2014 New Zealand annual conference
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The largest and most important emergency services and public safety conference and trade exhibition for Australasia in 2014 was in Wellington, New Zealand, 2-5 September at Shed 6 and TSB Bank Arena.
The Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC joined forces with AFAC to host the AFAC14 conference addressing the theme After Disaster Strikes, Learning from Adversity.
The conference week began on Tuesday 2 September with the sold-out Research Forum. This day was dedicated to presentations and discussion on the latest scientific projects for bushfire and natural hazards.
Audio of all the Research Forum presentations is available under the Audio Presentations tab below, while all speaker slides are available from the Resources tab.
You can also watch in its entirety the final keynote of the day by BNHCRC Project Leader Professor David Johnson of Massey University below. Prof Johnson explored research that investigated causes of injury from the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand.
Visit www.afac.com.au/conference to access resources from days 2 and 3 of the conference, including videos of keynotes from Tom Harbour (US Forest Service), Vaughan Poutawera (Grace Orthopaedic Centre) and Dr Deen Sanders (Professional Standards Council).
Venue
Related
| Year | Type | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Conference Paper | A Pre-Disaster Multi-Hazard Damage and Economic Loss Estimation Model Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | NSW RFS Bush Fire Household Assessment Tool Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Disruption of critical infrastructure during prolonged natural disasters Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, 2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Challenges of Measuring Emergency Management Performance Under Adversity: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Integrated Disaster Decision Support System Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | The Effect of Hazard Reduction Burning on the Fuel Array in Nature Reserves and Urban Parks in the Australian Capital Territory Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Building Community Resilience to Natural Hazards in Northern Australia Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, 2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Urban Search and Rescue Operations in Tropical Climates Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | The Heatwaves of the 2013/14 Australian Summer Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Promoting Child Resilience to Disasters: Policy, Practice, Research Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Building Community Resilience Through Informal Emergency Volunteering Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Modelling the Fire Weather of the Coonabarabran Fire of 13 January 2013. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Managing Critical Infrastructure in a Changing Climate: Risk, Roles, Responsibilities and Politics Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Learning from Adversity: What Has 75 Years of Bushfire Inquiries Taught Us? Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Social Media, Crisis Communication and Community-led Response and Recovery: An Australian Case Study Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Managing Severe Weather - Progress and Opportunities Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Research Forum 2014: proceedings of the Research Forum at the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC & AFAC conference. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, 2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | The Effects of Fire-Plume Dynamics on the Lateral and Longitudinal Spread of Long-Range Spotting Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Mitigating the Effects of Severe Fires, Floods and Heatwaves Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Improving the Resilience of Existing Housing to Severe Wind Events Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Experiences of responders in supporting animals and their owners in disasters Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Threshold Behaviour in Dynamic Fire Propagation Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Discovering Future Disaster Management Capability Needs Using Scenario Planning Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, 2015). |
| 2015 | Conference Paper | Estimating the Impacts of Natural Hazards on Fatalities and Building Losses Conference Paper 2014. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Wellington Conference 2014 (2015). |
Two common fireground stressors include: physical work (12-15h shifts), and sleep restriction (4h sleep between shifts).
Australia has experienced a number of natural disasters throughout history that have significantly impacted upon the economy.
There is increasing pressure on agencies from larger-scale natural hazards, financial constraints and declining volunteer numbers.
To identify potential new candidate Fire Weather Indices (FWIs) for a New Fire Danger Ratings System.
Effective communication is key to minimising human-caused fires and hence impact wildfires hold for New Zealand communities.
In the face of an increase in the frequency and severity of emergency events, various individual, organisational, social and economic forces are impacting on the capacity to quickly mobilise a skilled volunteer workforce.
Phase models are a common way to frame decision making in emergency management.
This project will improve Australia’s ability to manage extreme events by developing a state of the art, world’s best practice in soil moisture analysis.
The quality of volunteer leadership is an important factor in attracting and keeping volunteers.
