Many countries, not only Australia are building houses, cities, towns and other infrastructure on ever increasingly marginal land. As the world population has expanded, the demand for houses and infrastucture has exponentially expanded, whilst the suitable land available has not.

As a result, land is being developed that has been at risk of flood every 100 years, then the land is developed that floods every 50 years and on we go.

The same applies for coastal areas, fire prone areas, earthquake prone areas too.

In Australia, in the last couple of weeks, there has been a large flood across large areas of two states - New South Wales and Queensland. And unfortunately, it has emerged that the majority of houses and infrastructure that has been affected, is on land that in all honesty, should not have been developed or built on in any way. 

As climate change ramps up and weather becomes more extreme, flooding events and other extreme weather events become more common, those one in 100 year floods may now occur every 10 years or even more frequently.

We need to adapt to our environment and if we are building in flood prone areas, build flood resistant or flood proof houses and infrastructure. The same applies for fire prone areas. Building a wooden house with trees touching the sides may not be a sensible idea.

But governments around the world, will most probably keep building in these marginal areas to keep making money and charging more and more land taxes.

What do you think? Is this happening where you live?