Natural Disaster Mitigation – To Save Taxpayers Billions?

“An open-source platform that provides access to information about disasters such as floods and bushfires could help yield savings of $500 million to $2.4 billion alone.” The Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities.

About The Roundtable’s Report

The roundtable – including reps from large companies such as Insurance Australia Group, Westpac Banking Corp, Optus and Investra, found that organisations with the most info:

• CSIRO
• Australian Productivity Commission
• Bureau of Meteorology

do not share or ‘join up’ their info. Apparently there was a recommendation of open government in 2010 which recommended making government controlled info more accessible through technology.

A $250 million yearly investment in infrastructure would help government save billions in the future. The average post-disaster recovery, $560 million, is 10 times what is spent investing in preventative infrastructure, such as flood levees.

There is a disproportionate research amount spent on some disaster types, such as bushfires, with little or none spent on others.

“Significantly, only a small amount of research has been conducted into the effectiveness of disaster mitigation into the social and psychological impact of disasters.”

FOR MORE INFO http://www.iag.com.au/news/shareholder/20140716_ABRT_new_approach.shtml

Improving awareness of psychological impacts is welcome