Issues of safety and engagement highlighted in Journal

Community impact, engagement and resilience is a focus of the July edition of the Australian Journal of Emergency Management. CRC research on urban planning, public policy, shared responsibility, indigenous employment, data analysis are also featured in the edition.

Former CRC researchers Dr Jim McLennan, Dr Karen Reid and Prof Ruth Beilin have written a research article focusing on the idea of ‘shared responsibility’. Shared responsibility, community engagement and resilience: international perspectives details a research project that was examining aspects of shared responsibility; seven international authorities in natural hazard mitigation policy were interviewed about their understandings of hazard threats, shared responsibility and community resilience in their own countries. The aims of this study were to analyse these international views to clarify what constitutes shared responsibility as a policy to develop resilience and to better understand how it might operate effectively.

New research from the Urban planning for natural hazard mitigation project has been released as a research paper that was written by CRC researchers Constanza Gonzalez-Mathieson and Prof Alan March. The report summarises the key changes in urban planning and building regulations that were introduced in Victoria over time to minimise the effects of bushfire on settlements. These changes represent an ongoing trend towards the integration of bushfire risk reduction measures into urban planning mechanisms.

CRC researcher and former CRC PhD student Dr George Carayannopoulos from the University of Sydney believes it’s time to rethink the role of crisis management in terms of national policy agenda. Dr Carayannopoulos’ opinion piece Crisis management and public policy outlines reasons why crisis management shouldn’t just be focused on natural disasters and extreme events, but that it should also be applied to mainstream policy discussions, and that a paradigm shift is required to achieve such a result.

Dr Timothy Neale and Dr Will Smith from the Hazards, culture and Indigenous communities project explore in their article titled Indigenous people in the natural hazards management sector the suggestion that the involvement of Indigenous peoples in the management of natural hazards in these areas is increasing. Their paper examines the levels of employment of Indigenous people in southern Australia through the use of employment data. Their research has shown that most agencies do not adequately record the employment of Indigenous staff and efforts to include more Indigenous people within organisations aren’t being tracked. This means that future initiatives need to be far more supportive and effective within the sector.

The use of data within the South Australia Fire and Emergency Commission (SAFECOM) has been developed into a tool created by CRC researchers from the University of Adelaide. Divulging data: how numbers and figures are helping South Australia, an article written by CRC Communications Assistant Gabriel Zito, looks into how SAFECOM is using this new data analysis tool that is allowing the senior management from agencies such as the Metropolitan Fire Service, the Country Fire Service and the State Emergency Service to help better manage the future of the states emergency services.

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The Australian Journal of Emergency Management is published by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience in partnership with the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC.