EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT IN AUSTRALIA - Charles Sturt University

1. EMRGENCIES AND DISASTERS — A BACKGROUND1. EMERGENCIES AND DISASTERS—A BACKGROUNDAn ‘event’ or a ‘situation’?A number of definitions of ‘emergency’ and ‘disaster’ have been proposed over time, manyof them focussing on some measure of the cost of the event in terms of loss of life ordamage. An early definition of ‘disaster’ was ‘an event which takes more than 10,000 lives’.On that definition, Australia’s only recorded disaster was the influenza epidemic of1918–19, which certainly caused at least that number of deaths.More recently, however, the focus of concern with emergencies and disasters has movedtowards consideration of the situation created by such phenomena rather than simply ofthe origin, nature, size, speed of onset and other physical attributes of the hazard, whichresults in the event itself. To some extent, this change of focus has been brought about byour recognition of our limited capability for controlling such attributes, in the case of naturalhazards in particular. But it has also stemmed from our realisation that the consequencesof many different types of events—the situation that the impact of such events, whethernatural or man-made, may create in terms of social, economic, environmental,developmental and political consequences for the communities they impact—can beremarkably similar. Importantly, we now recognise that emergencies and disasters occurin a social context and have social consequences.It is important that we continue to expand our understanding of the physical attributes of thehazards to which our communities may be subject, in order to find ways to preventemergencies or disasters occurring and to reduce their impacts. We also need to learnmore about how we can manage the situations created by the impacts of those hazardsthat cannot be prevented or otherwise reduced. This requires us to develop a more detailedunderstanding of the factors that may lead to such situations occurring, and how suchfactors may be managed.A key to this understanding is an ability to differentiate between hazards and risk.Hazards and riskAustralian communities live with a variety of hazards—sources of potential harm orsituations with a potential to cause loss.Many of these hazards are often termed ‘natural hazards’ and include floods, cyclones,earthquakes, heatwaves, windstorms and bushfires. They have their origins in theenvironment in which we live and are often seasonal and regional.Others are frequently identified as ‘technological hazards’, including building fires, explosions,transportation incidents, toxic materials releases and the like. They often result from thefailure of man-made systems or are the outcomes of human action. They are frequentlyunpredictable and can occur almost anytime and anywhere.There are other sources of hazard with which we may be less familiar. These includehazards of chemical, biological and radiological origin, including human and animal disease,and hazards which may be largely social in origin, such as civil unrest and terrorism.Because of Australia’s size, location and great diversity of geophysical and climaticconditions, we live with a wide range of natural hazards. Similarly, with our level of industrialdevelopment and the complexity of many of the systems we need to maintain our standardsof living, technological and other hazards abound.Much descriptive material on the origin and nature of hazards facing the Australian communityand on particular historical emergencies and disasters in Australia is available (includingvarious EMA publications), and a selection of these is included in the ‘For More Information ’ section at the end of this manual.1

The first part of the definition of risk (see ‘Key Terms’)—‘the chance of something happeningthat will have an impact upon objectives, measured in terms of consequences andlikelihood’—is the generic definition from the Australian/New Zealand Risk ManagementStandard 4360:2004 and is used in all sections of the risk management industry.In the field of emergency management, however, the risks we deal with are likely to haveadverse consequences for our communities and their community safety and sustainabledevelopment objectives. In this context, hazards by themselves are only one part of the riskequation. The second part of our definition—‘a concept used to describe the likelihood ofharmful consequences arising from the interaction of hazards, the community and theenvironment’—recognises this reality.Hazards are the primary sources of risk in the emergency management context, but theyneed to interact with elements at risk in the community and its environment in order to leadto the situations that we identify as emergencies or disasters. Those elements include thebuilt, physical and social elements which surround or interact with the community.In our context, therefore, ‘environment’ includes the whole range of ‘lifelines’ and essentialservices, infrastructures, key resources, and social and economic frameworks on whichmodern communities depend for day-to-day living and for future development.The extent to which any of these community and environment elements at risk may interactwith a hazard (a source of risk) to create the possibility of an emergency or disaster can bemeasured in terms of that element’s vulnerability to the particular hazard—theoretically,somewhere along a continuum from complete susceptibility to such an interaction (whereany interaction can lead to the loss of the element or to its irreparable damage) to completeresilience to an interaction (where no interaction, however severe, will lead to loss or damageto the element).So, from the emergency management perspective, the risk to a safer, sustainablecommunity from emergencies and disasters lies in the potential and actualinteractions between the hazards to which that community is exposed and thevulnerability of that community’s elements at risk to such exposure.The Australian emergency management concepts and applications described in the followingchapters are designed to assist in developing a safer, sustainable community: 2by limiting the potential for such interactions—eliminating or mitigating the hazards towhich a community is exposed, reducing the exposure of the community and itsenvironment to those hazards, and increasing the resilience of the community’s elementsat risk; andby managing emergencies and disasters, which result from those interactions whichdo occur.

