Towards a consistent approach to disaster loss assessment across Australia

This paper sets out the case for a nationally consistent approach to disaster loss assessment in Australia. Advantages of a consistent approach include the provision of a basis for analysing and comparing disaster events and for evaluating alternative risk management and mitigation proposals. Guides exist but are generally not based on economic principles. Economics in this context is not limited to goods and services conventionally valued in dollars. It includes items of social and environmental value which are not normally bought and sold. The Queensland Department of Emergency Services, other Queensland agencies, Emergency Management Australia (EMA) and the Bureau of Meteorology collaborated with the Centre for Risk and Community Safety at RMIT to produce a set of guidelines and an illustrative case study on loss assessment. The Guidelines are being implemented in Queensland and agencies in some other states are examining their utility. Originally developed for inundation hazards within a generic framework, they are now being extended to cover other hazards such as bushfires. The paper describes the Guidelines, experience with initial implementation, some issues raised by bushfire loss assessment in Victoria, and suggestions for further development of an approach based on economics.