The resilience of critical infrastructure and other lifelines during disasters is crucial for regional and remote communities’ recovery, sustainability and very survival, as discussed in the second November Hazardous Webinar hosted by Natural Hazards Research Australia (the Centre). Held 21 November 2024, members of the paradigm-shifting Understanding the importance of resilient lifelines for regional and remove communities project shared key findings and facilitated a panel discussion about the project’s potential to radically change the way natural hazards research is conducted in Australia.
Centre researchers, Prof Lauren Rickards (La Trobe University - previously RMIT University) and Dr Adriana Keating (Monash University) explored how the resilience of Australia’s lifelines can be improved through the identification of key data and research needs, informing future lifelines and critical infrastructure resilience research.
Using empirical data demonstrated by case studies, Lauren and Adriana highlighted how, in times of disaster, it is often the way natural hazards disrupt and damage communities’ lifelines - power, water and sanitation, transport and telecommunications that creates the most damaging impacts. And conversely, it’s often the effective functioning of established lifelines and sometimes, the unexpected emergence of informal lifelines in disaster situations that saves lives and reduce impacts on communities.
John Richardson (Australian Institute Disaster Resilience) provided perspective on the importance of resilient lifelines and their ability to shift focus from the resilience of infrastructure assets to the contribution of infrastructure assets to the resilience of the system.
Replay the webinar, download the presentation deck and read the panel’s responses to the audience Q&A.