John Handmer

• RMIT University

Challenges in managing multi-hazards and multi-risks within complex risk landscapes—where numerous stakeholders with different priority needs and risk perceptions interact—remain unresolved. Here we suggest ways to tackle these pressing challenges in an integrated and comprehensive manner by applying key concepts from systemic risk research to trip...

Recent research has shown that adverse risks associated with climate and global change are becoming increasingly systemic with mounting interdependencies that will likely lead to cascading impacts. These impacts are projected to become so intolerable that standard risk management approaches alone will no longer be sufficient. Calls to consider tran...

Comprehensively addressing different aspects of justice is essential to enable risk management to contribute to sustainable development. This article offers a new conceptual framework called risk justice that comprises procedural, distributive, and corrective justice in four dimensions related to sustainable development: social, ecological, spatial...

This paper compares economic recovery in the COVID-19 pandemic with other types of disasters, at the scale of businesses. As countries around the world struggle to emerge from the pandemic, studies of business impact and recovery have proliferated; however, pandemic research is often undertaken without the benefit of insights from long-standing res...

The chapter outlines current strategies for carbon mitigation (transition to renewable energy) and climate change adaptation from the perspective of city governance. The adaptation challenges of urban heating, bushfire and sea level rise are inherently spatial, and involve collaboration across multiple jurisdictions and urban communities.

This Working Group focuses on the economic recovery of businesses and economies from the COVID-19 pandemic. With communities around the world experiencing severe economic impacts, we anticipate a proliferation of efforts to track, assess, and explain local economic recovery. Our Working Group's efforts are focused on understanding how the knowledge...

Funders, governments, stakeholders and end-users expect to see tangible evidence that an investment in research is a worthy use of resources. Research has impact if it makes a demonstrable contribution to the economy, society, culture, public policy, health, the environment, or quality of life, beyond academia. This paper reviews frameworks that as...

This Working Group focuses on the economic recovery of businesses and economies from the COVID-19 pandemic. With communities around the world experiencing severe economic impacts, we anticipate a proliferation of efforts to track, assess, and explain local economic recovery. Our Working Group's efforts are focused on understanding how the knowledge...

This paper examines the thorny issue of authority and legitimacy in relation to ‘outsider’ emergency volunteering within the context of the community resilience policy agenda. Outsider emergency volunteering is any volunteering that: (a) aims to assist communities in any aspect of disaster preparedness, response, relief and recovery, and (b) is not...

Pacific Island states occupy the top categories in the World Risk Index for natural hazards, with Vanuatu consistently at the Number One spot. For some low-lying island states climate change poses an existential threat, and the region is increasingly recognized as the most immediately vulnerable area to potential mass migration and relocation due t...

The debate on “Loss and Damage” (L&D) has gained traction over the last few years. Supported by growing scientific evidence of anthropogenic climate change amplifying frequency, intensity and duration of climate-related hazards as well as observed increases in climate-related impacts and risks in many regions, the “Warsaw International Mechanism fo...

The idea of relocation as a transformative disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, and development strategy follows the assumption that relocation reduces the vulnerability of communities. Yet, it is unclear whose and what kind of vulnerability is reduced through relocation, and which factors are important in determining the “success” of reloc...

Australian bushfire safety policy does not require mandatory evacuation from bushfire as practiced in North America and other jurisdictions. Australian householders confronted with a bushfire threat must decide whether they remain and defend their property or evacuate. A better understanding of factors that influence householders’ decisions to self...

This paper explores sovereign risk preferences against direct and indirect natural disasters losses in industrialized countries. Using Australia as a case study, the analysis compares expected disaster losses and government capacity to finance losses. Utilizing a national disaster loss dataset, extreme value theory is applied to estimate an all-haz...

Australian householders respond to bushfire in diverse and complex ways according to their circumstances and characteristics. They tend not to simply make a binary decision to evacuate from or remain at their property, or simply to ‘wait and see’ what happens before they decide. Seven self-evacuation archetypes displaying universally recognisable,...

The integration of disaster risk reduction (DRR) with climate change adaptation (CCA) is globally recognized as a rational use of resources benefiting both areas, with a substantial theoretical literature now existing on the topic. Countries in the Pacific have began to implement the integration agenda, and for example Vanuatu has set up the necess...

A recent eLetter response published in Science in regards to climate change related Loss and Damage and how this relates to the Pacific Islands region.

A recent eLetter response published in Science in regards to climate change related Loss and Damage and how this relates to the Pacific Islands region.

Extreme weather events in Australia are common and a large proportion of the population are exposed to such events. Therefore, there is great interest as to how these events impact Australia's society and economy, which requires understanding the current and historical impact of disasters. Despite global efforts to record and cost disaster impacts,...

