Australian Exposure Information Platform (AEIP): uncovering national exposure

The Australian Exposure Information Platform (AEIP) was built on the CRC-funded Natural Hazard Exposure Information Modelling Framework and developed in partnership with Geoscience Australia. It uses inputs from Geoscience Australia’s National Exposure Information System (NEXIS). Its focus is to provide nationally consistent exposure information for emergency management by supplying key stakeholders with direct access to the information they need at the onset of a crisis through a web platform. The platform allows anyone to generate a report for any area of Australia at any time – before, during and after a hazard event has occurred.

The AEIP includes a complex model of how various assets are vulnerable to a number of hazards. The AEIP displays impacts on people, buildings, infrastructure, businesses, hazardous substances, agriculture and environmental assets, resulting from critical infrastructure failures, natural or human-induced hazards. For example, built environment exposure considers usage type, structural system, number of stories, size, age, etc. Business and economics exposure considers the type of business, assets and activities to assess the level of business continuity, disruption and recovery that might occur.

Users are able to rapidly gain a holistic understanding of what is exposed and at risk within an area. End users enjoy the sense of empowerment through the AEIP - they can select the area of interest, the type of exposure data themes they require as well as other contextual information. The resulting report is generated automatically and delivered by email.

Geoscience Australia and research teams from the University of Canberra and the University of Melbourne collaborated to develop the AEIP. The software has extensive support from end users who are involved in emergency management, risk assessment, impact analysis research and disaster management. These are stakeholders that are required to understand how severe a natural disaster might become and the associated exposure risks. These organisations include the Crisis Coordination Centre of Emergency Management Australia, the insurance sector and several Australian, state and local government agencies, industries and universities.

Previously, users faced delays while Geoscience Australia manually assembled exposure reports during emergencies. AEIP has sped up the process considerably by enabling users to quickly and easily create customised exposure reports. Organisations have access to on-the-fly scenario event assessments by either completing a simple form through AEIP's web mapping application or by connecting their applications directly via the API.

The beta version of AEIP was released in August 2018 and was intended to roll out during the 2018-19 fire season. That season produced more than 1500 exposure reports by more than 200 users. Improvements were made based on feedback.

The platform was in demand during the Queensland flooding in December 2018 when 400 exposure reports were created in one week by government agencies. This assisted organisations with rapid and smarter decision-making, which saw a reduction in the loss of life and economic damage.

During Cyclone Veronica (March 2019), agencies were able to use the platform to understand exposures in the Pilbara in Western Australia that were under threat. The platform determined the vulnerabilities of structures and the population to tropical cyclones such as Veronica and other hazards. The Community Preparedness Branch within the WA Government used AEIP to identify vulnerable communities and to tailor community engagement based on demographic information.

During the 2019/20 bushfire season, the number of exposure reports produced from the AEIP was in excess of 14,500 by more than 200 individual users from more than 90 organisations (August 2019 to March 2020). Users such as NSW Rural Fire Service have integrated the API with their own applications and are producing thousands of valuable reports each month, with particularly high use during the 2019/20 bushfire season.

Western Power, a WA-based energy provider, has been regular user of the platform with more than 700,000 reports recently created.

AEIP map showing areas of interest for end-users. Source: AEIP.

The figure above represents the aggregated use of AEIP web mapping between December 2019 and March 2020. The lines on this map show the areas that exposure reports were generated for. Exposure reports were generated for both small and large areas, covering all states and territories. Dark-blue areas show multiple AEIP queries, correlating with extreme weather events, for example the 2019/20 bushfires.

During a crisis, when demand for information to inform decisions is extremely high, the AEIP is at its most valuable. By speeding up the delivery of vital exposure information in an automated format, its nationally consistent and accessible approach to data ensures that information and decision making across jurisdictional borders can be done in a way that is comparable and quantifiable.

You can access the AEIP here.