Managing the effects of heat in Victoria’s parks

Parks Victoria is responding to drought and extreme temperatures by implementing a coordinated strategy of water and energy conservation, green space management and public education.

John Senior, manager of strategic partnerships at Parks Victoria

John Senior is the manager of strategic partnerships at Parks Victoria, a statutory body which manages a diverse estate of parks in the state of Victoria, Australia. Its assets total approximately 3.96 million hectares, including national parks in the state of Victoria and major parks in Melbourne.

Dealing with extreme events

The Australian state of Victoria is facing rising temperatures and long periods of drought, which are making extreme events like bush fires more common. “We experience events like floods and droughts like many other countries, but extreme events are definitely happening more frequently,” says John. 2008 was the state’s seventh successive year of below average rainfall and this has led to a steady decline in the amount of water held in reservoirs. “Politicians put off imposing restrictions on water use, believing it would be unpopular. Now they are being criticised for not taking action sooner.”

The catastrophic loss of life and widespread destruction of property caused by the fires earlier in 2009 have lead to a government rethink of the national fire policy. “We don’t just rely on the emergency services to deal with these events,” explains John. “When bushfires occur, the Parks Victoria workforce helps fight the fires as well as planning where and how they should be fought. In the aftermath we work with the government grants to help restore the damaged infrastructure, minimise adverse effects (like erosion on bare ground) and assist environmental recovery all of which helps the park as well as local communities to get back on their feet. As fires are becoming more frequent, we are spending more time on dealing with the aftermath rather than making headway with improving the parks across the state.”

A coordinated response

Parks Victoria has prepared a number of climate change reports and strategies in recent years. The first State of the Parks report was published in 2000 and repeated in 2007 using the international management effectiveness approach. “These extensive reports include an audit of everything under our control – the scale, species, condition and threats. We use this as a management tool to decide our priorities for the next five years.” Explains John.  The organisation has worked with IUCN, a global agency for the conservation of nature, to develop a model for parks organisations around the world to increase management effectiveness. The model, which can be applied to any park, provides a database which enables the effects of climate change to be monitored and assessed over time.

Parks Victoria is seen by the 31 local authorities of Greater Melbourne as a logical organisation to support and coordinate the big picture climate change strategy work. “For example in looking at connectivity and habitat corridors we mapped the region and identified major gaps in the networks and the need for four new major regional parks in the outer fringe that will be swallowed into the city as it expands (as it is rapidly doing). We produced a strategy that the local governments signed up to; we joined the dots. This investigation has been used to get government commitment to allocate funding over time to meet these needs.”

The 31 local government organisations in Greater Melbourne have signed up to the climate change strategy developed by Parks Victoria. In other cases Parks Victoria has offered expert advice to help organisations create their own local open space strategies.

Changing behaviour

In the 1990s, a high profile campaign across Australia raised awareness about skin cancer and led to a shift in public attitudes towards sun protection. “As temperatures increase, we’re seeing growing demand for shade in parks, particularly at playgrounds,” comments John. “There’s also a growing awareness of how green spaces can moderate the urban heat island effect and air pollution. As the public becomes more aware, we can take advantage and get more funding for parks and green spaces.”

Parks Victoria also recognises the importance of showing leadership in the community. The organisation is converting its buildings to use solar power and we have introduced water conservation and energy saving strategies. “As we invest in the modification of our facilities, like putting up solar panels, we promote it loudly so that visitors know about it,” says John. “As the refit programme rolls out, the messages reach more and more people.”

“Fifteen years ago the grass in our parks was cut short everywhere. We now only cut the areas of intense use, and where we do cut it we cut it longer. This helps the ground retain water when it does rain, as well as providing better habitats for wildlife.”

For the Commonwealth games, run off was captured from the athletes village and flowed into a new system through a wetland to cleanse it and then used for irrigating local parks instead of going into the drains.

Planning for the future

Parks Victoria gathers a wide range of data on the current situation and predictions for how things will change in the future and uses this information to plan programmes and interventions. They also modify these plans when newer and more reliable data becomes available.

One area of intervention relates to plant and animal life. “We know that certain species may not survive as the climates changes, so we have to make sure we can relocate them or create migration corridors,” says John. “The nursery industry is also developing trees and grass species that are more resistant to the extreme conditions in Australia.”