Climate Resilient Infrastructure Program

Congratulations to the City of Port Adelaide Enfield for continuing to press for action to address the risks of flooding arising from climate change impacts (e.g. sea level rise) in the Port River and Barker Inlet system.

An update was presented to Council’s July meeting on what Council has termed the Climate Resilient Infrastructure Program (CRIP):

“The Climate Resilient Infrastructure Program (CRIP), has been set up to integrate several projects that directly respond to known current and future risks of sea level rise and coastal inundation in the Port River and Barker Inlet system and, aims to mitigate these
risks through a resilience and system-based approach designed to:
– use the existing evidence base regarding known current and future risks of flooding and coastal inundation;
– improve multi-stakeholder governance arrangements for decision making and investment;
– identify agreed priority mitigation options; and,
– develop business cases for infrastructure investment (soft and hard infrastructure).

Council is facilitating CRIP in collaboration with the Department for Environment and Water (DEW), as DEW is the state’s flood hazard leader”.

The Council has secured funding for the Project:

• $210,000 from the Federal Government under its disaster risk reduction program to support the program management, stakeholder engagement, mitigation optioning, investment case development and advocacy planning
• $30,000 grant funding from Coastal Research and Development Fund from the Coast Protection Board to support the development of the governance model.

Consultants will be engaged and the project is due to be completed in about a year’s time.

The update to Council identifies there has been a failure of public policy, requiring them to take a leadership role:

“Despite the wealth of information regarding known current and future risks, there remains no coordinated effort to plan for and manage these risks, and there are substantial risks associated with Council stepping into the roles and responsibilities that rest with State and Federal Government and other land and asset owners. CRIP is designed to address these governance and investment failures.”

It is understood that stakeholders will engaged with CRIP processes, providing opportunities for organisations like Friends of Port River and Port Adelaide Residents Environment Protection Group (PAREPG) and community members to contribute to this vital project. Friends of Port River will be drawing on the ECF Vision to inform our involvement.