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Mr Peter Rekers
Ms Rebecca Riggs
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The art and science of spokesperson selection |
Why is it that some messages never get through? Why is it that some spokespeople are never heard however decorated their uniforms may be? The selection of the right spokespeople is vital to ensure messages are heard in order to improve public safety, reduce responder efforts and maintain the credibility of the responding agencies.
There is a science to selecting spokespeople based on brain chemistry.
People under extreme stress such as in a disaster or crisis will involuntarily react in unusual ways and understanding what is happening to them is vital in selecting and preparing spokespeople.
Peter Rekers and Rebecca Riggs will present the scientific basis of this method and practical solutions in how response and recovery agencies should apply this methodology topped with a liberal helping of chocolate! Yes chocolate plays a part too!
The presentation will be interactive with demonstrated examples of the methodology.
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Ms Gina Mammone
Mrs Lea Symonds
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RESPONSE TO CRISIS – EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED - Why relationships matter? |
When a crisis occurs, well trained teams of emergency service workers are essential to operational effectiveness. But what does “well trained” really encompass?
In this session Gina Mammone, Manager Critical Incident and Counselling Services SES NSW and Lea Symonds, Managing Director Personal Strengths Australia & New Zealand will discuss the innovative approach that NSW SES has taken to build and maintain interpersonal resilience in teams.
Participants will be introduced to activities that utilise the internationally acclaimed relationship tool, the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) and hear how this has helped individuals and teams in understanding motivation, behavioural style, expectations mismatches, conflict triggers, personal strengths and overdone strengths in the context of emergency services and response to disasters.
How does this make a difference to individual and team performance? Attend this high energy session and you will find out!
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Dr Yoko Akama
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Design-led strategies for bushfire preparedness |
To date, both government and fire authorities in Victoria have deployed a wide variety of communication messages on bushfire awareness. Yet, sustaining a view of communication as a transmission process reinforces the power-dynamics that currently exists between the fire authorities and the community. The transmission view of communication sees audiences as passive agents. It is seen as a way to achieve immediate, unimpeded transmission of messages as a form of control of distance and people (Carey 1998). This perpetuates the disempowerment felt by communities who are not engaged in a dialogic process, further broadening the gap between ‘expert’ fire authorities with knowledge and experience of bushfires and the community as ‘non-experts’. Evidence now shows that, despite the effectiveness of distributing information to a wide audience, this method alone is not enough to increase people’s preparedness for bushfire (Robinson 2003). This paper presents vignettes from research project that explored visualisations and creative design-led methods to facilitate a dialogic form of communication on bushfire preparedness with community members in the Southern Otways, a regional coastal town in Victoria. This project engaged a group of 20 residents through a workshop on strengthening awareness, resilience and preparedness for bushfires. Playful Triggers (Akama et al, 2007; Loi 2005) and scenario ‘what if’ cards were used to facilitate co-creation and communication of local knowledge of the geographical environment through visualisation. Through this process, each individual shared their limited knowledge of their neighbours and geographical areas. This in turn opened up assumptions or generalisations, inviting other participants to question what they knew. The process of visualising tacit or informal knowledge made it tangible and concrete. Casual, collective knowledge of others in a bushfire context became substantial, valuable and significant for mitigation and planning. These methods show potential of bridging relationships between neighbours and the importance of social interactions that can lead to better fire preparation.
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Dr Ram Roy
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Shipping Disasters in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Statistical Investigation |
This paper will investigate the reasons behind the various shipping disasters in the Asia-Pacific region and will focus specially on the recent disaster in Tauranga, New Zealand where the recovery operations are still going on. The paper will investigate and analyze the reasons behind the various disasters by using statistical tools and techniques such as ishikawa diagram, pareto chart and FMEA. The objectives will be to identify what went wrong with these ships before/during the disasters, and what could have been done to prevent this from happening in the first place. The paper will finally focus on the current recovery operations in New Zealand where various alternatives will be identified and discussed using a decision tree analysis technique in a stochastic situation to find out the best course of action that could have been taken to salvage the ship and its cargoes at a minimum cost. The paper will also propose some tools and techniques for disaster forecasting and possible preventions in the future.
