Australian Government Emergency Management Australia

EMA Research and Innovation Program

Publications

01.06.07
Recovering from the 2003 Canberra bushfire: a work in progress

The project was conducted by researchers from the Australian Catholic University (ACU National), the University of Canberra and the ACT Department of Health, and funded by Emergency Management Australia, under their Research and Innovation Program, with support from the ACT Government.

The research report is based on a survey answered by more than 500 people and a follow-up interview process. Designed to find out what helps people to recover after a disaster, and what gets in the way of recovery, the survey was mailed to the 1600 Canberra households who registed with the ACT Bushfire Recovery Centre following the January 2003 bushfire.

The research focused only on the period following the bushfire, and did not examine actual firefighting or any public warnings issues.

Download project report PDF (963 KB)

Funded projects

Projects funded for the EMA Research and Innovation Program 2006/07

01/2006 – Terrorism and Pandemic Influenza –Population Risk management and Health Behaviour Determinants

A brief summary of the project

1. This project aims to pilot, field test and establish a survey module (SAFE - Secure Against Fear Exposure).

i. To provide the basis for surveillance of perceptions of community and personal risk.

ii. To determine associated emotional, behavioural and mental health effects and factors contributing to adverse affective, behavioural and mental health outcomes, as well as coping and resilience functions and strategies.

iii.To examine these factors in relation to potential terrorist attacks in Australia.

iv. To examine these factors in relation to potential pandemic influenza in Australia.

2. To conduct a community survey to determine risk perception trends and related psychosocial effects with specific elements including.

i) Perceptions regarding potential terrorist attack including the development of 'risk adverse' behaviours.
ii) Current knowledge of general influenza transmission,
iii) Knowledge of and attitudes towards pandemic influenza threat, risk and safety, prevention and health protective behaviours and

3. To develop a brief version of the SAFE module for rapid deployment in the event of an actual terrorist event or pandemic influenza.

02/2006 – Modelling community resilience: a multi-level approach to assessment and capacity building

A brief summary of the project

This project will develop a parsimonious set of individual, community and societal predictors of adaptive capacity (resilience).

By using generic predictors, the model will be capable of assessing resilience in different communities and across all hazards. This will allow a common measurement framework to be used locally, regionally and nationally and facilitate the development of a capacity for comparison across areas and regions.

In addition to identifying issues to be addressed by risk communication programs, the research will identify guidelines for developing program content.

The model can serve as a decision support tool that can provide as additional evidence-based input into the risk assessment process, particularly with regard to assessing how risk (with regard to estimating the capacity of a community to adapt to hazard consequences) is distributed (locally, regionally, nationally).

A capability to assess those community dynamics that represent good predictors can contribute to the cost-effectiveness of emergency management planning. For example, the assessment framework can identify community strengths and weaknesses and allow limited resources to be directed to only those areas that require development.

The assessment framework that the model affords also provides a systematic basis for evaluating intervention and monitoring change in levels of resilience and its distribution.

The model framework can also inform response and recovery planning (e.g., identifying areas of greater susceptibility of loss and low adaptive capacity).