Pre-Disaster Multihazard Damage and Economic Loss Estimation Model

Overview

Disaster management in Australia is complex and multifaceted. The impacts of these large scale events ripple through the community affecting a range of stakeholders and sectors, particularly the economy. As such, understanding the overall short term and long term economic impacts of these disasters, and the specific sectors that are both positively and negatively affected by these events is crucial to improving disaster planning and response and strengthening community resilience. This project investigates these issues within the context of the 2010-2011 Queensland Floods as a case study.

The study had three key objectives which the research and investigation were focused around:

• Estimating the effects of the Queensland Floods on the income of individuals by sector, including the identification of economic sectors which are (a) vulnerable to the floods, (b) beneficiaries of the floods, and (c) unlikely to be affected by the floods;
• Developing a ranked list of the economic sectors that seek more attention for policy intervention to minimize potential negative effects on natural disasters;
• Guiding budget allocation across economic sectors in the pre-disaster mitigation phase.

Key Outcomes

• A Report on Understanding the Economic Impacts of Natural Disaster Events
• A Report on the Multi-hazard Map for Victoria
• A Poster on Designing and Implementing Pre-disaster Hazard Loss Estimation Platform

Major Activities for 2016 - 2017

• A Presentation on the Economic Impacts of Natural Disasters in Australia, AFAC 2016.
• Attendance at the 2016 Research Advisory Forum in Canberra
• Meeting with end users to discuss key outcomes

Research Partners and Collaborators

Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, South Australia; Attorney General's Department; Geoscience Australia; NSW Rural Fire Service; SA Metropolitan Fire Service; Country Fire Authority; Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC