Urban design and ‘extreme climate events’

I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ra(u)gged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror, The wide brown land for me!

Since the last edition of Urban Design Forum, various parts of Australia have experienced what are euphemistically referred to as ‘extreme climate events’. Is the much-quoted Dorothea McKeller poem a resignation, a celebration, or a reality check?

While our deep sympathies go out to all of those who are directly affected, particularly where there has been loss of life, perhaps it is a good time to reflect again on the relationships between the natural and built environment, and urban design. This edition includes some of those reflections