A new program to help fund projects to mitigate the impacts on local communities of coastal hazards will open for applications in March.
The Coastal and Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program, which is being funded $50 million from the Emergency Response Fund, will invest in:
- Priority national coastal hazard risk mitigation measures such as grey, blue and green infrastructure, like seawalls, groynes, storm surge and tidal barrages in estuaries, as well as nature-based solutions such as protecting coastal wetland ecosystems to reduce risk of inundation and shoreline erosion.
- Planning, including local and regional risk assessments and mapping, preparation of regional coastal management programs; and
- Monitoring to understand the coastal zone over time, where it relates to future action to manage coastal hazards.
The program will also fund projects that support an integrated approach to coastal management through planning, such as regional risk assessments and monitoring of coastal hazards as they change over time. It will help address the growing cost nationally of coastal hazards management and adaptation.
The $50 million for the 2022-23 Coastal and Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program from the EFR is in addition to the $100 million that has already been committed from the ERF for flood mitigation infrastructure projects over two years from 2020-21.
The second round of the National Flood Mitigation Infrastructure Program, funded from the ERF, closed to applications on 4 February.
Applications for the program are expected to open in March to provide state and territory governments time to develop project applications outside of the high-risk weather season.
Click here for details of the program.