2. AUSTRALIAN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS2. AUSTRALIAN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT CONCEPTSThe context of emergency managementEmergency management policies and programs contribute to the goal of a safer, sustainablecommunity, helping ensure that all citizens can live, work and pursue their appropriateneeds and interests in a safe and sustainable physical and social environment.Basic approaches to emergency managementAustralia has adopted a comprehensive and integrated approach to the development ofits arrangements and programs for the effective management of emergencies and disasters.This approach is: comprehensive, in encompassing all hazards and in recognising that dealing withthe risks to community safety, which such hazards create, requires a range ofprevention/mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery (PPRR) programs andother risk management treatments; and integrated, in ensuring that the efforts of governments, all relevant organisations andagencies, and the community, as a prepared community, are coordinated in suchprograms.Ultimately, the goal of all such arrangements and programs is to contribute to the developmentand maintenance of a safer, sustainable community.The comprehensive approachEmergency management arrangements and programs need to be able to deal with thewide variety and scale of hazards that may affect Australian communities, whether theseoriginate from natural, technological, biological or social agents or result from an interactionbetween agents in any of these fields.These all hazards arrangements and programs must also provide for the performance ofhumanitarian tasks, which may be required to protect our civil population from the dangersthat might arise from hostilities, to provide the conditions necessary for individual andcommunity survival in such circumstances, and to help the community recover from theimmediate effects of hostile action. These humanitarian or civil defence tasks are prescribedin the 1977 Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, to which Australia is asignatory.However, as discussed in Chapter 1, the risk of an emergency or disaster occurring iscreated when a hazard, a source of risk, has the potential to affect a community that isvulnerable to such an impact, so that any type of hazard is essentially a source of risk tosuch a community. The elements at risk from possible hazard impact in a community willinclude the lives and property of its citizens, infrastructure and essential services, the localeconomy and the environment.Some examples will help to distinguish between hazards and risks. Cyclones form seasonally in Australia’s northern waters. These hazards clearly createa risk to communities that lie within their paths or that may be affected by some of theconditions created by a cyclone, such as storm surge. Frequently, cyclones will moveaway from the coast and eventually dissipate. They may also decrease in intensity andcross the coast with little effect on coastal communities well prepared to deal withsuch events, but cause heavy rain and floods in inland areas. In some instances, suchconditions may result in benefits for agriculture and ecology.3

On occasion, however, a cyclone will affect a community, which may be particularlyvulnerable to the size or nature of the event, as happened in the case of a fishing fleetoff northern Queensland in 1890 and in relation to the city of Darwin in 1974. Occasionally, an extreme or severe bushfire may occur in a remote area of centralAustralia. The risk that such a fire may lead to an emergency or disaster depends onthe possibility that a community may lie in the path of such a fire, or that major operationssuch as mineral or pastoral developments may be directly affected, and thesepossibilities are limited. Communities in many parts of Australia are subject to the hazards of area-flooding orflash-flooding. Engineering solutions such as dams, levees and flood-channelling canrarely be expected to remove such a hazard altogether. But the risk that flooding maylead to an emergency or disaster in a particular community may be significantly reducedby combining such structural measures with provisions such as local laws establishingminimum floor levels for new buildings and restricting development in flood-prone areas,effective response and recovery arrangements as part of community emergency riskmanagement planning, and ‘flood-proofing’ of essential services. Even with suchmeasures, however, some areas may still face higher levels of risk than others.So, reducing or eliminating the risk to any community of emergencies and disasters requiresprograms aimed at reducing or eliminating both the hazards to which that community maybe subject and the vulnerability of that community to those hazards. Vulnerability is measuredby the extent to which a community or an environment is susceptible or resilient to hazards.Australia’s comprehensive approach to emergency management recognises four types ofactivities that contribute to the reduction or elimination of hazards and to reducing thesusceptibility or increasing the resilience to hazards of a community or environment:4 prevention/mitigation activities, which seek to eliminate or reduce the impact ofhazards themselves and/or to reduce the susceptibility and increase the resilience ofthe community subject to the impact of those hazards; preparedness activities, which establish arrangements and plans and provideeducation and information to prepare the community to deal effectively with suchemergencies and disasters as may eventuate; response activities, which activate preparedness arrangements and plans to put inplace effective measures to deal with emergencies and disasters if and when they dooccur; and recovery activities, which assist a community affected by an emergency or disasterin reconstruction of the physical infrastructure and restoration of emotional, social,economic and physical well-being.