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Mr Ian Manock
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Examining the resilience of rural communities to flooding emergencies |
This paper aims to examine the resilience of Australian rural communities to the impact of flood emergencies. In the past five years, a number of serious flood events have impacted Australian communities, resulting in death and injury to people as well as devastating loss and damage to property and infrastructure. Many inland rural communities are declining in population whilst the average age of these communities is increasing. This decrease in population and increase in age reduces the service functions within those communities which in turn has an impact on the vulnerability of those communities to the impact of natural disasters such as flooding. This vulnerability relates to not only the potential increase in susceptibility of those communities to flooding, but also the decrease in community resilience.
A study of an Australian rural community susceptible to flooding has been conducted to examine the resilience of that community to flooding and to identify issues relating to community vulnerability i.e. resilience and susceptibility, that exist within that community. From this study we hope to be able to identify community resilience strategies that may help other rural communities better prepare for and respond to the impact of natural disasters, including flood.
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Mr Tony McHugh
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The Delivery of Effective Public Mental Health Services Post Disaster: |
The Victorian Bushfires of February 2009 (the Fires) were a natural disaster of immense proportions causing loss of life, loss of housing and infrastructure, and widespread damage to forested environments.
In responding to the Fires, the Victorian Government, through its Department of Human Services (DHS), and specifically the DHS Mental Health Branch, called upon Austin Health, through the specific expertise of its Psychological Trauma Recovery Service (PTRS), to play a lead role in the recovery process.
Over the three years after the Fires, the PTRS implemented a comprehensive program of Trauma-related Mental Health Service Delivery designed to meet the psychological needs of bushfire-affected individuals, families, and communities.
Services provided included:
(1) direct psychological and psychiatric outpatient and inpatient care &
(2) primary, secondary and tertiary consultation and education and training services for a range of organisations and individuals, including local government, education and disaster-recovery agencies and an array of community groups, treating professionals and members of the public.
This presentation outlines the types of activity provided by the PTRS and presents data that: describes the various activity-outputs delivered; profiles the clinical presentation of clients treated from the target population; and illustrates outcomes of the treatment(s) delivered. Qualitative feedback illustrating key themes nominated by the range of clients assisted by the PTRS will also be presented.
Through this presentation, and other means-of communication, it is hoped that knowledge of PTRS’s activities will aid disaster-recovery services and agencies in better-anticipating the post-disaster needs of individuals and communities, where required, in future.
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Dr Kathy Peri
Mrs Trish Rasmussen
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Moving (heaven) and Earth for Older People Post CHristchurch Earthquakes |
The September and February earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand have had a significant impact not only on the infrastructure of our city but also on the health and well-being of vulnerable older people living in both community and residential care dwellings. This presentation describes how Health Care of the Elderly Speciality Services (Canterbury District Health Board) played a critical role in treating and supporting this vulnerable group during the state of emergency and on going recovery phase.
Firstly the role that nurses and members of interdisciplinary health team contributed to the disaster response will be explored. The role of the nurse in this specific disaster depended on the situation and many functions outside their usual scope of practice were often involved. These nurses were in a unique position to participate in all aspects of the disaster response including triage, definitive care and support.
Also included will be some discussion on the lessons learned from our residential care evacuations as well as the function and response to disaster specific respite care services from a nursing perspective, several examples will be given including setting up nurse led respite wards in both aged care facilities and a sub-acute hospital during the state of emergency and recovery phase.
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A/Prof Brett Aimers
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Evacuation and Relocation - the Sleeping Giant |
The relocation or evacuation of patients and aged care residents from hospitals and aged care facilities prior to and during emergencies is a complex and topical issue. Evacuation and relocation from an emergency management policy perspective is difficult and requires new or ‘outside the square’ thinking.
Since 2009, several major emergencies have impacted Victoria and in doing so, have tested existing thinking, assumptions and our emergency management arrangements.
The Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and Victorian Flood Review have both highlighted the importance of understanding the risk to vulnerable persons in hospitals and aged care facilities during an emergency. Also consideration has been given to the adequacy of both planning and evacuation of people at greatest risk – including those in hospitals and aged care facilities.
From the February (Black Saturday) bushfires, that claimed 173 lives, through to the recent flood and storm emergencies that impacted two-thirds of the state of Victoria, the Department of Health and its partners have relocated or evacuated more than 920 patients and aged care residents.
From these experiences the Department of Health has improved its knowledge, learnt from and subsequently refined its approach to facilitating the safe and effective relocation or evacuation of patients and aged care residents.
