From the catastrophic 2019/2020 summer bushfires in south-eastern Australia to the devastating floods that recently engulfed Queensland, the Asia Pacific region experiences more climate-related hazards than any other part of the planet. Despite the massive human and physical costs of these crises, the number of designers equipped to work alongside disaster professionals to reduce risk and to rebuild in the aftermath of floods, fires and earthquakes remains chronically low.
Landscape architects are currently under-represented in the disaster and development fields, yet there is a huge demand for their design, ecological and site planning skills. This includes working for local governments or large multidisciplinary practices (such as Arup and AECOM) to develop nature-based strategies for climate change, and designing and rebuilding landscapes and settlements destroyed by fires, floods and cyclones.