The primary objective of this research is to develop cost-effective strategies to mitigate damage, injury and business disruption associated with the most vulnerable buildings in Australian business districts to earthquakes.
Accurate, timely and precise Forecast precipitation is the “holy grail” of flood forecasting; this project aims to use observation constrained hydrologic models to estimate precipitation.
This research explores the potential role of VGI for fostering community engagement in bushfire preparation and building individual empowerment and disaster resilience in Tasmania.
Typically, older houses do not offer the same level of performance and protection during windstorms as houses constructed to contemporary building standards.
This project focuses on how a better understanding of the role of science in decision-making will help industry articulate and defend decisions to the community, media, inquiries and elsewhere, and, better frame information and advice on how scientists and professionals communicate.
This project aims to investigate the wellbeing of Australian urban and regional firefighters as well as the individual operational and organisational factors that contribute to wellbeing.
The main objective of this research is to develop cost-effective strategies to mitigate damage to residential buildings from riverine floods.
The moisture content of dead fuels has a large impact on fire risk and behaviour.
This research will identify legal, policy and governance barriers to more active community (including the business community) involvement in emergency management. The research will identify solutions whether in reform of policy and governance structures and processes or how they are applied in practice.
Resilient communities will be better able to anticipate hazards, withstand adversity, reduce losses and adapt and learn in a changing environment.
Road networks and critical road structures such as bridges, culverts and flood ways have a vital role before, during and after extreme events to reduce the vulnerability of the community being served.
Over the last few decades bushfire threat has expanded as a result of increased peri-urban and rural development.
Flooding is Australia's most expensive natural hazard and record damages resulting from the 2010-11 floods reflect global trends. Climate change scenarios predict that flood intensity and frequency will increase, potentially exposing Australia to even greater damages in the future. Floods are therefore a key area for improving adaptive capacity.
Scoping community resilience through participatory action research (PAR) in Northern territory remote aboriginal communities.
Exposure is referred to as the elements at risk within a given area that have been, or could be, subject to the impact of natural hazards.
This poster will serve to summarise four of the key modelling approaches used.
This research will investigate the effectiveness of the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience (NSDR) as a public policy instrument for advancing community disaster resilience from two related perspectives.
The aims of this research project are to establish an evidence-base for a effective, school-based bushfire education programs with children.
Coastal communities in Australia are particularly exposed to disasters resulting from the coincidence of severe wind damage, storm surge, coastal flooding and shoreline erosion during cyclones and extra-tropical storms.
The principal outcome of the Smoke Emission and Smoke Transport project will be a prototype forecast modelling framework optimised for Victoria and using state-of-the-art modelling systems informed by local observational data which characterises the fuel loads, fire behaviour and emission characteristics of planned and un-planned fires.
A paper analysing the historical impacts of extreme heatwaves in Australia has been one of the first outputs of a project to measure and understand the impacts of natural hazards in terms of human health and building damage.
Children represent the most vulnerable demographic group in disasters.
The occurrence of extreme water levels can lead to loss of life and damage to coastal infrastructure.
The Foothills Fire and Biota project aims to enhance understanding of the relationships between fire and biodiversity in the foothills forests to inform fire management.
Realistic disaster scenarios help us better understand disasters.
There remains an assumption that children and young people are passive victims with no role to play in communicating risks or participating in risk reduction strategies.
Optimising fuel reduction burning at the landscape- or catchment-scale requires knowledge of the effects of fire size on key variables – Fuel load, Vegetation and Carbon and Water cycles.
High-resolution numerical modelling is used to explore how the dynamics of bushfire plumes under different wind conditions can modify: (1) The distance travelled by firebrands, and (2) The spread in landing positions of firebrands.
The project aims to qualify and quantify the impacts of prolonged and multi-hazard natural hazard events on utility, transport and/or communication networks; and to also understand the interconnectedness of these critical services.
Communication and education of risk mitigation strategies play an essential role in building and maintaining resilience through preparation and planning by residents. However, little is known about the relative effectiveness of existing hazard communications and education strategies.