This presentation explores the key role that the Department of Health undertakes in relocation and evacuation of patients and aged care residents including the development of its response capability, coordination arrangements and partnerships.
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Mr Darryl Clare
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St John Ambulance Australia Response to the 2010 – 2011 Floods and Cyclone Yasi |
The presentation will focus on the delivery of first aid and medical services to the community during large scale emergency events. Topics discussed will include; the importance of forward planning and training to prepare for a large scale emergency, developing and implementing procedures to ensure sufficient equipment and consumables as well as personnel are available to respond to large scale events, coordinating a nation-wide volunteer response, and developing the best practices in volunteer communications.
The lessons learned and challenges faced by St John Ambulance during the 2010 – 2011 floods and Cyclone Yasi will be discussed such as the management of cross border assistance, dealing with a long term campaign as opposed to a short term event, and situational awareness. The presentation will also focus on St John Ambulance's ability to become more adaptive and innovative when managing large scale incidents.
Achievements and highlights from the St John Ambulance Australia's disaster response will be shared including; the delivery of a nationwide response, implementation of a national communications network, deployment of health care professionals from within St John in a crisis to reduce the load on the existing health system, and also provision of a 24 hour response delivering over 8,000 hours of service and 5,300 treatments.
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Mr Neil Dufty
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Learning for Disaster Resilience |
The National Strategy for Disaster Resilience provides strategic guidance on how to build disaster resilience in communities across Australia. Using this guidance, and particularly the concept of 'shared responsibility', this paper outlines a new approach to disaster-related education, communications and engagement that from extensive research should lead to more effective outcomes than current processes.
The new approach - 'Learning for Disaster Resilience' (LfDR) - builds disaster learning communities through ongoing, participatory learning. Important features of the LfDR approach include extensive use of social media, learning by evaluation, cross-hazard learning and the improved coordination of community-related services offered by emergency agencies in Australia.
The LfDR approach has been developed based particularly on evaluations conducted by the author of education, communications and engagement services provided by emergency agencies across Australia and overseas. It recognises diversity in and across Australian communities, and how individuals interact as part of a community before, during and after a disaster. |
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Ms Ruth Fuller
Prof David Cliff
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Managing Emergencies at Underground Coal Mines |
The Mining Emergency Management System (MEMS) is used and promoted by the Queensland Mines Rescue Service and is the emergency management system of choice for Queensland’s underground coal mines. The MEMS structure is an industry specific variant of the Australian Inter-service Incident Management System (AIIMS). Consequently it is similar to the Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) of New Zealand, as both are based on the Incident Command System (ICS) component of the National Inter-agency Incident Management System (NIIMS) from the United States. MEMS was first introduced into Queensland mines in 2005. Since that date, the application of MEMS during the annual Queensland level 1 mine emergency exercises has been observed and assessed. These exercises are realistic emergency simulations staged at the mine. They involve interaction with the mine, both surface and underground, external agencies and other coal mines. These exercises are organised by a confidential committee, external to the chosen host mine, and instigated without any warning, but within a disclosed two week timeframe. Each year the independent assessors make recommendations relating to improving the management of the incident. Unfortunately these recommendations have remained largely the same each year. This indicates some deficiencies in applying MEMS, and has often resulted in non-optimal decision making during the emergency exercises. It is the purpose of this paper to evaluate the merits of implementing such incident management philosophies within the mining context by discussing what does, and does not, work in practice. Lessons learnt from the Level 1 exercises and real-life disasters, such as the Pike River tragedy will be examined. Finally, some suggestions for further study to improve performance and decision making during emergency response at underground coal mines will be provided. |
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Mr Ian Krimmer
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The Japanese Tsunami - How the Australian Rescue Team's Media Officer told their story |
The Japanese Tsunami – an emergency services media officer’s perspective.
Superintendent Ian Krimmer AFSM, an Australian firefighter with 36 years experience and currently Media Officer for Fire & Rescue NSW (FRNSW), was deployed in March 2011 to Minami Sanriku in northern Japan as media officer for the Australian Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team.
Located 180 kilometres from the Fukushima nuclear reactor and in the centre of one of the world’s most watched earthquake and tsunami disasters, thousands are missing and there are growing fears of a toxic cloud. The world’s media have been ordered out, communication systems at Ground Zero are destroyed and rumours are rife. Supt Krimmer coordinated the team’s “credible voice” to both Australian and international media now desperate for information on the crisis unfolding in northern Japan.
