Project news – Policies, institutions and governance of natural hazards

As this year is winding down and the weather continues to keep the emergency services busy, we would like to update you on what’s been happening with the project.

Theme 1: What is ‘community’ and how can governments share responsibility with communities as well as individuals?

The work in this theme has progressed through the year and the paper written by Anna Lukasiewicz, Steve Dovers and Michael Eburn delving into what constitutes a community from a disaster management perspective, has been submitted to Environmental Hazards, reviewed and re-submitted. Anna Lukasiewicz has also expanded the scope of this theme to look at the theory and implications of disaster justice, with a paper in preparation.

Congratulations to Caroline Wenger who submitted her thesis on the 30th September, one of the first of the CRC PhD student’s to do so. Caroline’s thesis Flood management in a changing climate: integrating effective approaches investigated flood approaches in Australia and overseas to determine adaptive approaches and the potential transfer of adaptive approaches to Australia. It also investigated institutional barriers and appraisal of resilience policies.

Theme 2: How can insurers play a more active role in communicating risk and encouraging hazard mitigation?

This theme has broadened and is being approached on multiple fronts, including analysing the roles of business and planning. Sue Hunt is finalising a paper ‘How can business share responsibility for disaster resilience?’ along with Michael Eburn, which will be submitted to the Australian Journal of Public Administration. Stephen Dovers is continuing to be active in this theme by linking emergency management and the planning together, and is a co-author of a chapter on disaster risk reduction in a forthcoming Australian handbook of urban and regional planning. Work also continues on the ‘Perverse Incentives in Disaster Insurance Policy: Propagating Mitigation' paper, which will be submitted to the International Journal of Wildland Fire.

Theme 3 – Is there a better process or institution for effective lesson sharing after natural hazard events?

After much thought, consideration and hard work, Michael Eburn and Stephen Dovers have completed a discussion paper in this theme “Learning for emergency services, looking for a new approach,” which was sent to all end-users at the end of October. Find the discussion paper here. It identifies restorative justice as a concept that could assist in developing enquiries that would assist all the parties to come together to resolve collectively how to deal with the aftermath of the disaster and deal with its implications for the future. Comments on the paper are requested by the end of December, to be sent to michael.eburn@anu.edu.au.

Publications

As there is a lot of work in the pipeline, here’s a summary of the various papers and book chapters that our team members are currently working on, which are relevant to or directly rise out of this project.

Published:

Eburn, M. (2016) ‘The International Law of Wildfires’ in Susan C. Breau and Katja L.H. Samuel (eds), Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law, Edward Elgar.

McDonald, F., Eburn, M. & Smith, E. (2016). ‘Legal and Ethical Aspects of Disaster Management’ in Gerry FitzGerald, Mike Tarrant, Peter Aitken and Marie Fredriksen (eds), Disaster Health Management: A Primer for Students and Practitioners, Routledge.

Released for Discussion:

Eburn, M. & Dovers, S. 2016 Discussion paper: Learning for emergency services, looking for a new approach. Discussion Paper, report no. 223.2016, Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC.

Forthcoming

March, A. and Dovers, S. (forthcoming). Mainstreaming urban planning for disaster risk reduction. In: Vella, K. and Sipe, N. (eds). Australian handbook of urban and regional planning. Taylor & Francis.

Under Review:

Lukasiewicz, A., Dovers, S. & Eburn, M. “Shared responsibility: the who, what and how” Submitted to Environmental Hazards.

Wenger, C. “The oak or the reed: how resilience theories are translated into disaster management policies” Submitted to Ecology and Society.

Wenger C. (Submitted for examination) “Flood management in a changing climate: integrating effective approaches” (Doctor of Philosophy), Australian National University, Canberra, ACT.

In Preparation

Hunt, S. and Eburn, M. “How can business share responsibility for disaster resilience” To be submitted to Australian Journal of Public Administration.

Lukasiewicz, A., Dovers, S. & Eburn, M. “Disaster Justice: An Emerging Imperative” To be submitted to International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.

Hussey, K, Dovers, S & Eburn, M. “Perverse Incentives in Disaster Insurance Policy: Propagating Mitigation” To be submitted to the International Journal of Wildland Fire.