@article {bnh-7980, title = {Black Summer - how the NSW community responded to the 2019-20 bushfire season}, number = {651}, year = {2021}, month = {05/2021}, pages = {130}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The 2019-20 bushfire season saw unprecedented, destructive bushfires across New South Wales (NSW). After an early start to the fire season in August 2019, fires spread south from the Queensland border to the Victorian border over the course of spring and summer. Tens of thousands of people were displaced by the fires, including residents, tourists and visitors to affected areas. Significant rainfall in early February 2020 helped contain the fires by February 13 and brought an end to the most deadly and destructive fire season in NSW history. Tragically, 26 people lost their lives in the fires, including four NSW RFS volunteers and three US aerial firefighters. Many more people were affected by smoke, including in regional areas and major population centres such as the north coast, Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle and Wollongong. By season{\textquoteright}s end, fires had burned a record 5.5 million hectares of NSW and destroyed 2,448 homes (NSW RFS 2020). Community and commercial buildings and infrastructure were also significantly impacted on. The fires adversely affected many industries, including agriculture, forestry and tourism.

The NSW RFS engaged the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre to conduct research into community preparedness, warnings and responses to the 2019-20 NSW bushfires. The NSW RFS identified eight key themes for investigation, including: (i) risk communication; (ii) effect of prolonged and repeated exposure to bushfire on planning, preparation and responses; (iii) effect of previous experience and exposure to bushfire on planning, preparation and responses; (iv) sheltering practices; (v) experiences of tourists and visitors; (vi) awareness and attitudes toward bushfire risk reduction; (vii) building standards; and (viii) community recovery and resilience.

This report presents findings from research into community attitudes and experiences of the 2019-20 bushfire season undertaken for the NSW RFS. The NSW RFS Statement of Work identified the following themes and questions for investigation:

}, keywords = {Bushfire, communication, communities, Community safety, education, Fire, Warnings}, isbn = {978-0-6482756-9-5}, issn = {651}, author = {J Whittaker and Katharine Haynes and Wilkinson, Carrie and Matalena Tofa and Tasmin Dilworth and Jessica Collins and Lillian Tait and Stephanie Samson} } @article {bnh-8285, title = {Mind the gap: Contrasting operational and behavior-oriented flood warnings}, journal = {International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction}, year = {2021}, month = {11/2021}, abstract = {

During flood events, warnings issued by emergency service agencies serve to communicate risk and guide community behavior. Yet research shows that while warnings convey operational details, they may not always be understood and appropriately actioned in a timely manner by the public. Such maladaptive behavior can place multiple parties at risk of injury and fatality. Few studies empirically consider and compare the effectiveness of traditional agency-designed operational warnings with other designs such as behavior-oriented warnings. The former typically contain technical and operational detail while the latter provide immediate priority and greater emphasis on translating the situation into specific behavioral actions to be undertaken by the public. Using operational versus newly developed behavior-oriented warnings from New South Wales State Emergency Service in Australia, a total of 774 community members rated each type of scaled warning and their likelihood to engage in adaptive and maladaptive behaviors following exposure to warnings designed to convey one of five levels of an unfolding flooding scenario from its beginning to conclusion ({\textquoteleft}Prepare for flooding{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}Be ready to evacuate{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}Evacuate{\textquoteright}, {\textquoteleft}Too late to evacuate{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}Safe to return{\textquoteright}). Findings showed positive response to both types of warnings, with behavior-oriented warnings offering greater benefit for perception factors (e.g., risk and comprehension) and adaptive behavioral intentions.

}, keywords = {Behavior-oriented, community, Flood, risk communication, Warnings}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102685}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212420921006464}, author = {Amisha Mehta and Dominique Greer and Clinton Weeks and Lisa Schuster and Scott Murray and Paula Dootson and Andrew Richards} } @article {bnh-7845, title = {Checks and balances: A business-oriented lens on disaster management and warnings}, journal = {Disasters}, year = {2020}, month = {12/2020}, abstract = {

Following disasters, small businesses are critical to community recovery. Yet, factors that affect outcomes (e.g., planning, information needs, and response to warnings) are understudied. To overcome the research record{\textquoteright}s focus on policy favoured towards disaster mitigation rather than response, this article presents a two-phased, mixed method approach. The first study comprised interviews with businesses to elucidate disaster planning approaches, knowledge and information needs, and current warning system adequacy. It revealed opportunities to build knowledge and add business-specific content to agency-issued warnings. Through an online survey, study two examined how disaster knowledge, planning and experience related to existing bushfire warnings and those modified with business-relevant content. Findings showed that planning related to experience and knowledge but not to business-related protective action intentions. Modified messages were perceived as more effective and resulted in greater action intentions for those with bushfire experience. The article provides implications for small business-oriented disaster risk communication.

