About
Dr Josh Whittaker
Josh is a geographer specialising in research on the vulnerability of human communities to bushfire (wildfire) and other natural hazards. He was a Research Fellow at the University of Wollongong's Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires from 2016 until February 2021, and is now the Coordinator Community Engagement at the NSW Rural Fire Service. Josh has considerable experience collaborating with social and physical scientists and industry end-users to produce research that influences policy and practice. Specific research interests include:
- Innovative methods of vulnerability assessment
- Factors influencing hazard exposure and capacities to respond (short and long term)
- Cost-benefit analysis of risk reduction
- Location decisions after disaster (why people stay, why people leave, why newcomers move to disaster affected places)
- Discourse analysis as a method for understanding environmental issues and problems
Blog posts on Views & Visions
| Post | Date | Key Topics |
|---|---|---|
| Learning the media game | 19 Mar 2019 | emergency management, fire, fire impacts |
| Engaging the masses, how we try and do it | 14 May 2015 | communication, non-traditional recruitment, volunteering |
Project leadership
This project was commissioned and funded entirely by the NSW Rural Fire Service.
This project was commissioned and funded entirely by the NSW Rural Fire Service.
This project was commissioned by the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Supervisory roles
| Project | Student |
|---|---|
| Volunteered geographic information, community engagement and bushfire preparation | bhaworth |
| Household decision making in bushfire self evacuation | kstrahan |
Research team
| Type | Project | Research team |
|---|---|---|
| CRC Core Project | Out of uniform: building community resilience through non-traditional emergency volunteering | jwhittaker, bmclennan, tkruger |
30 Jun 2017
Adoption of location-based information sharing technologies and the emergence of digital...
30 Jun 2017
A risk-benefit framework has been designed to assist decision-makers in emergency management...
12 Aug 2016
Citizen participation is a key principle of disaster risk reduction and resilience building.
12 Aug 2016
Involving communities is a prerequisite to sustainable disaster risk reduction.
18 Aug 2015
Be Ready Warrandyte (BRW) was an award-winning, community-led bushfire preparedness project...
18 Aug 2015
The public is usually first on the scene in an emergency or disaster and remain long after official...
25 Aug 2014
This research explores the potential role of VGI for fostering community engagement in bushfire...
25 Aug 2014
Citizens may play vital roles in helping those affected to respond and recover, and can provide...
