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How will our three finalist teams tackle this year’s wicked problem?
Hosted by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, join Natural Hazards Research Australia on 4 October 2024 in Mandurah, Western Australia as this year’s Disaster Challenge's brightest minds pitch their ideas to build trust within society to reduce the risk and impact of disasters.
Date: 4 October 2024
Time: 10:00am-12:00pm AWST
Venue: Bushfire Centre of Excellent, Mandurah, Western Australia
What is the Disaster Challenge Final?
The Disaster Challenge Final features three teams comprising early career researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students who present their innovative solutions to this year’s wicked problem – a real-world problem that is urgent but difficult to solve because of its incomplete, contradictory, or changing requirements.
The teams have 15 minutes to pitch their idea to the expert judging panel, made up of disaster management experts.
Watch previous years’ pitches to get an idea of how other teams tackled the wicked problem.
The wicked problem
At the heart of society’s approach to disaster resilience are the notions of shared responsibility and community-led action, backed by scientific evidence and lived experience. This requires informed, trusted and effective relationships between people and organisations involved in preventing, preparing, responding and recovering from disasters, including climate change.
There are many ways to build and sustain mutual trust, however trust can be eroded by the decisions and actions of people, communities and organisations. In its place people, communities and organisations can be disconnected, communication can break down and cynicism, doubt, isolation and non-participation can grow.
When trust is challenged the foundations of disaster resilience are threatened.
Meet the finalists
Home Insurance Risk Reduction Options
Natalie Oliver (early career researcher, Queensland Fire Department), Alexandra Gunn (postgraduate student, La Trobe University and Queensland Fire Department), Lillian Norris (postgraduate student, University of Queensland)
Home Insurance Risk Reduction Options (HIRRO) empowers homeowners to reduce risk and increase resilience through a range of practical home improvements that lead to real and transparent reductions in insurance premiums while also building trust. Through the integration of risk data and AI, HIRRO will inform homeowners about the most beneficial, risk-reducing improvements they can make to their homes, leading to insurance premium reductions in an accessible and transparent process and increasing trust.
Building trust and resilience: Improving community disaster response through effective message dissemination
Craig Ridep-Morris (postgraduate student, James Cook University), Alison Sheaves (postgraduate student, James Cook University, Madison Green (postgraduate student, James Cook University)
Through the development of a community-centred, human behaviour theory-informed disaster information dissemination protocol, trust in emergency and disaster management will be improved and community disaster-resilience built. Optimising the advertisement and dissemination of existing information resources, the protocol will address critical elements that improve understanding and prompt protective actions, as well as providing community-accessible disaster information.
Project OutHeat
Hannah Waldron (undergraduate student, University of Western Australia), Curie Thota (postgraduate student, University of Western Australia), Anika Hill (undergraduate student, Murdoch University)
Using a two-pronged approach, Project OutHeat fosters community trust and action during heatwaves. Nag-Your-Neighbours encourages community members to check in on those around them during heatwaves, while Hydraid delivers mobile heatwave relief in metropolitan and regional Australia, providing essential aid to those without support/resources during extreme weather.
The Disaster Challenge
The Disaster Challenge is an annual national challenge to encourage new ideas, new thinking and new research. It encourages early career researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students across Australia to find innovative and creative solutions to solve wicked problems being faced by emergency management and disaster risk reduction organisations.
Coordinated by Natural Hazards Research Australia with support from universities and emergency management organisations, the Disaster Challenge 2024 invited the best and brightest university-level minds to put their creative talents into helping solve the trickiest problems surrounding how floods, bushfires, storms, cyclones and other natural hazards are dealt with. The Disaster Challenge Final is hosted by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services at the Bushfire Centre of Excellence in Mandurah, Western Australia.