Location
An appropriate site location can help to minimise a range of risks posed by climate hazards.
Climate change impacts can vary across Victoria. Urban areas, compared with regional areas, can have:
- more heatwave conditions. This is because cities have more dark, hard surfaces, more built structures and less vegetation
- larger and faster rising floods. This is because hard surfaces don’t absorb rainfall and water moves quickly along drains and roads.
You can eliminate some physical climate risk by not developing in high-risk areas. Check if your proposed site is at risk of flooding, bushfire or sea-level rise.
Contact your council to help you work out if the site is:
- in a high-risk area and
- covered by any planning controls under the Victorian Planning Provisions.
These include:
- land subject to inundation overlay
- bushfire management overlay
- floodway overlay.
Layout
You should consider the impacts of climate change when laying out your site. This includes if you are planning to develop an existing site.
Some parts of the site not currently at risk may be in the future. For example, if your neighbouring property is currently subject to inundation, it may extend to your site in the future.
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