A collaboration to develop the first national snapshot of disaster resilience in Australia has received a commendation in the research category of the Emergency Media and Public Affairs (EMPA) awards for 2022.

The Australian Disaster Resilience Index (ADRI) was developed by UNE in partnership with Natural Hazards Research Australia (formerly the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre), and help local organisations and emergency services to improve their communities’ resilience to natural hazards.

Associate Professor Melissa Parsons (HASSE) led the research team responsible for collecting the data and doing the modelling. The results were captured in an interactive website by CASI, UNE’s data transformation team, and provides a nationally standardised index of resilience in the form of navigable maps of regions across the country. ADRI enables organisations to tailor programs and policies that strengthen disaster resilience, from national and state levels, right down to specific communities.

“For the first time, the Australian Disaster Resilience Index shows the distribution of disaster resilience across Australia,” A/Prof. Parsons said.

“This landscape of disaster resilience is helping practitioners in the emergency services, community, NGO and government sectors, and the interactive website communicates the index data in a way that supports decision making at local, State and National scales.”

The award recognises the impact of the Australian Disaster Resilience Index in disaster management and was presented at the Disaster & Emergency Management Conference held in Sydney this week.

Image: Dr Richard Thornton, CEO of Natural Hazards Research Australia, accepted the reward on behalf of A/Prof. Parsons and CASI.