Published works

Measuring and understanding the impacts of natural hazards in terms of the toll of human life and building damage is a fundamental first step to enabling efficient and strategic risk reduction. By taking a scientific approach to the collection and analysis of accurate information and intelligence, governments, agencies and the wider community are better positioned to reduce disaster risks.

Specifically, the project will provide a longitudinal analysis of the social and environmental circumstances that led to fatalities in order to examine trends over time in terms of exposure and vulnerability.  These trends will also be interpreted in the context of emerging issues (e.g. ageing population and population shifts, building codes etc), and how these issues might influence vulnerability and exposure trends in the future.  The project will also provide an analysis of building damage by hazard and state/territory due to natural hazards. The timeframe for both fatalities and building damage will be from 1900 to the present.

The outcomes of this project will inform a wide-range of emergency management and government end users to advise on and update policy, practice and resource allocation.