Landscape Design for Natural Disaster Preparedness
Landscape Design for Natural Disaster Preparedness
Landscape design solutions to mitigate natural disasters in the Central West
Capacity to Deliver -
LEP23-005-CWLL-01_LLC_001
The issue
With the challenges of drought, fire, flood and other natural disaster events including hail storms facing the Parkes and Forbes Shires over the past five years, and additionally, facing the complexities and limitations of the COVID-19 outbreak, our communities in the Central West saw the need for increased awareness of the options for prevention and mitigation or natural disasters.
Having time to attend an educational event can be a challenge during work hours, so workshop delivery timing is a challenge for many people in the community.
Even though many educational options are online, nothing beats a face to face environment with an enthusiastic guest speaker.
The solution
Landcare recognise the importance of landscape design for all of the natural conditions that we face in regional NSW and through the Landcare NSW People Led Prevention Project, we were thrilled to welcome Landscape Designer, Sally Bourne to present a workshop at our Homegrown Parkes event, focusing on providing opportunities for the community to be equipped for natural disasters and changes in climatic conditions.
Sally believes the way garden spaces evolve over time is fundamental to the success of a design. When it comes to Sally’s trademark style, think sustainable, rustic, earthy, achievable and family-friendly.
The Homegrown Parkes event also had a wider focus on our local emergency services with both the SES and RFS in attendance and engaging with the community.
The impact
Sally shared how she creates gardens that are considerate of a natural environmental balance, self-supporting and reduce the need for inputs and outputs.
Her presentation placed emphasis on the use of local and recycled materials, water saving options and working with a sites and the importance of recognising the opportunities and constraints in the workspace.
Plant species favour low maintenance, hardy and drought tolerant species, deciduous trees located to provide winter solar access and summer shade, with many species native, endemic and or locally suited.
Workshop attendees left with fresh enthusiasm for landscape design and with a greater understanding of design solutions for mitigation measures in disaster events.
Key facts
- The People Led Prevention project focused on behaviour change for natural hazard risk reduction.
- Holding an event that was accessible to the community on a weekend encouraged engagement in a relaxed and safe environment.
- Natural disaster preparedness can factor in clever landscape design options.
- Over 40 people attended this People Led Prevention Workshop in Parkes.