This paper provides a unique and first hand insight into the critical role that media experts play in coordinating key messages, rapidly detecting and squashing rumours, prepping frontline spokespeople and defending/promoting government actions.
It discusses the rapidly changing demands of media during the progress of emergencies and how we must never allow the media to set the agenda for rescue operators.
With communication infrastructure destroyed at Ground Zero, there were no mobile phones, no Twitter, no Facebook or emails. There was only limited access to satellite phones. This presentation will demonstrate how live information was still fed from Japan to media outlets using a new FRNSW web based voice dissemination system known as “CHUMBY”.
With pictures, videos and first hand accounts, this presentation will not only give a brief account of Australian rescue operations in Japan, but will describe the critical role of media officers in front line emergency environments and how they may need to protect their organisations and governments from unfounded rumours by establishing media trust and keeping emergency managers constantly one step ahead of the game.
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Dr Nigel Martin
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Emergency Communications and Warning Systems: Determining Critical Capacities and Capabilities in the Australian Context |
The frequent occurrence of emergencies and natural disasters continues to threaten people’s safety and security. Emergency communications and warning systems (ECWS) allow people to make vital decisions and take actions before, during and after the emergency or disaster event. The critical objective of our study was to determine the important capacities and capabilities of ECWS in the Australian context. This study used expert stakeholder analysis in which data collected by the Australian federal government was subjected to structured coding techniques to identify the major ECWS capacities and capabilities raised by emergency and disaster event stakeholders. Sources of data were drawn from individuals, and public and private organizations. The summary of findings were generating by axially collapsing and summarizing the coded stakeholder statements. Findings showed that a broad range of ECWS are deployed in the Australian context. These ECWS capabilities come with social or technological limitations that suggest the importance of an integrated or systems based approach for their construction and deployment. Also, while the identification of critical infrastructure vulnerabilities reinforced the requirement for an integrated systems approach, this also presented further arguments for the building of resilience and redundancy measures into domestic infrastructure networks. In addition, educating and informing users of ECWS was highlighted as a key to successful emergency or disaster response. The results also show that new and innovative ECWS technologies and solutions will enable improved emergency or disaster management in the future. Importantly, this paper simultaneously considers a number of important factors and issues impacting ECWS and provides an informative and expanded discussion on the desired combinative capacities and capabilities as communities construct and deploy future communications systems. |
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Mr Tim Morrison
Mr
Mr |
Post Flood Data Collection from Tenterfield January 2011 Flood |
The flooding that occurred in Tenterfield, NSW on the 11th of January 2011 is considered to be the largest flood on record for the township. Residents were isolated, significant infrastructure was damaged and floodwaters posed significant hazards. In response to the flooding, the SES (State Emergency Service) commissioned a study to collect data from the flood event for the purpose of improving flood intelligence and emergency planning for future floods.
Flood information and data was collected from three sources; a field survey of flood debris, community consultation and river gauge data. This data will inform the development of gauge height related flood intelligence. Flood debris height and location were recorded at key locations throughout the town, and then processed together with ground surface elevations to create a preliminary event map indicating flood extent and depth. This resulting inundation map was verified by the SES and used to target a community survey to within 50 m of the inundation. Results of the community survey were then used to refine the preliminary flood extent. Rainfall and flow gauge data was then linked to the estimated inundation in order to provide a reference relating the January 2011 flood to other events.
This data will be used to inform SES flood planning and improve SES flood intelligence for the town. It will also include the development of a new Flood Intelligence card, which is a record of historical and modelled flood extents relative to river gauge height. Additional flood data will need to be collected in order to complete the Flood Intelligence Card, however it is expected that the January 2011 flood will mark an upper limit in the historical flood record. Additionally, this data would provide a good source of calibration data for any future modelling within the town and its environs. |
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Mr Dan Paull
Mr Gerry Stanley
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Real-time address management and the benefits for disaster and emergency management services |
The daily interactions between government, the private sector and the community result in thousands of new addresses being created and captured in Australia every week. This address information is collected and stored in many different ways, creating the potential for addresses to vary widely in quality and accuracy. Disaster and emergency management agencies have long recognised that imprecise address information has the potential to place lives at risk through delayed emergency response.
