Book of Abstracts 2013 - Australian and New Zealand Disaster ...

35.65 % (about 808 ha) of the urban community and infrastructures, respectively, were very highly impacted by the
January 2011 flood based on 95% level of confidence set in the operation of spatial autocorrelation. This study
produced spatially explicit analytical techniques that will optimise decisions for increasing community resiliency.
Mr Ian French
Activity Leader, Geoscience Australia
Building community resilience by simulating the uncertainty in bushfire spread and impacts
In 2011 the Bushfire CRC funded a major collaborative project called FireDST (Fire Impact & Risk Evaluation – Decision
Support Tool). The project involves the Bureau of Meteorology, University of Melbourne, CSIRO and Geoscience
Australia. This paper displays results from one of the major project achievements so far: the development of a “proof of
concept” uncertainty driven interactive bushfire simulation tool. This tool has demonstrated (using the Kilmore 2009
bushfire) the usefulness of producing, grouping and displaying a range of bushfire scenarios for any bushfire. For
example, where the ignition point may be uncertain, several possible ignitions can be simulated to assess potential
outcomes. The tool similarly explores uncertainties in the fuel type, load and state, as well as in the forecast weather
conditions. Each of these uncertainties is simulated, and the cumulative result can be displayed as a likelihood of the
fire spread over an area of potential fire impact. The user is able to refine this potential impact area as conditions
change or as new information arrives. This paper discusses the potential use to manage bushfire occurrences in the
State Emergency Management centres. However, the principles in FireDST can also be used to assist building
community resilience. We provide examples of the potential usefulness to local communities and local government in
areas like: -Community engagement/ education about the potential fire risk at the neighbourhood level; -Local brigade
management of the region vegetation to ascertain if mitigation practices such as controlled burns and vegetation
removal reduce the bushfire risk potential; -Planning for safer communities by testing potential refuge locations, and to
help residents understand how different fire scenarios may affect their fire plan.
Mrs Amanda Gearing
Journalist and PhD student, QUT
Why disaster survivors speak to reporters
Extended in-depth interviews were used in this study to produce a ‘first draft of history’ recording the human
experience of survivors and rescuers during the January 2011 flash flood disaster in Toowoomba and the Lockyer
Valley in Queensland, Australia. The study aimed to discover what can be learnt from engaging in journalistic reporting
of natural disasters, using journalism as both a creative practice and a research methodology. (Lindgren and Phillips,
2011, 75) The willingness of a very high proportion of severely traumatised flood survivors to participate in the flood
research was unexpected but made it possible to document a relatively unstudied question within the literature about
journalism and trauma – why disaster survivors choose to speak to journalists. The study reports six categories of
reasons interviewees gave for their willingness to speak to the media: for their own personal recovery; their desire for
the public to know what had happened; that lessons need to be learned from the disaster; their sense of duty to make
sure warning systems and disaster responses are improved in future; the financial disinterest of reporters in listening
to survivors; and the timing of the request for an interview. In addition, traumatised flood survivors found both the
opportunity to speak to the media and the journalistic outputs of the research cathartic in their recovery.