Important research insights

On 11-12 May, representatives from many emergency management agencies, including South Australian agencies DEWNR, CFS, MFS and SAFECOM, attended the CRC Research Advisory Forum, or ‘RAF’ as they are known. 

Despite being held in chilly Hobart, this RAF recorded the largest number of attendees, with over 130 researchers and end-users in attendance. 

The presentations focused on the themes of policy, economics, decision making and community resilience. The full list of projects and the presentations are available here.

Some of the insights that stood out for me included:

• historically, young men under 29 are the most likely to die in floodwaters, according to research from Macquarie University
• average annual benefits of mitigation in the Brown Hill and Keswick Creeks increased by over 250% when intangible and non-market values are included in the economic assessment, according to estimates from the University of Western Australia
• economic diversity of regions can be a useful way of estimating resilience to natural disasters, according to Victoria University
• there are a large number of social risks from disasters that are identified but ‘unowned’ and an imbalance between public and private risk ownership, according to workshops with end-users held by Victoria University
• the simulations of future hazard scenarios for Adelaide provide interesting insights into exposure and mitigation for earthquakes, fires, floods and coastal inundation, according the University of Adelaide
• the average income of communities directly affected by the Brisbane River floods of 2010/2011 actually INCREASED on average after the floods occurred, according to economic sector analysis by Deakin University. 

These are a small selection of insights that also covered such matters as

• the retention of volunteers
• calculating a Disaster Resilience Index
• community warnings
• monitoring incident management team effectiveness in times of crisis   

I would encourage anyone with an interest in the future of emergency management to look at the presentations and research project materials here on the website and contact the research leaders of these projects if you have any questions or wish to be involved as an end-user.