Factsheets 18: Users and applications

Queensland Health is the primary agency that leads preparedness and responses to heatwaves under the State Disaster Management Plan.

Queensland Future Climate is an important resource for Queensland Health and other stakeholders in the heatwave space because it provides an independent and reputable source of information on plausible future climate conditions. For example, this data can be used by university researchers working on the health implications of heatwaves that informs Queensland Health's work.

Projections data provided by Queensland Future Climate supported the State Heatwave Risk Assessment, a collaborative project that also involved the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. The website also included a heatwaves case study prior to the rapid growth in interest in this area as a multi-sector issue.

The Queensland Future Climate Dashboard provides information on heat in ways that help us understand heatwaves risks, particularly through including more than just average or maximum temperatures. For example, there’s a clear distinction between heatwaves and extreme temperature events, and there’s information on the projected frequency and duration of heatwaves for different future time periods.

The ability to switch between emissions scenarios is helpful depending on the type of analysis or whether we’re most interested in the ‘most likely’ level of change or possible high-impact changes.

The flexibility of the interface depending on a user’s needs and interests is also valuable, including the ability to download shapefiles for spatial analysis and to access summary information filtered by regions like local government areas or disaster districts.

The Healthy Places, Healthy People initiative led by Queensland Health and the Office of the Queensland Government Architect provides a mechanism to ensure health outcomes are prioritised in built environment design, planning and investment decision making. Queensland Health has a strong interest in influencing state agency and local government authorities to prioritise providing increased access to high-quality natural shade in more places in our communities. High quality and well-planned shade tree planting significantly reduces UV exposure and skin cancer risk and creates cooler and more comfortable environments proven to positively impact physical activity and mental health outcomes.

The Queensland Future Climate Dashboard is a valuable resource for Queensland Health as well as state agencies and local government authorities responsible for planning and delivering built environment infrastructure projects for our communities. Queensland Health uses climate, temperature and heatwave projections data together with relevant health data to influence state agency and local government partners to prioritise natural shade when planning and delivering infrastructure projects given it reduces urban heat impacts significantly and provides multiple health benefits.

Queensland is the most disaster-affected state in Australia, with the flood event affecting Queensland and New South Wales in 2021-2022 the costliest flood disaster in Australian history resulting in over $4 billion in asset losses.

The tourism industry is a vital economic asset for Queensland. However, it is extremely vulnerable to external disruptions such as disaster events. In a future shaped by climate change, we can expect Queensland to experience higher temperatures, more frequent hot days, harsher fire weather, less frequent but more intense tropical cyclones, rising sea level, and more intense downpours.

These projected changes may have significant implications for the Queensland tourism industry. For example, warmer weather in winter, and uncomfortably hot and prolonged temperatures in summer, may change typical tourism seasons in different regions. Queensland’s tourism businesses are predominantly micro and small-to-medium enterprises that may not have the resources in place to withstand extraordinary weather events.

The Queensland Tourism Resilience Platform supports sustainable and resilient tourism development across Queensland by giving State Government agencies, regional tourism organisations and local councils the tourism, climate change, economic and market data they need to support tourism related investment, risk management and planning.

The Platform was developed to:

• provide a tourism inventory of product, experiences and infrastructure
• provide a regional demand assessment with medium to long-term outlook
• be used as a geospatial platform of tourism assets, allowing a visual lens on disaster risks and external shocks through climate exposure analysis.

Extensive stakeholder engagement informed the design and development of the Platform, and there are now over 300 registered users across 119 unique entities on the Platform.

The Platform is helping users with program design, building industry capability, and developing plans for destination management, business continuity, and disaster risk management.

The Queensland Future Climate Dashboard is a key source of future climate data for the Platform, along with the Cluster Reports from CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. For each region, the Platform provides easy access to summary information for a range of climate variables for 2030 and 2050 sourced from the Dashboard. Information on a subset of hazards to which tourism assets are exposed in each region is provided in short text summaries and as overlays on a regional map.

The Platform allows the climate data to be combined with data on tourism assets from sources such as the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW), Trip Advisor, and STR, and with socioeconomic data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with modelling completed by SGS Economics.

The Platform was officially launched in December 2023, delivered in partnership with AECOM. The Platform was developed with assistance provided through the jointly-funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

If you would like access to the Platform, please contact tourism@dtis.qld.gov.au for more information.