The Centre completed a major research report into the 2022 eastern Australia floods, exploring community experiences before, during and after flooding. Since its completion in 2023, substantial investment in a series of activities to translate this research into practice was undertaken by the Centre to aid its use and implementation by end-users.
A survey of 50 end-users found:
- 98 per cent of respondents from organisations whom the research was relevant believed the results would be useful
- The findings would most likely be used to educate staff and volunteers, inform information campaigns, change practice and inform doctrine and policy.
Further research is underway exploring community experiences of flooding during 2022 and 2023 in Tasmania, south-west NSW, Victoria and SA with a new set of stakeholders.
NSW SES is using the research to inform the planning of future flood response coordination and informs community engagement around flood preparedness. With findings that 70 percent of Hawkesbury-Nepean residents not acting on evacuation warnings during the 2022 floods as they believed the risk did not directly affect them, the NSW SES and NSW Reconstruction Authority jointly developed the Future Flood campaign to raise awareness of the risk in flood prone areas. The video and other campaign materials simulated flood events at a personal level for residents.
The Queensland Fire Department (QFD) captured the research’s main findings in its Central Repository Framework within the Lessons Management Unit, ensuring insights and learnings will be embedded in its future planning and operations.
Making flood risk relatable can be challenging – we often refer to probability and complex details relating to when and where floods will hit – this campaign taps into the way people’s decisions are influenced and highlights how past floods are not a reliable indicator of what a future flood may look like.
Spokesperson, NSW Reconstruction Authority