Risk assessment and decision-making for residential housing adapting to increasing storm-tide inundation due to sea-level rise in South East Queensland,Australia

The exposures and risks of coastal built as well as natural assets to storm-tide inundation are expected to be more pronounced as a result of the reduced recurrence interval or the increased occurrence frequency of storm tides in Australia due to sea-level rise. This study investigates the distributions of direct damage losses and adaptation benefits for residential buildings considering uncertainties of storm tides under projected sea-level rises in South East Queensland, one of the fastest-growing regions in Australia in the last two decades. The study subsequently indicates that ‘deterministic decision-making’ based on an individual hazard or scenario could be fundamentally flawed for coastal planning and adaptation as a result of uncertain natures in coastal hazards under changing climate. The developed knowledge can eventually facilitate better decision-making processes for adapting coastal residential buildings to future climate change under considerable uncertainties. It is also found that constructing new buildings with higher floor heights is a relatively inexpensive but also a highly effective approach insensitive to uncertainties for reducing future damage losses of storm-tide inundation.