2. AUSTRALIAN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT CONCEPTSTypical program activities may include:Prevention/mitigationBuilding codesPublic educationInsuranceBuilding-use regulationsPublic informationincentives/disincentivesLegislationTax incentives/disincentivesZoning/land-use managementEmergency response plansMutual aid agreementsTraining programsWarning systemsPublic educationTest exercisesEvacuation plansPublic informationRefuge sheltersEmergency communicationsResource inventoriesPreparednessResponsePlan implementationInform higher authoritiesSearch and rescueEmergency declarationsActivate coordination centresProvide medical supportWarning messagesEvacuationInstitute public health measuresPublic informationMobilise resourcesProvide immediate reliefRegistration and tracingDamage assessmentRecoveryRestore essential servicesDistribute recovery storesRestore public assetsCounselling programsPublic informationEconomic impact studiesTemporary housingLong-term medical supportReview development plansFinancial support/assistance Manage public appealsInitiate reconstruction tasksIt is important to note that these activities are not ‘linear’ and independent of each other.While preparedness and response activities and measures are closely related andsequential, recovery follows the impact of an event, the comprehensive approach toemergency management requires that PPRR programs be effectively integrated.This can be most clearly demonstrated in emergency management planning at localgovernment level, where consideration is being given to the hazards specific to a geographicarea and to the particular vulnerabilities of communities within that area to those hazards.PPRR programs at local government level, therefore, need to be subject to effective oversightarrangements to ensure the integrated ‘best use’ of available systems and resources. Theadoption of an appropriate community emergency management/risk management processwill help to ensure this outcome, and is discussed further in Chapter 3.The integrated approachFor Australia’s comprehensive approach to emergency management to be workable, theremust be effective arrangements for the coordination of the activities of governments and ofthe large number of organisations and agencies that need to be involved in PPRR activities.These arrangements need to be set within a legislative and public policy framework.5

The role of governments in providing an effective emergency management framework,under Australian constitutional arrangements, is considered further in the next chapter. Thesecond manual in this series, Manual 2—Australian Emergency ManagementArrangements, describes the national arrangements for emergency management, anddetails the legislative frameworks and management arrangements in each state and territory.In giving effect to integrated emergency management arrangements at national, state/territory and local government levels and in promoting the development of a true communitysafety partnership, many government and statutory agencies need to play an active role.Some agencies will have a primary role in only one of the PPRR programs, but most canbe expected to have a secondary or support role in others and all will need to have anunderstanding of the emergency management policy frameworks and arrangements thatapply in their areas of responsibility.The major voluntary organisations, which have always played a significant role in Australiain both peace and war, give practical expression to the ‘self-help principle’—people joiningtogether to provide support and services to their own and other communities. A number oflong-standing voluntary organisations are directly involved in preparedness, response andrecovery activities, and community needs after the impact of emergencies and disasterswill often stimulate the establishment of emergent community consultative and self-helpgroups.Ultimately, though, a prepared community is a safer community.Individuals can do much to help themselves and others in their community by: being aware of local hazards and the risks that may result from them;taking appropriate individual precautions against such risks;being actively involved in community-based voluntary organisation

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