}, keywords = {business, communications, disaster, Warnings}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12473}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/disa.12473?af=R}, author = {Amisha Mehta and Scott Murray and Cindy Hammill and Paula Dootson and Rebecca Langdon} } @article {bnh-8255, title = {Visual Mis/disinformation in Journalism and Public Communications: Current Verification Practices, Challenges, and Future Opportunities}, journal = {Journalism Practice}, year = {2020}, month = {10/2020}, abstract = {

Social media platforms and news organisations alike are struggling with identifying and combating visual mis/disinformation presented to their audiences. Such processes are complicated due to the enormous number of media items being produced, how quickly media items spread, and the often-subtle or sometimes invisible-to-the-naked-eye nature of deceptive edits. Despite knowing little about the provenance and veracity of the visual content they encounter, journalists have to quickly determine whether to re-publish or amplify this content, with few tools and little time available to assist them in such an evaluation. With the goal of equipping journalists with the mechanisms, skills, and knowledge to be effective gatekeepers and stewards of the public trust, this study reviews current journalistic image verification practices, examines a number of existing and emerging image verification technologies that could be deployed or adapted to aid in this endeavour, and identifies the strengths and limitations of the most promising extant technical approaches. While oriented towards practical and achievable steps in combating visual mis/disinformation, the study also contributes to discussions on fact-checking, source-checking, verification, debunking and journalism training and education.

}, keywords = {communications, images, misinformation, Warnings}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2020.1832139}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512786.2020.1832139}, author = {T.J. Thomson and Daniel Angus and Paula Dootson and Edward Hurcombe and Adam Smith} } @article {bnh-6723, title = {Why don{\textquoteright}t bushfire warnings work as intended? Responses to official warnings during bushfires in New South Wales, Australia}, journal = {International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction}, volume = {45}, year = {2020}, abstract = {

Australian fire services provide two broad types of warning to people in bushfire (or wildfire) risk areas. Fire Danger Ratings communicate the possible consequences of a bushfire due to its rate of spread, intensity and difficulty of suppression. Warnings are also issued to alert people to impending bushfires and advise them how to respond. This paper examines how people threatened and affected by bushfires in New South Wales, Australia, in 2017 understood, interpreted and acted upon warning messages they received. The research involved 113 semi-structured interviews and an online survey of 549 households. Results indicate that while most people found warnings easy to understand and useful, many did not respond in ways intended by fire services. Many waited until they were threatened before they evacuated, while others stayed to defend houses and property, assist or rescue other people, and protect pets and animals. Notably, the research highlights the tendency for people to seek confirmation of the bushfire threat before taking protective action, most commonly to avoid unnecessary evacuation and its associated costs. Furthermore, the research identifies three key messages in bushfire warnings that are not personally meaningful for many people because they do not align with how they are likely to respond to a bushfire. These include: (1) people should leave bushfire risk areas on days of Catastrophic fire danger, before there is a fire; (2) houses are not defendable under Catastrophic conditions; and (3) people should {\textquoteleft}leave early{\textquoteright}. The paper offers suggestions on how fire authorities can provide better information to help people to make more effective decisions by acknowledging and working within the context in which warnings are understood, interpreted and acted upon.

}, keywords = {Bushfire, defence, Evacuation, information, preparation, Warnings, Wildfire}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101476}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212420919304625?dgcid=author}, author = {J Whittaker and Mel Taylor and Christopher Bearman} } @conference {bnh-6404, title = {It{\textquoteright}s raining news: exploring the impact of mass-SMS on preparedness for a severe weather event }, booktitle = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC Research Day AFAC19}, year = {2019}, month = {12/2019}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Location-based telephone warning systems are a relatively new tool for emergency managers to distribute warnings and emergency information to targeted populations. Although some research has examined their impact on how they support action and decision making by community, there are gaps in the literature for many use cases. This paper presents research examining the impact of a large-scale use of a location-based telephone warning system on awareness of and preparedness for a severe weather event in the Australian state of Victoria.

