All infrastructure sectors will be impacted by climate change to varying degrees. As identified by several researchers, the major challenge in the effective planning and management of key infrastructure in adapting to climate change and continuing to provide service to the community is cross-sector interdependencies.

The complex interdependencies between infrastructure sectors leads to a high potential for cascade failure, particularly during extreme events, and therefore need to be well managed.

All sectors are dependent to varying extents on energy – disruptions to energy supply having cascading impacts on water, telecommunications, transport and community infrastructure.

A major challenge to effective adaptation planning and service delivery of key infrastructure is the disparate set of responsible public and private organisations. The importance of clear identification of the roles and responsibilities of each of the five sectors within the region and community of interest will be highlighted.

Degradation in service delivery and performance with climate change is anticipated. What degree of service degradation (if any) deemed to be acceptable will vary within each infrastructure sector and across the varying communities (differences likely between city and remote areas and geographic location) and in time. The community (customer) willingness to pay for the costs of climate change adaptation in meeting agreed service performance criteria is poorly understood. The paper will discuss the linkages between acceptable service performance and willingness to pay whilst retaining flexibility and encouraging sustainable development and effective use of resources in a changing climate.