Building resilience to disaster damage

How can we substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services? This was the focus of a Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC public forum last week in Brisbane to mark the International Day for Disaster Reduction.

The Hon Craig Crawford, Queensland Minister for Fire and Emergency Services, thinks research can provide the answer.

"What we need is research. Research gives us the direction we need to go,” he said when opening the forum with the theme of ‘Build to Last’.

The Minister said that the challenge to building resilient infrastructure is the incredible demands on state and federal budgets that impact on building infrastructure that will last.

“You talk to any regional mayors, and they will tell you the story of every single year: the same section of road washes out, and we spend $1 million to replace it. Why can’t we spend $5 million and just build it properly?” he said.

The forum had more than 50 people come together to hear a discussion among an expert panel explore exactly that: what needs to be done today to reduce the damage tomorrow to critical infrastructure and essential services during natural hazards?

The panel looked at how their work is helping build disaster resilient communities across Australia, and included expert practitioners and researchers.

Panellist and then Manager of Disaster Coordination for the Lockyer Valley Regional Council Peter Hillcoat said it is important to know what people consider as critical infrastructure.

“For a home owner of course it’s their home, for a business owner it’s their business premises… from a local government point of view we also need to consider ourselves as critical infrastructure, especially during a disaster event,” Mr Hillcoat said.

Inspector-General Emergency Management Queensland Alistair Dawson noted during the forum that considering critical infrastructure for the future can help plan the present.

“Part of the forward-looking thing is what do we actually need to cover going forward because that actually helps where we go,” said Mr Dawson.

Panellist and CRC researcher Celeste Young from Victoria University stressed on the point of risk understanding regarding critical infrastructure.

“It’s a risk they don’t understand and don’t know most people because they’ve outsourced it.

“You have to teach them how to respect it rather than be afraid of it and that’s a big exercise because that means they’ve got to understand how their critical infrastructure affects them and what that might mean to them.”

Director at Queensland Fire and Emergency Services John Rolfe, Director of Engagement and Technical Services Kieran Dibb and Craig Carpenter from Queensland Department of Public Works and Housing made up the rest of the panel, with each commenting on the importance of critical infrastructure.

The forum was hosted by the CRC at the Queensland University of Technology, with support from the Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience.

Highlights from 2019

The full audio from the forum is available at soundcloud here.

The day is an initiative of the United Nations and is backed by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the International Council for Science and the International Social Science Council. The CRC hosts the Australian National Committee for the ISDR. Visit the UNDRR site to learn more about the International Day for Disaster Reduction.