Climate Change Impacts
Our climate is changing.
The Northern Gulf community is resilient and hardworking which has got them through many hard times, however the last decade including many catastrophic events such as the 2009 floods which resulted in an area the size of Germany and France combined being inundated for 8 weeks, followed by Cyclone Yasi, a ban on the live export trade, uncontrolled bushfires over 750,000 ha of the Etheridge Shire in 2012 followed by a failed wet season and water supply shortages across the region.
However, if the climate predictions are correct, Northern Australia should prepare for more of the same. Current trends and future projections indicate our region may experience:
- Increased incidence of destructive wild fires
- Increased intensity of high rainfall events (flood and cyclones)
- Increased storm surge and rising sea levels
- Longer dry seasons
- Continued warming of temperature, including more hot days.
For a full report on climate change projections for the Monsoonal North, click here
In this context, we plan for the future. To be prepared for upheaval and increasingly uncertainty, all stakeholders in the region will rely and build on existing community capital and manage natural capital sustainably to ensure the Northern Gulf region will continue to adapt, grow and prosper.
For more detail on the risks we have identified for the Northern Gulf region, please see the following:
Regional Climate Change Risk Matrix
Coastal and Marine Climate Change Risk Matrix
Land Climate Change Risk Matrix
Flora Climate Change Risk Matrix
Fauna Climate Change Risk Matrix
Freshwater Climate Change Risk Matrix
Social Resilience to Climate Change Benchmarks
Regional climate change projections for Monsoonal Northern Australia