Adapting the water sector to climate change: lessons from South East Queensland's response to the Millennium Drought

Abstract

Global warming is intensifying the hydrological cycle and changing the Earth's climate in a manner that will have significant implications for managing the urban water sector. In their technical paper on climate change and water for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Bates et al. (2008, p. 3) report that research provides 'abundant evidence that freshwater resources are vulnerable and have the potential to be strongly impacted by climate change, with wide-ranging consequences for human societies and ecosystems'. However, a review of climate change adaptation literature by Arnell (2010) revealed that, although there is considerable research regarding the potential of specific adaptation measures in the water sector, there are few case studies of how adaptation to climate change is actually being delivered. This chapter will fill that gap by providing a review of the recent adaptation strategies implemented by the South East Queensland (SEQ) water supply sector as an adaptive response to the Millennium Drought (2000-2009).