New online - July 2015

New journal articles and reports on CRC research are now available online.

CRC research has appeared in The Australian Journal of Emergency Management recently. A paper examining the effectiveness of the current combination of warnings, education and road signage to stop motorists entering floodwater has been published by the Analysis of building losses and human fatalities from natural disasters team. A survey was carried out in August 2015 during flooding in the Shoalhaven region of NSW. The paper identified that 84% of drivers at a monitored site, notably males and four-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicles, dismissed road closure signs and drove into floodwater.

Research is helping remote northern Australia communities face natural hazards. CRC researchers from the Scoping remote north Australian community resilience study visited the Ngukurr community in the Top End and discovered the important role that local knowledge plays in community resilience.

Another article in the Australian Journal of Emergency Management also focuses on resilience, looking at the CRC's role in leading Australia's contribution to the UN's International Day for Disaster Reduction. One of the keys to increasing disaster resilience is combining traditional, local and Indigenous knowledge and practices with current science and research.

The last Australian Journal of Emergency Management  article showcases how Bushfire CRC reseach has been used to develop a visual mapping tool kit for working with residents of fire-prone areas, helping agenices to better understand people's sense of bushfire risk and connection to the landscape in which they live.

There are also three papers from CRC PhD students. Ryan Hoult has had two conference papers published, reporting on his reseach into the performance of existing reinforced concrete walls in response to rare and very rare earthquake events. Both of Ryan's papers are available for download here and here.

Tetsuya Okada has had a paper published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, reporting on recovery and resettlement following the 2011 flash flooding in Queensland's Lockyer Valley. This paper is available for download.

Lastly, a key study has examined the effect that bushfire policy and preparedness has on behaviour during an extreme bushfire. CRC researcher Prof John Handmer (RMIT University) and co-author Saffron O’Neill (the University of Exeter in the UK) have investigated the circumstances surrounding the 172 civilian fatalities which occurred during the 2009 Victorian Black Saturday bushfires, with the results available in Examining bushfire policy in action: preparedness and behaviour in the 2009 Black Saturday fires in the Environmental Science and Policy journal. You can download a free version of the paper and the supplementary materials at the link above. Three key findings emerged from the analysis.

1. Some aspects of ‘Stay or go’ appear to be supported: being well-prepared to evacuate remains the safest option in a bushfire; sheltering passively is very dangerous.
2. Successful implementation of ‘Stay or go’ depends on a multitude of factors, which can challenge even the most capable householders.
3. Events like Black Saturday challenge the ‘Stay or go’ approach, and indicate the need for a different approach on extreme fire danger days.