There is a growing expectation that volunteers will have a greater role in disaster management in the future compared to the past. This is driven largely by a growing focus on building resilience to disasters. At the same time, the wider landscape of volunteering is fundamentally changing in the twenty-first century. This paper considers implicatio...

The field of disaster loss assessment attempts to provide comprehensive estimates of the cost of disasters. Assessment of intangibles remains a major weakness. Existing costing frameworks have acknowledged losses to cultural – as distinct from economic, social, human or environmental – capital. However, the inclusion of cultural line items has usua...

One of the key responsibilities of any government is to communicate and disseminate safety information and warnings to the general public in case of an emergency. Traditionally, warnings are issued by the government through a broadcast approach using communication channels such as TV and radio. However this monopolistic approach is now challenged b...

The resilience perspective has emerged as a plausible approach to confront the increasingly devastating impacts of disasters; and the challenges and uncertainty climate change poses through an expected rise in frequency and magnitude of hazards. Stakeholder participation is posited as pivotal for building resilience, and resilience is not passive;...

There is growing recognition that routine climate change framing is insufficient for addressing the challenges presented by this change, and that different framings of climate change shape stakeholders' practices and guide policy options. This research investigated how stakeholders conceptualise climate change in terms of its seriousness and relate...

This paper presents a case study of Emergency Volunteering - Community Response to Extreme Weather (EV CREW). EV CREW is a best-practice model for centrally coordinating spontaneous volunteers who respond during emergencies. The model was developed by Volunteering Queensland, a not-for-profit organisation and the peak volunteering body in Queenslan...

The most common response to change by societies is either to take incremental steps and maintain the current system or accept gradual partial change. Yet, given the current and future complex large-scale challenges like climate change, such responses are increasingly inadequate. Calls are now made for societies to implement transformative approache...

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) and emergency management (EM) efforts are integral to climate change adaptation (CCA). The integration of DRR with adaptation is globally recognized as a rational use of resources benefiting both areas. There is a substantial literature on the topic, but little on the practice of implementing such integration on the gr...

Despite highly specialised and capable emergency management systems, ordinary citizens are usually first on the scene in an emergency or disaster, and remain long after official services have ceased. Citizens often play vital roles in helping those affected to respond and recover, and can provide invaluable assistance to official agencies. However,...

This research is novel as not only investigated how stakeholders frame, but also make sense, of resilience in the context of disaster management and climate change.•Stakeholders interviewed construct the meaning of resilience differently and even in contradictory ways, embedded in diverse storylines.•Self-reliance emerged as one of the paramount di...

Wildland fire management is a multifaceted physical and social issue. Complex social, health, economic and environmental changes across the globe are increasing the challenges of wildland fire management. Consequently, addressing these challenges requires perspectives that inform relevant policies beyond improved knowledge of the physical and biolo...

Warning systems are relied on worldwide as part of disaster risk reduction. The traditional model of a government monopolistic system supplying warnings through a broadcast approach is now challenged by new media, mobile technologies and the accompanying expectations of individualised warnings to personal mobile devices. We examine this situation,...

This paper explores the relationship between vulnerability and resilience in the context of informal settlements, using a case study of two barangays in a rural province in the Philippines. Central to the discussion in this paper is whether and how vulnerability and resilience can exist simultaneously. The authors first identify community vulnerabi...

The impacts of escalating wildfire in many regions — the lives and homes lost, the expense of suppression and the damage to ecosystem services — necessitate a more sustainable coexistence with wildfire. Climate change and continued development on fire-prone landscapes will only compound current problems. Emerging strategies for managing ecosystems...

Despite decades of research, flood loss estimation is still a challenging task. Drawing on recent research, a number of major problems can be identified among them the question of what specific damages under what circumstances are seen as significant? It is sensible that people would choose risk management strategies according to their capacity to...

Purpose – To confront the increasingly devastating impacts of disasters and the challenges that climate change is posing to disaster risk management (DRM) there is an imperative to further develop DRM. The resilience approach is emerging as one way to do this, and in the last decade has been strongly introduced into the policy arena, although it is...

If public policy sectors dealing with natural hazards are to play their part in climate change adaptation, the sectors must themselves be adaptive in their policies and larger governance contexts. Facilitating adaptive governance requires collaboration among many parties in the complex policy domain of natural hazard planning. To benefit from such...

distil and summarise some key conclusions regarding developing public policy for natural hazard risk inAustralia. • ABSTRACT The 2011 National Strategy for Disaster Resilience (COAG 2011) sets the context for natural disaster management as a 'shared responsibility' of all sectors of government and society, as part of building a more comprehensive a...

The Victorian Fire Services Commissioner has embarked on a program of research exploring anticipated changes across Victoria over the coming decade. Titled '2021', the research aims to identify key changes taking place in Victorian communities and describe the likely impacts on the emergency management sector. The paper is not intended to present a...

