Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-11 (section)

==== 11.3.5.1 Observed Impacts ====

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Critical infrastructure, cities and settlements are being increasingly affected by chronic and acute climate hazards, including heat, drought, fire, pluvial and fluvial flooding and sea level rise (SLR), with consequent effects on many sectors ( ''high confidence'' ) ( [[#Instone--2014|Instone et al., 2014]] ; [[#Loughnan--2015|Loughnan et al., 2015]] ; [[#Zografos--2016|Zografos et al., 2016]] ; [[#Hughes--2021|Hughes et al., 2021]] ). Risks and impacts vary with physical characteristics, location, connectivity and socioeconomic status of settlements because of the ways these influence exposure and vulnerability ( ''high confidence'' ) ( [[#Loughnan--2013|Loughnan et al., 2013]] ; [[#MfE--2020a|MfE, 2020a]] ) ''.''

Weather-related disasters are causing significant disruption and damage ( [[#Paulik--2019a|Paulik et al., 2019a]] ; [[#CSIRO--2020|CSIRO, 2020]] ; [[#Paulik--2020|Paulik et al., 2020]] ). In Australia, during 1987–2016, natural disasters caused an estimated 971 deaths and 4370 injuries, 24,120 people were made homeless and about 9 million people were affected ( [[#Deloitte--2017a|Deloitte, 2017a]] ). More than 50% of these deaths and injuries came from heatwaves in cities and 22% from fires. During the 2007–2016 period, Australia natural disaster costs averaged AUD$18.2 billion yr −1 , with the largest contributions from floods (AUD$8.8 billion), followed by cyclones (AUD$3.1 billion), hail (AUD$2.9 billion), storms (AUD$2.3 billion) and fires (AUD$1.1 billion) ( [[#Deloitte--2017a|Deloitte, 2017a]] ). The Australian fires in 2019–2020 cost over AUD$8 billion, with devastating impacts on settlements and infrastructure (Box 11.1)

Sea level rise affects many interdependent systems in cities and settlements, which increases the potential for compounding and cascading impacts (11.5.1). Seaports, airports, water treatment plants, desalination plants, roads and railways are increasingly exposed to sea level rise (SLR) ( ''very high confidence'' ), impacting their longevity and levels of service and maintenance ( ''high confidence'' ) ( [[#McEvoy--2014|McEvoy and Mullett, 2014]] ; [[#Woodroffe--2014|Woodroffe et al., 2014]] ; [[#PCE--2015|PCE, 2015]] ; [[#Ranasinghe--2016|Ranasinghe, 2016]] ; [[#Newton--2018|Newton et al., 2018]] ; [[#Paulik--2020|Paulik et al., 2020]] ) (Box 11.6). Compounding coastal hazards in New Zealand, such as elevated water tables associated with rising sea level and intense rainfall ( [[#Morgan--2015|Morgan and Werner, 2015]] ; [[#McBride--2016|McBride et al., 2016]] ; [[#White--2017|White et al., 2017]] ; [[#Hughes--2021|Hughes et al., 2021]] ), are exerting pressure on stormwater and wastewater infrastructure and drinking water supply and quality ( [[#MfE--2020a|MfE, 2020a]] ).

Extreme heat events exacerbate problems for vulnerable people and infrastructure in urban Australia, where urban heat is superimposed upon regional warming, and there are adverse impacts for population and vegetation health, particularly for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups ( [[#Tapper--2014|Tapper et al., 2014]] ; [[#Heaviside--2017|Heaviside et al., 2017]] ; [[#Filho--2018|Filho et al., 2018]] ; [[#Gebert--2018|Gebert et al., 2018]] ; [[#Rogers--2018|Rogers et al., 2018]] ; [[#Longden--2019|Longden, 2019]] ; [[#Marchionni--2019|Marchionni et al., 2019]] ; [[#Tapper--2021|Tapper, 2021]] ) (11.3.6), energy demand, energy supply and infrastructure ( ''very high confidence'' ) ( [[#Newton--2018|Newton et al., 2018]] ) (11.3.10). Extreme heat is increasingly threatening liveability in some rural areas in Australia ( [[#Turton--2017|Turton, 2017]] ), particularly given their reliance on outside physical work and older populations. Settlement design and the level of greening interact with climate change to influence local heating levels ( [[#Tapper--2014|Tapper et al., 2014]] ; [[#Wong--2020|Wong et al., 2020]] ; [[#Tapper--2021|Tapper, 2021]] ).

Floods cause major damage. The floods of early 2019 in North Queensland cost AUD$5.68 billion ( [[#Deloitte--2019|Deloitte, 2019]] ), while Cyclone Yasi and the Queensland floods of 2011 cost A$6.9 billion ( [[#Deloitte--2016|Deloitte, 2016]] ). Floodplains in New Zealand have considerably higher overall national exposure of buildings and population than coasts ( [[#Paulik--2019a|Paulik et al., 2019a]] ) (Box 11.4). The insured losses from the 12 costliest floods in New Zealand from 2007 to 2017 totalled NZD$471.56 million, of which NZD$140.48 million could be attributed to climate change ( [[#Frame--2020|Frame et al., 2020]] ).

Climatic extremes are exacerbating existing vulnerabilities ( ''high confidence'' ). Long supply chains, poorly maintained infrastructure, social disadvantage and poor health and lack of skilled workers ( [[#Eldridge--2018|Eldridge and Beecham, 2018]] ; [[#Mathew--2018|Mathew et al., 2018]] ; [[#Rolfe--2020|Rolfe et al., 2020]] ) are contributing to serious stress and disruption ( [[#Smith--2014|Smith and Lawrence, 2014]] ; [[#Kiem--2016|Kiem et al., 2016]] ). In many rural settlements, population ageing and reliance on an overstretched volunteer base for recovery from extreme events are increasing vulnerability to climate change ( [[#Astill--2018|Astill and Miller, 2018]] ; [[#Davies--2018|Davies et al., 2018]] ). Recovery from long, intense, more frequent and compounding climatic events in rural areas has been disrupted by the erosion of natural, financial, built, human and social capital ( [[#De--2016|De et al., 2016]] ; [[#Sheng--2019|Sheng and Xu, 2019]] ). Delayed recovery from extreme climatic events has been compounded by long-term displacement, which in turn prolongs the impacts ( [[#Matthews--2019|Matthews et al., 2019]] ). Severe droughts have contributed to poor health outcomes for rural communities, including extreme stress and suicide ( [[#Beautrais--2018|Beautrais, 2018]] ; [[#Perceval--2019|Perceval et al., 2019]] ). In Australia, competition among water users has left some rural communities experiencing extreme water shortage and insecurity with associated health impacts ( [[#Wheeler--2018|Wheeler et al., 2018]] ; [[#Judd--2019|Judd, 2019]] ) (Box 11.3).

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