ABSTRACT
Human-induced climate change continues to gain considerable publicity as our politicians in general follow rather than lead public opinion. Recent extreme flood and fire events have demonstrated what the future might look like and while we can be certain of nothing in the future, it would be irresponsible not to plan for continuing weather extremes. While summer floods on the east coast have been the latest large-scale catastrophe originating from extreme weather events, across most of Australia planning for urban areas must focus on what we should do to prepare for extreme drought and/or extreme heat in our cities and towns. While we have reached a point where we will require massive technological solutions to retain anything like our current life-styles, it is critical that we future-proof our cities as well as we possibly can. Urban vegetation has the capacity to play an important role in making our towns and cities more liveable and in providing some precious time for us to develop longer-term and more permanent solutions to climate change. This presentation will focus on the key planning issues and what we can expect in the best case from well-planned urban vegetation.
