Climate change

There has been changes in rainfall and climate since the current plan was established in 2007.

We will be reviewing the Gulf hydrology (the scientific study of how water moves, is distributed and is managed) to determine how water availability has changed since then.

We will use hydrological modelling and climate change projections to evaluate possible future impacts of climate change for the region.

Read in detail how we manage climate change risks.

Queensland’s water plans in a variable and changing climate report (PDF, 19.0MB) identifies climate impacts across each of the water plan areas. For example, on pages 54 and 55 there's a snapshot of observed and projected climate trends for the Gulf water plan area. This snapshot includes two scenarios – high greenhouse gas emissions (RCP8.5) and lower greenhouse gas emissions (RCP4.5) – for the years 2030 and 2050. They indicate:

• average daily temperatures are projected to increase between 1 and 2 degrees centigrade
• average annual rainfall is projected to increase between 1 and 4 per cent for the high emissions scenario
• average annual rainfall is projected to decrease in 2030 by 1 per cent and increase in 2050 by 3 per cent for the lower emissions scenario
• average annual potential evapotranspiration (PET) is projected to increase between 7 and 13 per cent.