In recognition of the economic and social benefits associated with improving address quality, the governments of Australia have adopted a national coordinated approach to address management. The National Address Management Framework (NAMF) is a practical, consistent, standards-based framework to guide the process for verifying and exchanging address information. The NAMF goal of ‘one address = one location’ is supported through the use of G-NAF (Geocoded National Address File), Australia’s authoritative index of physical Australian addresses and their location.
Developed and managed by PSMA Australia, G-NAF has been the leading national address dataset since 2004. The dataset is updated on a quarterly basis. Not surprisingly, there has been an increasing demand for more frequent updates, particularly from the disaster and emergency management sector.
In the last few years, PSMA Australia has been strongly focused on working though the challenges associated with delivering this dataset more frequently. This will be achieved with the release of “G-NAF Live”, a new service that will provide near real-time access to new addresses gazetted by state and territory governments.
This session will discuss the benefits of real-time address management for disaster and emergency services agencies and the efficiencies generated by access to authoritative national datasets.
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Ms Heather Clay
Ms Candace Bobier
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The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Response to the Christchurch Earthquakes: |
The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Response to the Christchurch Earthquakes:
Have we recovered yet?
Heather Clay, Social Worker and Candace Bobier, Research Associate
Canterbury District Health Board, Christchurch, New Zealand
Canterbury, New Zealand was woken up literally and figuratively on September 4th, 2010 at 4:35 am with a magnitude 7.1 earthquake. Rattled, but largely unscathed, we rode out the aftershocks and congratulated ourselves on our resilience, utterly mentally unprepared for the devastation about to be faced on February 22nd. At 12:51 pm that day, our shaky city crumbled; we fell apart and then we pulled together. We met many of our neighbours for the first time. We mucked in and helped out. Liquefaction and designer long drops became the subjects of everyday conversation. We were getting on with it. By May, aggravation was setting is as we emptied our camping toilets and battled munted roads to our new port-o-com offices. Then cue June, a double banger and demoralisation. Would this never end?
Canterbury’s three large earthquakes in Sept 2010, Feb 2011, and June 2011 (a wake up, death and devastation, demoralisation) have been followed by nearly 8000 aftershocks to which we are slowly reaching acclimatisation. We offer a description of the child and adolescent population referred to a publically funded mental health services earthquake pathway by their family doctor and education professionals since July 2011. Delivered alongside existing services, the earthquake response pathway has been designed to enable targeted as needed intervention to young people struggling to cope as a result of the Canterbury earthquakes. We consider how our service wide response has met the anticipated psychological need (or not) and compare our experience to international experience post disaster. Finally, we consider how our experience can inform mental health preparedness, response and recovery in future natural disasters.
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Ms Jennie Cramp
Dr Jennifer Scott
Mr Christopher Wright |
Adapting to increasing bushfire risk: Multi-dimensional bushfire risk reduction strategies |
Reducing bush fire risk exposure is a complex, multi-dimensional proposition. Research indicates hazard reduction burns remain the single-most widely used tool for managing bush fire risk. However, this method is considered to be a high risk, resource intensive operation with relatively short-term benefits and a heavy dependence on favourable weather conditions. Climate change has the potential to result in longer fire seasons, increased frequency of extreme fire-risk days, and increased fire intensity thereby reducing the opportunities to undertake hazard reduction burning. Given this information, it is essential that risk reduction measures adapt accordingly. As such, Ku-ring-gai Council has sought to strategically review its approach to bush fire risk reduction through collaborative research partnerships. Initial climate change adaptation investigations indicated that the existing models only went part of the way in addressing risks and did little to assist in determining feasible actions. However, through a joint research partnership with Macquarie and Bond Universities, Council staff were able to more thoroughly analyse adaptation options for bush fire. A multi-dimensional cost-benefit analysis of potential adaptation measures highlighted the benefits of a number of community resilience initiatives. This cost-benefit analysis took into account social, environmental and financial variables, and highlighted the potential for Council to strengthen community capital through a number of innovative social change programs. These initiatives seek to build on existing communication networks and act as supplementary alternatives to hazard reduction burning. Council hopes to take a more active and participatory role in reducing local bush fire risk by minimising vulnerability and enabling the Ku-ring-gai community to build resilience to bush fire. |
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Ms Desley Gilbey
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'All Hazards' Information Management approach to disaster management |
Recent natural disasters in Queensland have highlighted a need for improved information within the Department of Community Safety and the broader disaster management community. The Queensland Flood Commission of Inquiry (QFCI) acknowledged information as a key enabler in the delivery of safety outcomes within Queensland.