}, keywords = {communication, community, location-based, Warnings}, url = {https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/australian-journal-of-emergency-management-monograph-series/}, author = {Joan Young and Kirstin Couper and Benjamin Beccari} } @conference {bnh-6412, title = {Joining the dots: using social media to connect with more vulnerable Victorians during emergencies}, booktitle = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC Research Day AFAC19}, year = {2019}, month = {12/2019}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

An ongoing challenge for emergency, government, and community organisations is {\textquoteleft}how can social media (social media) be best used to connect with people who may be considered more vulnerable during an emergency event?{\textquoteright} This question has three key elements. First, when using the term vulnerable who might we be referring to? Second, how is social media being used by relevant organisations and vulnerable community members? Third, how might we better use social media to connect to the more vulnerable sections of the community? This paper reports on findings from recently completed research funded by Emergency Management Victoria. This research is unique in that it combines insights and perspectives from: interviews with emergency, government and community organisations; analysis of social media postings; and interviews and a survey of community members.

Our research noted that most organisations have developed a more nuanced perspective of the term vulnerable, one which takes account of contextual and temporal factors and recognises that all Victorians are periodically vulnerable. Interviews highlighted that organisations, community groups, and vulnerable sections of the community operate in a complex informational and social media landscape. Moreover, this landscape continues to develop with changing boundaries between actors, and organisations{\textquoteright} evolving roles. Analysis of social media highlighted that the messaging was generic, with little content aimed at vulnerable sections of the community. The research also investigated how vulnerable people used social media during emergencies. Findings included a growing expectation from community members on the use of social media by emergency and government organisations and that community members increasingly prefer to obtain information from community groups on social media.

The research provides a range of suggestions to improve effective use of social media to better meet the needs of vulnerable persons during emergencies. These included the use of communities of practice, education of social media users, development of practice guidelines, standard setting, and monitoring.

}, keywords = {communications, community, social media, Vulnerability, Warnings}, url = {https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/australian-journal-of-emergency-management-monograph-series/}, author = {Peter Hayes and Stan Karanasios and Vanessa Cooper and Marta Poblet} } @article {bnh-5677, title = {Overcoming Ambiguity: Conflict Between Emergency Warning Messages and Socio-Environmental Cues}, journal = {Prehospital and Disaster Medicine}, volume = {34}, year = {2019}, month = {05/2019}, abstract = {

Introduction:

Emergency services are not the only source of information that the public uses when considering taking action during an event. There are also environmental cues, information from the media, or actions by peers that can influence perceptions and actions. When cues from different information sources are in conflict, it can cause uncertainty about the right protective action to take.

Aim:

Our research responds to concerns that conflicting cues exacerbate community non-compliance with emergency warnings.

Methods:

The sample consisted of 2,649 participants who completed one of 32 surveys.

Results:

The findings from this project confirmed emergency services agencies{\textquoteright} suspicions that conflicting cues can affect information processing and risk perceptions, and therefore prevent people from taking appropriate protective action. The results were reasonably consistent across fire and flood scenarios, suggesting the problem of conflicting cues is not hazard-specific. When presented with consistent cues, participants were more likely to evacuate, perceive risk about the event, share information with friends, family, and peers, find emergency warnings to be effective, and comprehend information. When faced with conflicting cues, participants were more likely to seek out additional information. It affected their information processing and self-efficacy. The results did not change for people of different ages, native language, country of birth, or post-hazard experience. This is contrary to most emergency literature research findings, which show that individual differences play a role in impacting propensity to take protective action. However, there does appear to be a significant gender effect. These results require further exploration.

Discussion:

These findings may be used to assist emergency services agencies to tailor community warnings during time-critical situations, and develop ways to mitigate ambiguity caused by conflicting cues to encourage protective action in order to save lives and properties.

}, keywords = {behaviours, Emergency management, risk, Risk perception, Warnings}, doi = { https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X1900061X}, url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/article/overcoming-ambiguity-conflict-between-emergency-warning-messages-and-socioenvironmental-cues/F8F82D37A8E3E526E0C6BD509EB7642F}, author = {Paula Dootson and Dominique Greer and Sophie Miller and Vivienne Tippett} } @conference {bnh-6402, title = {The physical impact of strong winds and heavy rain on residential housing: a pilot study}, booktitle = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC Research Day AFAC19}, year = {2019}, month = {12/2019}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Research in the social science area have pointed out that "traditional" hazard-based forecasts and warnings may not be well understood so that mitigating actions for the protection of life and property are not taken (Demuth et al. 2012). The extension of a hazard forecast towards the description of impacts on the forecast recipient might effect a more suitable mitigating response and has led to an emerging and growing desire among National Hydrological and Meteorological Services for impact-based forecasts and warnings (Harrowsmith 2015; World Meteorological Organization 2015).