This project builds upon substantial work previously undertaken within the facility of the Bushfire CRC “North Australia fire mapping” project.
PHOENIX Rapidfire is fire spread modelling software that uses a variety of different inputs to predict bushfire spread. As with all models, there is uncertainty associated with the output.
At the core of innovation is people, how they communicate, the decisions they make and the values that shape this.
To examine evidence-based strategies that motivate appropriate action and increase informed decision-making during the response and recovery phases of disasters.
Bushfires occur on a scale that may be measured in kilometers. However, a challenge faced in developing next generation bushfire models is to capture the significant contributions that small scale phenomena make to the propagation of bushfires.
This research specifically investigated strategic level multi-agency coordination arrangements.
The development of decision support tools to assist with the management of wildfires is an active field
Modelling, simulation and decision support systems are critical for decision making for natural disaster mitigation.
The Managing Animals in Disasters project (MAiD) is seeking to identify and build best practice approaches to animal welfare emergency management to enable engagement with animal owners and other stakeholders in disasters/emergencies.
This project seeks to (1) optimize the use of earth observing systems for active fire monitoring by exploring issues of scale, accuracy and reliability, and (2) to improve the mapping and estimation of post-fire severity and fuel change through empirical remote sensing observations.
We are developing a decision support system for the assessment of policy and planning investment options for optimal natural hazard mitigation.
Social media plays an increasing role as a tool for: information dissemination, situational awareness and co-ordinating community action.
Using thermal and mid infrared measurements, this PhD aims to accurately map the area, temperature and configuration of active firs across Australia to support enhanced Surveillance and mapping of wildfires and prescribed burns.
Firefighters commonly perform their fire-suppression duties in hot environmental temperatures.
Risk mitigation requires understanding the impact of land use Planning and Management on hazard exposure and vulnerability.
Citizens may play vital roles in helping those affected to respond and recover, and can provide invaluable assistance to official agencies.
Little accurate and timely spatial information is currently available on bushfire hazard and impacts.
During bushfire suppression, Australian firefighters can be deployed to work long consecutive shifts, obtaining an averageof 3-4 hours of sleep per night.
The project tackles a range of economics issues, including estimation of non-financial benefits from hazard reduction, risk analysis, and development of decision making frameworks that would help deliver value for money from public investments in natural hazard management.
Understanding future capability needs for response and recovery agencies and allied government agencies, with standing in the oversight of emergency and disaster response, are relatively un-addressed or where the relevant issues have been examined, remain incomplete.
To improve our understanding of and ability to predict severe weather, including for bush fires, tropical cyclones, severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall, through the use of high-resolution modelling in conjunction with available observations.
To measure and understand the impacts of natural hazards in terms of the toll on human life and injuries, and building losses and damage, in order to provide an evidence base for emergency management policy and practise
Matt Brearley of the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre outlines the physiological burdens of sustained Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) operations in tropical conditions.
Dr Christine Owen (University of Tasmania) and Dr Chris Bearman (CQUniversity) present research on measuring emergency management operational performance.
Paul Barnes (QUT) looks at future capability needs of disaster management and explored the challenges to anticipating the needs of agencies before, during and after phases of complex emergency disaster situations using capability deficit assessments and scenario planning.
Associate Professor Rory Nathan from the University of Melbourne discusses lessons for how we estimate flood risk, manage and communicate the risk and in how we accommodate uncertainty.
Prof Kathleen Tierney (US Natural Hazards Centre) discusses what resilience looks like in the aftermath of disaster and what patterns researchers consider to be indicative of adaptive resilience.
Severe weather often becomes high impact weather when certain tipping points are reached. Managing the impacts of severe weather is about managing risk, says the Bureau of Meteorology's Jeff Kepert.
John Nairn of the Bureau of Meteorology documents the heatwaves of the 2013/14 summer and described how well they were forecast by the Bureau's heatwave forecasting service.
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