This map allows you to view the percentage of properties in your suburb, Local Government Area, or Federal Electorate, which are at medium to high risk* from climate impacts. To get started:

1. Enter your suburb or postcode into the search bar in the top right corner of the map.
2. Click on your suburb, or surrounding suburbs, to see how they will be impacted by climate change and the number of properties at risk in your area.
3. Scroll down and toggle between low, medium and high emissions scenarios, as well as different timeframes, geographies and hazards to understand how climate action, or lack thereof, will impact the number of homes in your community at risk of climate impacts.

Climate Risk Map

High risk homes have annual damage costs from climate change and extreme weather equivalent to 1% or more of the property’s replacement cost. These properties are effectively uninsurable, as – whilst policies might still be offered by some insurance companies – insurance premiums are expected to become too expensive for people to afford, making insurance inaccessible.

Medium risk properties have annual damage costs equivalent to 0.2-1% of the property replacement cost. These properties are at risk of being underinsured. 

The map allows you to explore extreme weather impacts under three different emissions scenarios. These scenarios are based on ‘Representative Concentration Pathways’ or ‘RCPs’ used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The low, medium and high scenarios correspond with RCP 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5 respectively. 

Low: This scenario shows extreme weather impacts under a scenario where global emissions are significantly reduced. This scenario would likely limit the global average temperature rise to around 1.8ºC in 2100. (The available data did not allow us to model a scenario that sees the global average temperature rise limited to 1.5ºC.) 

Medium: This scenario shows extreme weather impacts under a scenario in which all countries implement their existing emission reduction policies, leading to a likely global average temperature rise of around 2.7ºC by 2100. 

High: This scenario shows extreme weather impacts in a high emissions scenario, in which the world fails categorically to address the climate crisis. It corresponds with a likely temperature range of around 4.4ºC by 2100.

The map covers five different climate change exacerbated hazards: riverine flooding, surface water flooding, coastal inundation, bushfires and extreme wind. Definitions for each of these hazards are provided below:

• Riverine flooding is when a river exceeds its capacity, inundating nearby areas.
• Coastal inundation is when seawater temporarily or permanently floods an area due to a combination of sea level rise, high tides, wind, low air pressure and/or waves. This definition does not include coastal erosion. Under a high emissions scenario, this data assumes sea level rise of 1.5 m by 2100.
• Extreme wind is high-wind conditions that may exceed a building’s design specifications (due to projected changes in sea surface temperature, wind regimes and wind speeds).
• Bushfires are destructive fires that spread via trees and forest. This definition does not include grass fires.
• Surface water flooding (sometimes called pluvial flooding or flash flooding) is overland flooding. This occurs when sustained rainfall or short-duration heavy rainfall events cause the ground to reach saturation point and drainage systems to overflow, resulting in the build-up of excess water. 

The Climate Risk Engines calculate the maximum value at risk at the property level and determine if that property is at medium or high risk based on consistent thresholds. The threshold for high risk properties is reached when the annual damage costs are equivalent to 1% or more of the building’s replacement cost, and for medium risk properties the threshold is 0.2-1%. 

This means that a property can be deemed at medium or high risk because of the combined impact of a number of hazards (which shows up in the total percentage of properties at risk), even though it doesn’t reach those thresholds for any individual hazard.

For example, if a property has annual damage costs of 0.2% of the replacement cost of the property, with 0.1% coming from surface water flooding, and 0.1% coming from riverine flooding, it won’t show up as being at medium risk to either hazard, but it will show up as being at medium risk overall.