A number of major weather services (e.g. UK Met Office, Bureau of Meteorology) have therefore introduced impact-based services in recognition of the above findings. Since 2011 the UK Met Office has issued impact-based warnings where the warning level is derived from a risk matrix in a partly subjective procedure (Met Office 2018). In a related manner, the Extreme Weather Desk at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has recently developed the Community Hazard Risk Outlook. Forecasters subjectively rate the expected impact level of a model-predicted hazard on a range of assets from which an aggregated impact level is calculated. Combined with a subjective likelihood assessment the UK Met Office risk matrix concept is again utilised to derive an overall hazard risk.

In addition to subjective or partly subjective impact specifications, the factors influential in the final likelihood, location or magnitude of an impact can be delivered as layers, which leaves their integration to the user. An example of such a system is the Global Hazard Map, also produced by the UK Met Office (Robbins and Titley 2018).

}, keywords = {assessment, Forecasting, impact-based, likelihood, mitigation, Warnings}, url = {Research in the social science area have pointed out that "traditional" hazard-based forecasts and warnings may not be well understood so that mitigating actions for the protection of life and property are not taken (Demuth et al. 2012). The extension of }, author = {Harald Richter and Craig Arthur and Martin Wehner and David Wilke and Mark Dunford and Beth Ebert} } @article {bnh-5438, title = {Towards Protective Action: Effective Risk and Warning Communication during Natural Hazards Annual Report 2017-2018}, number = {467}, year = {2019}, month = {03/2019}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {
This project plan draws on three years of interdisciplinary research and end-userengagement that derived evidence-based insights into risk and warning\ communication during the response and early recovery phases of natural\ hazards. The research (both completed and in-progress) examines existing and\ modified communication to community members and business owners\ that maybe affected by natural hazards. Our research findings have been shared with\ end-users through AFAC Committees, invited presentations, private meetings,\ conferences,\ workshops\ and translated into practice via audits of agency\ messages.\ The original BNHCRC project (2013-2017) focused on\ the pre-decisional\ processes of community members and business owners, particularly their\ exposure to, attention to, and comprehension of emergency warning messages\ in the response and early recovery phase of multiple hazards. This project (2017-2020) builds on that knowledge and focuses on how the inputs into the pre-decisional process\ {\textemdash}\ environmental cues, social cues, information sources,\ channel access and preference, warning messages and receiver\ characteristics\ {\textemdash}\ inform protective action during the response and early recovery\ phases of natural hazards.
}, keywords = {communications, Multi-hazard, Natural hazards, Warnings}, author = {Vivienne Tippett and Lisa Bradley and Paula Dootson and Dominique Greer and Amisha Mehta and Sophie Miller} } @article {BF-4274, title = {Environmental circumstances surrounding bushfire fatalities in Australia 1901{\textendash}2011}, journal = {Environmental Science \& Policy}, year = {2013}, month = {11/2013}, pages = {1-12}, chapter = {1}, abstract = {This paper describes the development and analysis of a dataset covering bushfire related life loss in Australia over the past 110 years (1901{\textendash}2011). Over this time period 260 bushfires have been associated with a total of 825 known civilian and firefighter fatalities. This database was developed to provide an evidence base from which an Australian national fire danger rating system can be developed and has benefits in formalising our understanding of community exposure to bushfire. The database includes detail of the spatial, temporal and localised context in which the fatalities occurred. This paper presents the analysis of 674 civilian fatalities. The analysis has focused on characterising the relationship between fatal exposure location, weather conditions (wind speed, temperature, relative humidity and drought indices), proximity to fuel, activities and decision making leading up to the death. The analysis demonstrates that civilian fatalities were dominated by several iconic bushfires that have occurred under very severe weather conditions. The fatalities from Australia{\textquoteright}s 10 worst bushfire days accounted for 64\% of all civilian fatalities. Over 50\% of all fatalities occurred on days where the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) exceeded 100 (the current threshold for declaring a day as {\textquoteleft}catastrophic{\textquoteright}) proximal to the fatality. The dominant location category was open air representing 58\% of all fatalities followed by 28\% in structures, and 8\% in vehicles (6\% are unknown). For bushfires occurring under weather conditions exceeding an FFDI value of 100, fatalities within structures represented over 60\% of all fatalities. These were associated with people dying while attempting to shelter mainly in their place of residence. Of the fatalities that occurred inside a structure in a location that was specifically known, 41\% occurred in rooms with reduced visibility to the outside conditions. Over 78\% of all fatalities occurred within 30 m of the forest.}, keywords = {Fatalities, Policy, Warnings, Wildfire, WUI}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2013.09.013}, url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901113002074}, author = {Blanchi, Raphaele and Justin Leonard and Katharine Haynes and Kimberley Opie and Melissa James and Felipe Dimer de Oliveira} }