In times of crisis, informed decision-making relies on access to relevant, timely and accurate information which can be consolidated and shared across jurisdictional boundaries. Disasters do not respect borders. Cross-jurisdictional information is the foundation of enhanced capability, coordination and in-field safety
Timely and accurate information is key to effective decision-making, that supports coordination and an effective response at a local, state or national level and that supports major incident coordination. This is why an ‘All Hazards’ information management approach is needed to provide a consistent foundation to emergency services agencies, government agencies and external stakeholders.
The All Hazards Information Management program, within the Queensland Department of Community Safety is currently delivering what we believe are the five key capabilities needed to support more effective disaster management coordination.
* Decision support
* Shared situational awareness
* Planning and intelligence
* Resource management and coordination
* Public engagement.
We argue that by improving these capabilities, Queensland Disaster Management agencies can evolve into a more informed and prepared ‘coalition of organisations’ that can better interoperate to ensure a safer and more resilient community.
Our session will demonstrate how these capabilities are already benefiting Queensland Disaster Management operations, through:
* Improved Situational awareness through GIS mapping systems
* Online community resilience tools
* Resource management and coordination tracking tools
* A ‘Disaster Management Virtual Organisation’ model.
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Dr Petra Buergelt
Prof Douglas Paton
Prof David Morrison |
Preparation: Static separative approach vs evolving holographic approach |
Predominately, efforts to increase disaster preparation focuses either on educating individual citizens, improving emergency management systems, or increasing the effectiveness of selected aspects at the community level. However, this approach to preparedness has, in general, not produced the desired increase in preparedness. Hence, disasters still have devastating effects on the people and environment. This paper argues that to increase preparedness effectively researchers, policy makers, and practioners it is valuable to switch to viewing preparedness as an evolving, ever changing and holographic system made up of a multitude of levels and aspects. In this system, dynamic interactions among individuals and between individuals and their environment provide both with ongoing opportunities to gain capabilities that allow them to not only be safer and adapt, but ultimately to thrive in the face of disasters. The evolving holographic approach is discussed by drawing together disaster literature on the different aspects of the whole system and by presenting findings from a case study that investigated qualitatively the various layers of two Western Australian Shires. This qualitative research design used takes a multi-level perspective and investigates the reciprocal interactions between the various levels (e.g., state, local government area/shire, functional and relational communities within the shire, households, and individuals). Based on a synergy of four theoretical frameworks paradigms (i.e., salutogenic paradigm, symbolic interactionism, narrative theory, systems theory), the research design merged two qualitative methodologies (i.e., grounded theory, multi-side ethnography). It is argued that to make citizens and communities safer, researchers, policy makers and practioners need to consider the whole system including its evolving and holographic nature, and work together using their respective strengths. |
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Ms Sandra Richardson
Mrs Viki Robinson
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The first 24hrs: An emergency department response |
On Tuesday, February 22nd 2011 at 12:51 pm, local time, a magnitude 6.3 on the Richter Scale earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand. Its epicentre was 10 kilometres south east of the central city, at a depth of 5 kilometres. Christchurch and its surrounding areas were still recovering from a previous earthquake of 7.1 experienced in September of 2010, which resulted in damage to buildings, infrastructure and roads but comparatively little injury. While there was widespread damage following the September quake, there were few injuries and no immediate deaths, however in February the event occurred in relation to a range of circumstances that saw greater physical injury and loss of life. Despite its lower magnitude, its proximity to the city resulted in large peak ground accelerations (PGA), reaching 2.2g, one of the highest ever recorded. The PGA is significant in understanding the risk of damage to buildings, and likelihood of building collapse and compromise. Typically, modern building codes in earthquake prone areas demand an ability to withstand a PGA of 1.0. In addition this quake, unlike the September event, occurred during the middle of a busy, sunny day when many people were shopping, working and dining.
While this disaster has specific and unique effects on Canterbury and in terms of earthquake research, there is no doubt that it also has the potential to lead to greater understanding and knowledge related to other unexpected, traumatic and significant crises events. This presentation will describe the response to the injured in the first 24 hours after the earthquake, including the burden of injury managed, the challenges faced in doing so, the impact on staff and the lessons learnt.
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