Wildfires often result in widespread destruction and damage to a range of economic, social and environmental assets and functions. This article presents an economic loss assessment framework which has not only been developed to value these assets, but more importantly addresses the fundamental economic principles commonly lacking in other framework...

On Saturday 7 February 2009, 173 people lost their lives and more than 2000 houses were destroyed in bushfires (wildfires) in the Australian State of Victoria. The scale of life and property loss raised fundamental questions about community bushfire safety in Australia, in particular the appropriateness of the ‘Prepare, stay and defend or leave ear...

The methods used to plan adaptation to climate change have been heavily influenced by scientific narratives of gradual change and economic narratives of marginal adjustments to that change. An investigation of the theoretical aspects of how the climate changes suggests that scientific narratives of climate change are socially constructed, biasing s...

The Victorian Fire Services Commissioner (FSC) has embarked on a program of research exploring anticipated changes across Victoria over the coming decade. Titled '2021', this research aims to build the evidence of change in Victorian communities, identify the drivers of change, and describe the likely impacts on the emergency management sector. Thi...

Across the country, fire management faces the common challenge of adapting to a changing climate. However, alongside social, environmental and economic changes, climate change will manifest differently across the country. If fire management is to support the capacity of our social-ecological systems to adapt to these interacting changes, the sector...

Executive Summary Extreme impacts can result from extreme weather and climate events, but can also occur without extreme events. This chapter examines two broad categories of impacts on human and ecological systems, both of which are influenced by changes in climate, vulnerability, and exposure: first, the chapter primarily focuses on impacts that...

Perceptions of Tenure Security in Camalig Municipality in the Philippines FIG Working Week 2012 Knowing to manage the territory, protect the environment, evaluate the cultural heritage Rome, Italy, 6-10 May 2012 SUMMARY This paper addresses the different types of land tenure existing in Camalig Municipality, the rights attached to them and occupier...

This paper investigates the nature and causes of vulnerability to bushfires in the Wulgulmerang district of East Gippsland, Victoria, in south-eastern Australia. In 2003 bushfires devastated the small population of this isolated farming district, destroying homes, agricultural assets and public infrastructure. The fires also adversely affected the...

In this paper, we look beyond Australian fire and emergency management to compare ways that responsibility-sharing – broadly conceived – has occurred in other places and sectors where risks to community safety are faced. Responsibility-sharing occurs any time there is collective action, and formal and informal institutions provide the “rules of the...

The 2009 'Black Saturday' bushfires led to 172 civilian deaths, and were proclaimed as one of Australia's worst natural disasters. The Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission was set up in the wake of the fires to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of each fatality. Here, results from an analysis undertaken for the Commission to exami...

In the context of risk, the concept of responsibility incorporates the notion that certain parties have a prospective obligation to undertake actions to manage risk. However, differences in judgements about which parties are responsible for which aspects of risk management often lead to social conflict. This paper uses the heuristic of a ‘responsib...

Across the globe, wildfire-related destruction appears to be worsening despite increased fire suppression expenditure. At the same time, wildfire management is becoming increasingly complicated owing to factors such as an expanding wildland–urban interface, interagency resource sharing and the recognition of the beneficial effects of fire on ecosys...

For much of the post war period it was individual states that drove improvements in human security. But now in an era of global economic, business, political and cultural forces, the role and power of national governments to reduce vulnerability, and improve human security can seem unclear at best. At a regional level, the European Union has shown...

Over recent decades, research and policy have steadily moved from viewing natural disasters as just that - ‘natural’, imposed on humans by outside forces - to understanding disasters as phenomena more often caused by the vulnerability of societies, settlements, and assets that are constructed or shaped by human decisions. Disasters are increasingly...

Although often overlooked, land tenure is an important variable impacting on vulnerability to disaster. Vulnerability can occur either where land tenure is perceived to be insecure, or where insecure tenure results in the loss of land, especially when alternative livelihood and housing options are limited. Disasters often provide the catalyst for s...

The extent of losses avoided as a result of a warning is a key measure of warning system effectiveness. Tools to estimate the impact of warnings on losses are limited to postflood analysis or estimates of potential rather than actual damages. This paper illustrates a method for the appraisal of actual damages when a flood warning is issued. The app...

Following the 'Black Saturday' bushfires of 7 February 2009, a number of research reports on community bushfire safety were presented to the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. These include reports from the CFA, OESC, Bushfire CRC and Department of Justice. These reports have different research aims and employ a range of methods and samples. Som...

In many jurisdictions, including parts of the US, authorities often dictate mandatory evacuations of communities threatened by bushfire (wildfire). Prior to the 2009 ‘Black Saturday’ fires in Victoria, Australian fire authorities in all States advised residents to decide whether they would prepare to stay and defend homes or leave early. The clear...

