New journal articles and reports on CRC research are now available online.
A major report on flood fatalities from 1900-2015 has been undertaken as part of the Analysis of building losses and human fatalities from natural disasters project. The report documents the analysis of the circumstances surrounding fatalities due to flooding in Australia from 1900 to 2015. The investigation includes exploring the socio-demographic and environmental factors surrounding the deaths. Overall there have been 1,859 fatalities, with the overwhelming majority (79%) being male, while the most at risk group is men under 29 years old and children. The highest proportions of male and female fatalities occurred while victims attempted to cross a bridge, causeway, culvert, road, etc on foot or in a vehicle, while the most deaths occurred in QLD and NSW, although the deaths per capita population highlight the increased level of risk in the NT.
A number of Bushfire CRC-related journal articles have also been published recently. Examining bushfire policy in action: Preparedness and behaviour in the 2009 Black Saturday fires is a free download and examines the circumstances surrounding the 172 civilian fatalities which occurred in the 2009 Victorian Black Saturday bushfires, through the examination of a detailed fatality dataset compiled by the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. This dataset allows detailed examination of Victorian bushfire safety policy (‘Stay or go’) in action on a day of extreme fire danger: from preparedness (both before and on the day of the fire) to behaviour on the day of the fire itself.
Predicting sediment delivery from debris flows after wildfirequantifies sediment yields from post-fire debris flows in south east Australian highlands and models the effects of landscape attributes on debris flow susceptibility. Findings include that sediment yields from post-fire debris flows are 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than annual background erosion rates from undisturbed forests, while burn severity was the strongest predictor in the model, suggesting that fire regimes are an important control on sediment delivery from these forests.