Climate change and environmental influences on Australia's population distribution

Abstract

Australia has a distinctive population distribution characterised by a concentration in major metropolitan centres and coastal areas, with much of the continent being sparsely settled. This has been strongly shaped by historical, environmental and economic processes, but it is likely that climate change may have some influence in the future. The current generation of climate change models have limited spatial resolution, so it is difficult to be precise about the areas that will be most impacted by climate change. This paper investigates six major non-metropolitan regions that have been identified as areas likely to be most affected by climate change. While effects on coastal cities will be substantial, they are not considered in detail here. The six non-metropolitan ‘hotspots’, however, are each considered in turn and the potential health and population distribution effects discussed. It is argued that Australian discourse on climate change has not focused sufficiently on intranational variations in the potential effects of that change.