This paper examines the circumstances in which a `shelter-in-place' strategy may be a viable alternative to evacuation during flash floods. While evacuation remains the dominant strategy for a range of hazards, a review of the literature suggests growing awareness of the dangers associated with late evacuations and some limited consideration of she...

This paper presents estimates of the economic value of volunteers in the State Emergency Services (SES) of NSW, Victoria and South Australia. The value is based on the value of the time provided by volunteers. The estimates are based on a detailed survey conducted on volunteer time allocation, and data on the activities of SES volunteers over sever...

Bushfires destroy existing resources while fire prevention and suppression require resources that have alternative uses. Consequently, bushfire threat alters resource allocation affecting the well being (welfare status in the language of economics) of society. This paper explores the potential of using an economic framework to improve bushfire mana...

Most urban–wildland interface (UWI) fires in California and the other regions of the US are managed in a similar fashion: fire agencies anticipate the spread of fire, mandatory evacuations are ordered, and professional fire services move in and attempt to suppress the fires. This approach has not reduced building losses in California. Conversely, l...

The fundamental characteristic of flood risk management in contemporary Australia is the tension between private sector land development interests and their allies who create the risk and the quite different groups, largely comprising the public sector, households and small businesses, who bear the main consequences. Flooded businesses may suffer l...

Severe unprecedented flooding of unprepared and inexperienced communities adversely affects community health, but the effect of severe flooding on well-prepared and experienced communities is less certain. An answer was sought for the New South Wales coastal town of Lismore. Parts are flooded every year with the last major flood occurring in 1974....

Fire and emergency managers have generally been more concerned with undertaking their immediate, vital mission than longer term, strategic policy development. This paper draws on a recent book by the authors to suggest a process for developing and implementing robust policy for fire and emergency management. Different approaches to policy developme...

Bushfire vulnerability and resilience occur in dynamic and complex ways; spatially, temporally, ecologically, socially, and in synergies between these. Along with increasing fire weather risk, climate change is also likely to impact social-ecological bushfire vulnerabilities and challenge bushfire resilience in complex ways. In this chapter we summ...

On Saturday, 7 February 2009, 173 people lost their lives and 2,133 houses were destroyed by bushfires in the Australian State of Victoria (Figure 8.1; Teague et al., 2010). Fires burned under the most severe fire weather conditions experienced for more than one hundred years, with a record high maximum temperature of 46.4 °C in Melbourne, record l...

Capturing uncertainty through numerical probabilistic statements is orthodoxy in risk science—and most of science and technology. There are a wide range of views on the utility of such statements for risk communication, and they are often seen as being central to the failure to generate common understanding about risks between science and non-scien...

The contemporary Western preoccupation with risk assessment is profound. However, this does not mean that the concept of risk is a useful theoretical tool for understanding contemporary society in general. The talk of a risk society is part of a tendency to take risk as an all-embracing category with little attention paid either to the distinction...

As demonstrated in New Orleans, the vast human and financial costs of natural and human-induced disasters are often needlessly high as a result of poor planning and response stemming from inadequate disaster policy. This new handbook, from two top global authorities in the field, shows how to construct a coherent, relevant and effective policy fram...

Policies or guidelines for the management of floodprone land are often developed by national or state governments. However, implementation of such policies generally rests with local governments, as it is these entities which possess the necessary planning and land‐use control powers. Unfortunately, there is much more involved in gaining compliance...

Allocating scare resources for fire management strategies requires information on the extent of economic losses from bushfires and the efficiency of alternatives. Despite the severity of bushfires, there is no agreed approach in Australia for estimating economic losses from fires nor for evaluating the economic efficiency of alternative suppression...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of NGOs in facilitating economic recovery to the tsunami devastated regions in Southern Thailand. This includes large international NGOs as well as small community based or local NGOs and how these organizations engage with one another as well as with government authorities and of course th...

Few events have been as well planned for as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Yet the emergency management system appears to have failed in most respects. Media reports on many aspects of the crisis challenge existing orthodoxy in research and practice. A few months after Katrina, interest has waned and press and agency apologies for exaggerating a...

Local economic activity is key to disaster resilience in much of the world. Without the flows of money generated by such activity, the ability to continue living, let alone recover, is limited. The long-term reality for the survivors of local communities is the struggle to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. In Phuket and the surrounding region mo...

Australian bushfire agencies have a position that people in the path of a fire should either prepare, stay and defend their properties, or leave the area well before the fire front arrives. The position is based largely on observations that evacuating at the last minute is often fatal and that, generally, a key factor in house survival during a wil...

Reducing the impact of climate-related disasters can be conceptualized as being about reducing or managing ‘vulnerability’. ‘Vulnerability’ is a multi-faceted concept incorporating issues of livelihood, housing, security and gender among many others. For example, groups of people may be more or less vulnerable to climate-related disasters due to th...