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

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Human Services Delivery Research Alliance which is into its fourth year of a five-year partnership between the Department and the CSIRO. Through the Alliance, the department uses the scientific research capability of the CSIRO to help identify ways to improve service delivery. The ERIC project supports the work practices of the Department’s Emergency Management team which is responsible for intelligence gathering and situation reporting during emergency events. This is achieved by a web based productivity tool that automatically gathers data from a range of sources, presents the data in a map based web site and supports a user to generate situation reports customized for different types of emergency events at specific locations. The ERIC tool integrates information from numerous sources: statistical regions from the Australian Bureau of Statistics; context data including demographics and details of the natural and built environment; Departmental regional profile data; ‘live’ data feeds describing the emergency event as it progresses; the historical record of previous ‘live’ data feeds; social media; and an archive of previous Situation Reports. This information can be focused for a specific region under investigation and collated semi-automatically to generate Situation Reports. They include information synthesised from available datasets and augmented by user provided content. The current status of the ERIC project and the developed tool will be presented highlighting its use by the Department in the summer of 2012/13. This will be followed by a short demonstration of the ERIC tool. A/Prof Jacqui Ewart Program leader Media and Crime, Griffith University Co Author - Dr Hamish McLean, Griffith University Ducking for cover in the blame game: Media framing of the findings of inquiries into the 2010/2011 Queensland floods After a disaster, the media typically focus on who is to blame. However, we know relatively little about how the narrative of blame plays out in media coverage of the release of official reports into disasters. This conference paper examines two Australian newspapers' coverage of the release of the Queensland Floods Commission Interim Report and the Commission's Final Report to identify whether and how the news frame of blame was used. We found that in the absence of blame being allotted by the report, the newspapers resorted to the frame of failure' in news and feature articles, while continuing to raise questions of who was to blame in editorials and opinion pieces. We argue that situating coverage of the report within the news frame of failure and questioning who was to blame for the disaster, limited the media's ability to facilitate a discussion about the prevention of similar disasters in the future. Mr Cormac Farrell Environmental Scientist, Aurecon Australia Co Author - Mr Dan Pedersen, Environmental Scientist, Kleainfelder Ecobiological The Victorian Schools Bushfire Protection Project The February 2009 bushfires in Victoria were a tragic illustration of the vulnerability and risk Australian urban and rural communities face in the event of an uncontrolled wildfire on a large scale. Several schools were destroyed or severely damaged as a result of these fires, and this recognised a need to provide on-site protection to students and staff, and was identified as a key priority in post disaster liaison. Following Black Saturday, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) engaged a multidisciplinary team to improve the protection of students and staff through school site building and landscape modification works at over a portfolio of 300 schools identified as being at particular risk of bushfires.
The project included a range of leading practice approaches: Mapping of heat flux using Geographic Information Systems providing a pre site assessment of the bushfire risk and a robust decision support system for field assessors Detailed site inspections that included BPAD accredited staff, ecologists and fire engineers Establishment of a Shelter in Place - engineered to meet AS3959 requirements, supplemented by Asset Protection Zones, improved landscaping and emergency management procedures. Cradle-to-grave management - providing a unique opportunity to capture data on the upgrade of a large sample of vulnerable buildings. This project involved the detailed on-site assessment and subsequent engineering upgrades for over 300 vulnerable schools. As a result, a unique opportunity was identified; to capture the required upgrades to a variety and great number of class 9 buildings, and across a range of Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) zones. This paper will examine the outcomes of the project, including the typical upgrades across each BAL zone, the areas most likely to cause defect and maintenance issues, and the resulting cost (based on a per student scale) in each BAL zone. Ms Kate Fitzgerald International Fellow, East-West Center Hurricane Sandy – Can we achieve both growth and resilience? Do we need to redefine disasters within our communities? Do we need to increase our acceptance of risk? Can we achieve both growth and resilience? Hurricane Sandy was a unique event due to the scale of the disaster along the United States East Coast and the significant and sustained impact upon critical infrastructure throughout the disaster affected area resulting in an unprecedented, wide-spread activation of the US emergency management structure. This paper explores disaster management through the concept of reflexive modernization and provides a first-hand account of the effectiveness of pre-impact decision-making by politicians and officials and the ineffectiveness of post-impact decision-making relating to immediate relief and recovery priorities. During Hurricane Sandy I was deployed by the American Red Cross to Long Island to assist in the immediate response and recovery effort in that area and was able to see the tension between growth and risk within modern societies and how governments and communities are responding to that. The notorious gas shortages following Hurricane Sandy is an example of how continued economic growth has resulted in the production of unpredictable risks and hazards in the face of which governments and nongovernment organisations are required to respond. Hurricane Sandy provides not only important lessons learned from an operational perspective but can be explored as a new paradigm in which to view disaster management and to redefine our policies, politics and institutions that support our response to disasters. Dr Jessica Freame Manager, Fire Recovery Unit, Department of Planning and Community Development Co Authors - Mr Sam Redlich, Project and Council Liaison Manager, Department of Planning and Community Development. Ms Bec Nicoll, Community Engagement Coordinator, Department of Planning and Community Development. After the Crisis: Recovery Four Years On The devastating 2009 Victorian bushfires required a massive response from Government, which was exemplified by the establishment of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRA). At its height, VBRRA had close to 200 staff and was embedded within bushfire-affected communities and Government. While VBRRA ceased operations on 30 June 2011, almost two and a half years after the bushfires, the process of recovery for affected communities continued. This paper will consider the State Government role in 2009 bushfire recovery from the closure of VBRRA until the 4th anniversary and beyond. It will look at the critical recovery issues that emerged in the two to
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Page 11 and 12: Dr Lisa Gibbs Assoc Director, Brock
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Page 25 and 26: Mr Avijit Paul Queensland Universit
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Page 31 and 32: as a potential lifeline to better u
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Page 37 and 38: Mr Bob Dick Independent scholar, In
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