Australian councils are struggling to meet the high cost of replacing infrastructure to meet extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods according to a local researcher.

It is estimated that $2.1 billion dollars was required to reconstruct Queensland areas affected by the floods in 2010/11.

University of New England researcher Dr Simone Valle de Souza is looking into how councils can better prepare infrastructure for these disasters.

“What we are looking at is the inefficiency of having infrastructure which is already out of date and what is the consequence of that when natural disaster hits,” Dr de Souza says.

She argues that while most councils already have a big backlog of infrastructure updates, every $1 spent in upgrading the infrastructure to disaster-resilient standards can save $5 of post-disaster reconstruction.

“We are also looking at the benefits of personal infrastructure investments, where people invest in making their homes and businesses more resilient to extreme weather events.”

She says there is a clear need to build infrastructure that can withstand the more frequent and intense extreme weather events that will come as a consequence of climate change.

“This includes water, storm water and drainage infrastructure capacity, coastal infrastructure and roads and buildings. This will increase the size of the already large local infrastructure backlog.”