Research that makes policy recommendations or provides data for decision makers is one voice in the cacophony of noise and information that has an actual influence on policy.
While some Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC research has produced tangible useable items where impact and uptake are more straightforward, research utilisation in this theme of Policy, Political Engagement and Influence can be less tangible and, therefore, difficult to measure for success.
Many researchers and emergency managers may agree on priorities and outputs of research, but the decision to use this research is made by governments, ministers or appointed commissioners who create policy.
Policy affecting emergency management is made across a broad range of portfolios, from planning and land use, to building standards, infrastructure, transport, communications, justice and more. Research findings, although important, are only one consideration.
Online tools
These online tools were developed with CRC research and are designed to be ready for use. The tools here have been curated for this Driving Change theme. See more tools in the other themes.
AUSTRALIAN DISASTER RESILIENCE INDEX
The Australian Disaster Resilience Index is a support tool developed by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC in partnership with the University of New England. The website was developed specifically to help communities, government and emergency services take informed and practical steps to improve the disaster resilience of their local communities before, during and after natural hazards.
The Index is an industry-first assessment of the state of disaster resilience across Australia, and provides a clear pathway to improve decision making about planning, development, policy, engagement and risk assessment.
The Index measures overall disaster resilience, as well as coping capacity and adaptive capacity, of each statistical area (SA2) in Australia. It also proposes five disaster resilience profiles in Australia – nationwide collections of communities that share similar resilience strengths and constraints. This provides users with an opportunity to address the resilience of a specific area, form alliances with organisations in similar areas, and develop targeted improvements for their communities.
INQUIRIES AND REVIEWS DATABASE
Search through 315 emergency management inquiries and reviews from across Australia between 1886 and 2020.
The data can be sorted via disaster and inquiry type, date and jurisdiction using a simple table display. For more in-depth analysis, CSV files can be downloaded allowing you to run local queries and reports. The database also contains the full recommendations from 186 inquiries and reviews between 2003 and 2020. A facetted exploration interface enables a filter-search of 4,194 recommendations, allowing effective search and comparison through keywords and themes.
This database can be used for a variety of purposes including:
- To compare equivalent recommendations between inquiries, themes and jurisdictions
- To track inquiries across jurisdiction, year and types
- To download and work with all inquiries and listed recommendations for the particular needs of your organisation
Case studies
CRC research is driving change across communities, government and emergency service agencies, as highlighted by the case studies relevant to each Driving Change theme.
Highlights
This collection is a curation of the best and most recent news articles, Hazard Notes, videos, posters, guides, journal articles and reports relevant to this theme.
News
Resources
Publications
Projects
This selection of user-driven projects allows you to explore the detail of the research. These projects, spanning the eight years of the CRC, are especially relevant to this theme, but may appear within other themes as well.
