NCJ Number
240301
Date Published
2012
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) discusses the urgency and features of its work as Australia's national scientific agency, which has the responsibility of assisting businesses, local governments, and individuals in coping with the disaster-events continuum, which includes prevention, preparation, response, and recovery (PPRR).
Abstract
Among its many responsibilities, CSIRO studies flood behavior in 3D and how to avoid or minimize flood damage; predicts fire behavior and mitigates the impact of bush-fire; rapidly accesses information from geographic locations in real time; predicts disaster incidence probabilities; assesses infrastructure damage; and informs future infrastructure designs. In addition, CSIRO collates and correlates social media information for better decisionmaking and forecasts the likelihood of an event, where it will occur, and the associated costs. One major section of this report discusses the importance and means of understanding floods and extreme-flow events. Another section focuses on the threat and costly damage and expense of fighting bush fires. A third section of the report addresses CSIRO's rapid access and sharing of accurate, integrated information. This is followed by a discussion of the estimation of disaster odds and dollars. Knowing if, when and where a natural or man-made disaster event may occur is essential for emergency planning and prevention, as well as ensuring that disaster response and recovery processes are adequate. The next section of this report considers how social networking Web sites have changed the way people broadcast and receive information instantly online. This permits first responders to have some indication of the unfolding impact of an incident so as to better plan an emergency response. The concluding section emphasizes the importance of understanding disaster impacts so emergency planners know where to allocate investment across the PPRR spectrum. 5 references