whether there was an excess of deaths and the relative role of temperature and ozone in a heatwave during 7–26 February 2004 in Brisbane, Australia, a subtropical city accustomed to warm weather. The data on daily counts of deaths from cardiovascular disease and non-external causes, meteorological conditions, and air pollution in Brisbane from 1 January 2001 to 31 October 2004 were supplied by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and Queensland Environmental Protection Agency, respectively. The relationship between temperature and mortality was analysed using a Poisson time series regression model with smoothing splines to control for nonlinear effects of confounding factors. The highest temperature recorded in the 2004 heatwave was 42°C compared with the highest recorded temperature of 34°C during the same periods of 2001–2003. There was a significant relationship between exposure to heat and excess deaths in the 2004 heatwave [estimated increase in non-external deaths: 75 ([95% confidence interval, CI: 11–138; cardiovascular deaths: 41 (95% CI: −2 to 84)]. There was no apparent evidence of substantial short-term mortality displacement. The excess deaths were mainly attributed to temperature but exposure to ozone also contributed to these deaths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uninterrupted functioning of our energy infrastructure is crucial to the operation of modern day society. Thus, the energy infrastructure we construct today must be capable of supplying reliable power in our future climate. This may require development of effective and financially viable climate change adaptation actions. This is challenging for energy infrastructure for a number of reasons, including, uncertainty about future climate, and lack of insight into the regional variability of adaptation feasibility. The work herein seeks to address these issues by using probabilistic and uncertainty modelling to examine the appropriateness of a single national climate adaptation strategy across five Australian regions under climate change scenarios. The feasibility of the climate adaptation strategy, which incorporates both alterations to network maintenance procedures and implementation of performance based design, was found to vary significantly across the five regions. The cost-benefit outcomes ranged from strongly positive for Brisbane and Sydney to negative for Perth. This regional variability highlights the difficulties associated with implementation of a nationwide climate adaptation strategy for energy infrastructure. The results, which represent valuable insight for asset managers and policymakers, thus highlight the need for detailed and regionally specific climate adaptation feasibility modelling to ensure cost-effective climate adaptation actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Climate change and building load variations may impact optimised building designs. • A method using climate models and optimisation is used to optimise future buildings. • A case study is conducted on two cities in Australia: Canberra and Brisbane. • Results show that optimising for future climates can save energy for Canberra. • For Brisbane, savings are small and the present-optimised design seems acceptable. Building energy optimisation is generally performed under present climate conditions with fixed simulation parameters (e.g. internal loads). However, climate change and variations in simulation parameters over the building's life span may impact the optimised design. A key question is whether a particular energy-optimised design under present climate conditions would remain energy-optimised in the future. Accordingly, in this paper, a new simulation-based optimisation method is developed, which uses climate models and Ant Colony Optimisation to compare the energy-optimised designs under present and future climates. To demonstrate its potential, this method is applied to a typical office building in two Australian cities, Brisbane and Canberra. The results show that optimising under future climate conditions can lead to different optimal building designs. For Brisbane, the energy difference between optimising under present and future climate conditions is small, but in Canberra the cooling load is increased by up to 6%. This suggests that optimising the studied office building under present climate conditions is acceptable for Brisbane, while considering future climate may yield some savings in Canberra. Results also show that the energy-optimised building configuration for both future and present climates in Brisbane is less sensitive to changes in the load scenario than in Canberra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with global warming, Australia aims to wean itself from mechanical approaches to cooling homes. Cities are searching for passive solutions to residential development. These involve the use of porches, basements, natural ventilation, tree shading and the like. In 2016, the Brisbane City Council introduced the New World City Design Guide: Buildings that Breathe (BtB), a non-binding policy document to guide new development in a subtropical climate. The aim of this study was to establish the effectiveness of BtB on overall development outcomes in Brisbane. We found that development applications received after the implementation of the BtB policy incorporated more subtropical design elements than those applications received before the policy. However, overall designers and developers had responded poorly to subtropical design guidance due to various path dependencies. We conclude that discretionary and flexible planning may not be in the public interest in the present era of climate emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the flood that affected Brisbane, Australia, in January 2011, public attention turned to the causes of the event and lessons for minimizing the impacts of future floods. The news media was an important vehicle for understanding and internalizing the 2011 Brisbane flood. Examining how the flood was framed in the media is, therefore, useful to understand broad public perception of floods. We undertook a systematic newspaper analysis during a one-year period to explore media framings of the flood, focused on learning as an aspect of resilience in relation to two themes: (1) perceived links between the flood and climate change and (2) perceived roles of government in managing the flood. We show that media coverage of the flood reinforces aspects of resilience by acknowledging community spirit, self-reliance and the importance of sharing experiences for learning; articulating the risk of extreme events in a changing climate; and highlighting regional management trade-offs. Much of the discourse is likely to inhibit resilience, however, by casting the flood in terms of blame and political opportunity and paying inadequate attention to longer-term aspects of regional resilience. The limited learning observed to date may highlight a need for other mechanisms and actors to lead learning processes. As policy related to the 2011 Brisbane flood, and extreme events more generally, is influenced by the public discourse, it is important to understand the nuances of communication around these events and the media's role in reinforcing or changing perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban expansions to adjoining greenfield sites, particularly in metropolitan regions, have become a global occurrence. Such urbanization practice results in a significant loss in ecosystem services and triggers climate change—where these changes in land cover and emissions of certain pollutants are the fundamental drivers of climate change. Despite its crucial importance, little is known on how to quantify the impact of local drivers on anthropogenic climate change. This study aims to address the question of how the impacts of local drivers on anthropogenic climate change can be measured. The study utilizes a remote sensing approach to investigate the impacts of a period of over 30 years (1989–2019) in Brisbane, Australia and its adjoining local government areas. The methodological steps of the study are two-fold. First, we measure the greenfield development and corresponding ecosystem services losses and, then, we quantify the risk of such losses attributable to direct and indirect anthropogenic climate change. The findings of the study reveal the followings: (a) the utilized remote sensing method is a useful technique in quantifying the impacts of climate change; (b) over the last 30-year period, Brisbane and its adjoining areas encountered a total loss of about USD 4.5 billion in ecosystem services, due to direct and indirect anthropogenic climate change; (c) peri-urban areas encountered the biggest losses in ecosystem service values; (d) peri-urban areas experienced the highest greenhouse gas emission production levels, and; (e) ecosystem services should be backed up by robust urban management policies—this is critical for mitigating climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]