Floods happen, it is a way of Australian life. What we do to reduce the impact on our communities is what matters. Pitney Bowes Business Insight understands the cost and complexity many local authorities face as they plan for the risk of flood. As we enter the next storm season, it is helpful to review what is essential to build community resilience to the lasting devastation of flood.
Despite less than 10% of the Australian community historically being exposed to flood risk, it accounts for close to one third of total natural hazard damage and is the most expensive natural hazard in Australia. This is just a financial perspective. The emotional toll can be much more significant for some.

Through a structured emergency planning approach of Prevent, Prepare, Respond and Recover, various local, water and catchment management authorities can mitigate total damage to a certain degree. But, there is a need to place a greater emphasis on action-based resilience planning to strengthen a community’s capacity and capability.

It is the responsibility of these agencies to perform a variety of duties to build and retain community resilience to flood risk. Activities relating to mitigation and preparation include:

• Development of comprehensive local disaster management planning strategies
• Creating and maintaining a community awareness and education programs
• Modelling risk and assessing the potential impact of disaster.

All of these functions need to be fuelled with current quality location intelligence. To see how complex flood risk models can be analysed and applied to a variety of government functions to help build and sustain community resilience, a White Paper on these topics is now available for download  at http://gw.vtrenz.net/?U1YEK9KN1K. If you would like further information, please contact Pitney Bowes Business Insight on +61 2 9437 6255.

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