New journal articles and reports on CRC research are now available online.
A four-part report from the Practical decision tools for improved decision-making project explores the project three main research streams: decision making, team monitoring and organisational performance, as well as an executive summary. The three research streams in the project are best treated as interrelated but distinct bodies of work, and for ease, have been published as separate documents. Download part one: executive summary, part two: decision making, part three: team performance modelling and part four: organisational performance. While the research streams have been presented individually, there is a large degree of interrelation between the streams, particularly between the team monitoring and organisational performance streams, and both are informed by the decision-making aspect.
The economic loss modelling of earthquake damage has been analysed in a report by the Cost-effective mitigation strategy development for building related earthquake risk project. Models that are capable of predicting potential economic loss in future earthquakes are fundamental in the formulation of risk mitigation and retrofitting strategies. The report presents a review of the existing techniques and methodologies that have been developed for the earthquake damage loss modelling of buildings. By developing an improved regional benefit-cost analysis methodology that analyses varying levels of retrofit by means of fragility curve-generated damage state probabilities, it is possible to demonstrate that the broad-scale economic benefits to the community outweigh the initial cost of a regional retrofit program.
The Australian natural disaster resilience index project has published a report that sets out the framework for the Index. The framework outlines the conceptual underpinnings of the approach, then explains what the team will assess about resilience using data aligned to their resilience philosophy. The report also briefly explains how the team intends to measure these data and the indicators that they will collect to form the Index.
How to predict continental shelf waves in Australia has been examined by the Developing better predictions for extreme water levels project. While storm surges caused by tropical cyclones are well known to pose a risk for coastal communities, a lesser-known effect of cyclones that make landfall is the generation of coastally trapped waves that can propagate along the coast and influence water levels thousands of kilometres away. This study investigated the generation and propagation characteristics of continental shelf waves in Western Australia, a hotspot of continental shelf wave activity in Australia. Results demonstrate how a cyclone's path, speed and strength influence the generation of continental shelf waves and through this, improves the ability to predict the influence of continental shelf waves on extreme water levels along the Australian coast. The report recommends that design criteria, modelling studies and inundation risk assessments for coastal regions in Western Australia need to consider the effects of continental shelf waves.
Also looking at cyclones is a report from the Using realistic scenario analysis to understand natural hazard impacts and emergency management requirements project. The report is the first in a series of tropical cyclone scenarios that the project will develop, and describes a category four cyclone that passes by south east Queensland, detailing the resulting impacts to buildings and their occupants. To this point only wind related impacts have been modelled, with inundation related hazard and impacts to be included in subsequent scenario simulations. Once these advanced modelling capabilities become available, this scenario will be revisited and additional impacts will be assessed.
PhD student Billy Haworth has had a paper published in Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. Billy discusses the opportunities, challenges and changes needed for volunteered geographic infomation (VGI) for emergency management after interviewing 13 key emergency managers. Perceived opportunities presented by VGI included improved communication, acquisition of diverse local information, and increased community engagement in disaster management. Identified challenges included the digital divide, data management, misinformation, and liability concerns. Significantly, VGI disrupts the traditional top-down structure of emergency management and reflects a culture shift away from authoritative control of information. To capitalise on the opportunities of VGI, agencies need to share responsibility and be willing to remain flexible in supporting positive community practises, including VGI. Analysis suggests changes to traditional systems that involve decentralisation of power and increased empowerment of citizens, where value is increasingly recognised in both expert and citizen-produced information, initiatives and practises.