Client: Blue Mountains City Council

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We partnered with Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC) to develop a comprehensive Community Climate Risk Assessment and Adaptation Plan (CCRAAP) for one of Australia's most unique and climate-exposed regions. Situated within a UNESCO World Heritage Area, the Blue Mountains faces a distinct set of climate challenges, including bushfire, flooding and heatwaves, compounded by its significant human-nature interface, older population, lower socioeconomic profile, and deep Indigenous cultural values.

Drawing on a systems thinking approach, our work went beyond identifying individual hazards to map the cascading interdependencies across the community's interconnected environments. Using the Resilient Communities Framework as our analytical backbone, we assessed climate risks across the social, natural, economic, built, cultural and health and safety environments, recognising that disruption in one system can trigger compounding consequences across others. For example, extended infrastructure outages from flood or fire events can cascade into tourism losses, health impacts, and reduced emergency response capacity, all of which we examined through structured interdependencies assessment and cascading risk chain analysis.

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Our approach was grounded in both robust data analysis and meaningful community engagement. We drew on the latest NARCliM2.0 climate projections, ABS socioeconomic data, national exposure datasets and hazard mapping to develop a place-based vulnerability and risk profile of the municipality. This spatial understanding of where risk concentrates allowed us to prioritise adaptation actions with precision and equity in mind.

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To ensure the plan genuinely reflected the needs and aspirations of the community it would serve, we undertook extensive consultation across five workshops, two surveys, and eight interviews with community members, council staff and key external stakeholders including emergency management agencies and critical infrastructure providers. This whole-of-community engagement process ensured that the adaptation actions identified were not only technically sound, but locally owned and implementable.

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The final plan provides BMCC with a forward-looking, actionable roadmap to build climate resilience across the municipality, with clear priorities, identified ownership of actions, and a monitoring framework to track progress over time. To maximise accessibility and community reach, we also produced an interactive ArcGIS StoryMap version of the plan, bringing together maps, data visualisations and key findings in an engaging digital format that makes the plan's insights available to a broad audience, from council decision-makers to everyday community members.

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Read more about what one community member thought about the Community Workshop.