The first round of research projects from Natural Hazards Research Australia gives a fresh boost of funding to research that will strengthen natural hazard resilience and disaster risk reduction across Australia, New Zealand and globally.
While the Centre has been busy finalising its research priorities that will guide future round of research, a small first round of nine new projects will commence, to meet the Australian Government's requirements for funding the Centre, as agreed to earlier in 2021. An additional two rounds of research projects will follow in the first half of 2022, based on partner needs and the final research priorities. The funding of these new projects ensures that natural hazards research activities can continue while the broader research priorities and program are developed.
The projects in this initial round both extend research and support the utilisation of findings from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC’s Black Summer research program, funded through the Australian Government in 2020. For the projects that are not extensions, these address more urgent research needs and issues raised by recommendations from the 2020 Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, the 2020 NSW Independent Bushfire Inquiry and by stakeholders during the Centre’s research priority scoping workshops in August 2021.
The projects are:
- Translation of observed and modelled extreme bushfire behaviours to improve fire prediction and fireground safety
- Understanding the design, communication and dissemination of predictive maps to the public
- Cultural land management (northern): connecting Indigenous people and the emergency management sector – effective partnerships
- Cultural land management (southern): cultural land stewardship research in south east Australia
- Community-led recovery: evidence, dimensions, and supports for Community Recovery Committees
- Identifying water sources for aerial firefighting
- Bushfire information database – scoping study
- Understanding the resilience of lifelines for regional and remote communities
- Research data management
These projects are at different stages of development and finalisation, with an open expression of interest to be released for some of these projects shortly.
The Centre has also recently announced that its new education program is open for applications, as well as quick response funding now being available.