UNDERSTANDING COMMUNITIES PROJECT (C1)

The Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre was established on a national basis under the Commonwealth Government's Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program. Details of the national programs can be found on the web site: http://www.bushfirecrc.com/ The Understanding Communities project is part of the Bushfire CRC program - Community Self-sufficiency for Fire Safety.

The aim of the Understanding Communities Project is to increase community resilience to bushfires. The project takes an action research approach using mixed methods to understand bushfire issues, particularly in peri urban areas. Interviews with stakeholders, review of internal reports from fire agencies and initial academic research indicated that building community resilience requires an understanding of how government policy and public perceptions interact and also to understand how the expectations of service providers, communities and agencies agree and differ.

In most communities only a small proportion of people have the capacity to prepare for and react appropriately to fire threat. Most people rely on fire services to protect them and their property, but the services' capacity to respond is finite, and in major events resources may be inadequate.

There may be a trend towards increasing reliance on the fire services at the same time as the risk may be increasing due to settlement patterns and climate change.

Key Outputs and Outcomes

1. Typology of the nature and extent (existing and future) of the bushfire risk for a range of communities across Australia .

This typology will improve the effectiveness of work undertaken by bushfire management agencies by informing planning and decision-making.

 

2. Framework and methodology for defining community values, attitudes, perceptions, needs and expectations in relation to bushfire risk.

 

The methodology and techniques developed will provide a framework to help improve the effectiveness of work undertaken by bushfire management agencies by providing a means of better understanding the context of community decision-making.

 

3. Guidelines for assessing organizational needs and expectations in relation to bushfire risk.

 

The methodology and techniques developed will form part of a research framework to help improve the effectiveness of the work undertaken by bushfire management agencies and to increase the self-sufficiency of communities in relation to bushfire risk. It will do this by providing a means to better understand organisational responsibilities and expectations.

Initial parameters for the Understanding Communities project have been defined by case studies of two peri-urban regions in Queensland . Findings from these studies will be tested with case studies in other states and environments. Data collection will utilize a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies including community surveys, focus groups and personal interviews.

Project Leader: Dr Alison Cottrell, James Cook University , Ph: (07) 4781 4653

Judy Newton , Queensland Fire & Rescue Service, Ph: (07) 3247 8157