The new Australian Disaster Resilience Index

摘要

Suellen Flint, the deputy state recovery coordinator at the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (Western Australia) explains what makes a resilient community. 'At their best, communities are prepared, are able to adapt to changing situations, are connected to each other and are self-reliant,' said Flint. An understanding of disaster resilience focuses on ways that we can improve a community's chance of adapting to future change, rather than focusing on its ability to react to hazards that have already occurred. To support resilience across Australia, a new research-based website - the Australian Disaster Resilience Index - has been developed to help industry, business, government and emergency services improve the resilience of their local communities before, during and after natural hazards. Developed by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and the University of New England, the Index is free to use and allows anyone with an interest in understanding the resilience of their local community to access this information.