What is the program about?
Until now there hasn’t been a method or process available to gather and analyse local government data and information across state/territory jurisdictions which tracks the impacts that bushfires, floods, extreme weather or other events have on council communities, regions and the country. Generally, the historic focus has been on the necessary emergency response, community recovery and funding.
Building vulnerability trend data captured consistently through the National Local Government Vulnerability Program and using the lens of local government is creating a critical new stream of knowledge.
It is enabling every part of the country to be included in the generation of uniform data and information to support better-informed decision-making, longer-term mitigation planning and budgeting, and the tracking of Australia’s risk reduction effort over time.
The National Local Government Vulnerability Program complements other activities and initiatives about disaster management, recovery and hazard reduction. This is not a duplication but an additional and important new and useful layer of knowledge.
Program features include:
- An information system measuring, monitoring, benchmarking and reporting on the national resilience journey
- A vulnerability assessment framework
- Council engagement with face-to-face facilitated workshops and online data collection
- Vulnerability rankings, tracked by councils
- Regional, state and national data to assist all tiers of government
- A secure information and data Quantifying Resilience Kiosk for program participants and partners
- A new layer of knowledge supporting the Australian Government's National Action Plan
- Data and information for councils to measure and monitor local investments in risk reduction, recovery and growing their resilience
- Data and information available to Australian, state/territory and local governments to inform future collaborative action
- Resilience rankings for councils to use in strategic, community, business and budget planning
QR Kiosk
Building the national profile of vulnerability, based on local data and information, gathered and catalogued consistently across the country – council-by-council – is significant. It will be collected and housed in the Quantifying Resilience (QR) Kiosk on this site.
The QR Kiosk houses the data library and a range of vulnerability mapping tools for use by program participants.
The QR Kiosk enables councils to benchmark and track their vulnerability and hazard scores, download information and data for reports and other uses, monitor changes and maturation over time. As well, there are regional, state and national ratings that map the nation’s progress and enable comparative analyses.
Participants can use the data and information in the QR Kiosk to incorporate into strategic and budgetary planning, funding applications, grant applications, annual reports and business plans, among other applications.
Looking long-term, the National Local Government Vulnerability Program is helping to shift the capability focus from emergency and recovery to mitigation and adaptation, as all jurisdictions strive for resilience and look to mitigation in new ways as an investment in a better future.