On behalf of the Conference Organising Committee we are delighted to invite you to the inaugural Practical Responses to Climate Change Conference in Melbourne, from Wednesday 29 September to Friday 1 October at the Hilton on the Park. Engineers Australia, its National Committee on Water Engineering and the Victorian Water Engineering Branch are hosting the conference with support from the Planning Institute of Australia.

The Conference will be an opportunity for engineers, planners, local government representative, water resource managers, academics, legal practitioners and others involved in the water sector from catchments to coasts to grapple with how to respond in a practical way to challenges that confront us with our changing climate. Our program features international and national keynote speakers, plenary panel sessions designed to provide an opportunity for open discussion amongst experienced industry representatives and delegates, and of course a full program of peer reviewed papers in our four themes: Coasts & Estuaries; Water Resources; Catchments, Floodplains & Waterways; Planning & Policy.

Underlying our conference theme is an acceptance that planning for the future needs to allow for climate change impacts and that this presents an enormous challenge for our governments, and in particular, the engineering and planning professions working for and advising governments. Climate change science is not ignored and on the first day of our program sets the scene with plenary keynotes and a plenary panel based around climate change science. Our peer reviewed papers will present the risks and responses under the four themes.

We look forward to welcoming you to our conference and of course the multi-cultural Melbourne with its renowned cultural, sporting and dining experiences. Finally make sure you attend our key social event, the conference dinner, at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (the 'G').

Dr Mark Jempson
Conference Chair

For further information on the Conference Program please Click Here and a breakdown of each of the above topic's sub categories please visit the Themes page.

The program timetable is subject to finalisation of peer review