AS AUSTRALIA prepares for a season of heatwaves, bushfires and other extreme weather events, experts have urged disaster-hit communities to learn from past mistakes and resist the rush to rebuild things the way they were.
Climate change modelling shows that extreme weather events including flash floods, cyclones and droughts are likely to become more common.
However, an international research project involving the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, hosted by Griffith University, has found that communities and governments sometimes fail to adapt to the increasing risk.
"Often, following a disaster, there is an option to 'build back better' but this requires considerable political will and financing. It's more common to simply rebuild in a desire to return to normality as soon as possible," said Dr Sarah Boulter, Research Fellow at the National
Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.
"It's hard to imagine that if disasters increase or worsen under climate change that governments can continue to be relied on as the insurer of last resort."
The research project Learning from experience - Historical case studies and climate change adaptation, noted that following Cyclone Tracy in 1974, Darwin authorities put a six-month ban on rebuilding to allow time to develop a new cyclone-proof building code.
That kind of response, however, is rare.
"In many communities, often there's a sense that 'We won't be beaten by these events'. There is building and construction that goes on that still puts people at risk," Dr Boulter said.