Design Charrettes in Two Days: Sea Lake and Bendigo

Abstract

The Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research (VCCCAR) aims to improve government and community understanding about the potential impacts of climate change and to assist individuals, communities and institutions to develop appropriate adaptation options. It funds interdisciplinary and multi-institutional research, which address priorities identified by the Victorian Government. Climate adaptation has become an important consideration when discussing future development trajectories for cities and regions across the State.

This connection between the required adaptation and the desired urban and regional spatial development has been the major driving force for the development of the project ‘Design-led Decision Support for Regional Climate Adaptation’. This project takes as a starting point the premise that knowing about possible hazards and assessing their risk is an important step in understanding and dealing with climate change. However it doesn’t give us answers as to how to design our landscapes and societies to adapt to climate change impacts. Local and regional communities were supported in their decision-making on the precautions they need and want to take to adapt to future climate impacts. In order to bring academic knowledge closer to the communities where the knowledge needs to be used, the chosen approach of conducting design charrettes is not only an academic exercise, but more so a practical hands-on process. This means that the outcomes are easily disseminated towards regional communities, but also that the process of planning and researching is dependent on the local context, timing and (political) concerns. These design charrettes have been conducted covering locals in the City of Greater Bendigo and in Sea Lake, one of several small towns in the Buloke Shire.