Disaster resilience in Australia: A geographic assessment using an index of coping and adaptive capacity

This paper reports a national-scale assessment of disaster resilience, using the Australian Disaster Resilience Index. The index assesses resilience at three levels: overall capacity for disaster resilience; coping and adaptive capacity; and, eight themes of disaster resilience across social, economic and institutional domains. About 32% of Australia's population (7.6 million people) live in an area assessed as having high capacity for disaster resilience. About 52% of Australia's population (12.3 million people) live in an area assessed as having moderate capacity for disaster resilience. The remaining 16% of Australia's population (3.8 million people) live in an area assessed as having low capacity for disaster resilience. Distribution of disaster resilience in Australia is strongly influenced by a geography of remoteness. Most metropolitan and inner regional areas were assessed as having high capacity for disaster resilience. In contrast, most outer regional, remote and very remote areas were assessed as having low capacity for disaster resilience, although areas of low capacity for disaster resilience can occur in metropolitan areas. Juxtaposed onto this distribution, themes of disaster resilience highlight strengths and barriers to disaster resilience in different communities. For example, low community capital and social cohesion is a disaster resilience barrier in many metropolitan areas, but higher community capital and social cohesion in outer regional and some remote areas supports disaster resilience. The strategic intent of a shared responsibility for disaster resilience can benefit from understanding the spatial distribution of disaster resilience, so that policies and programmes can address systemic influences on disaster resilience

The Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index: Annual project report 2017-18

Natural hazard management policy directions in Australia – and indeed internationally – are increasingly being aligned to ideas of resilience. However, the definition and conceptualization of resilience in relation to natural hazards is keenly contested within academic literature (Klein et al., 2003; Wisner et al., 2004; Boin et al., 2010; Tierney, 2014). Broadly speaking, resilience to natural hazards is the ability of individuals and communities to cope with disturbances or changes and to maintain adaptive behaviour (Maguire and Cartwright, 2008). Building resilience to natural hazards requires the capacity to cope with the event and its aftermath, as well as the capacity to learn about hazard risks, change behaviour, transform institutions and adapt to a changing environment (Maguire and Cartwright, 2008). The Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index is a tool for assessing the resilience of communities to natural hazards at a large scale. Using a top down approach, the assessment will provide input to macro-level policy, strategic planning, community planning and community engagement activities at National, State and local government levels. First, it is a snapshot of the current state of natural hazard resilience at a national scale. Second, it is a layer of information for use in strategic policy development and planning. Third, it provides a benchmark against which to assess future change in resilience to natural hazards. Understanding resilience strengths and weaknesses will help communities, governments and organizations to build the capacities needed for living with natural hazards. Design of the Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index The Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index will assess resilience based on two sets of capacities – coping capacity and adaptive capacity. We have used a hierarchical structure for the Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index. Indicators provide the data for a theme – together the indicators measure the status of the theme. We collected approximately 90 indicators across the eight coping and adaptive capacity themes. Indicators were collected at Statistical Area 2 (SA2) resolution where possible. Results of the Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index The results and initial trends in the eight themes of the Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index are presented below. It should be noted that these interpretations and maps are subject to further change as the State of Disaster Resilience Report is developed. What is presented here is an overview of the pattern of index values. In all maps, lower index values in brown represent lower disaster resilience and higher index values in green represent higher disaster resilience. Each of the sections is an SA2 division of the ABS

A longitudinal analysis of return migration from Australia,1982-1990

This study evaluates three hypotheses of return migration from Australia: the success hypothesis, the failure hypothesis and the continued evaluation hypothesis. Under the success hypothesis, migrants integrate well into Australian society, but return when they reach their target income. The failure hypothesis proposes that migrants have strong ties to their country of origin and do not integrate well into Australian society. This weak level of integration leads to low probabilities of finding employment and low wage. That, combined with the high pecuniary costs associated with remaining in Australia leads to high probabilities of return migration when economic conditions in Australia are poor. Under this scenario, migrants tend to be older, married and are poorly skilled. In the final hypothesis--the continued evaluation hypothesis--migrants retain strong ties to their country of origin while also integrating into Australian society. However, unlike the previous two hypotheses, migrants continue to compare economic conditions in their country of origin with those in Australia, and return when benefits outweigh the costs of remaining in Australia. The three hypotheses are tested using data from Australian arrival and departure cards and a Cox proportional hazard model. The continued evaluation path hypothesis is found to be most appropriate for Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, whereas the success hypothesis is most applicable for South Africa, Viet Nam and Yugoslavia. There was little support for the failure hypothesis

Applied Geography

First mentioned in the late 1800s, applied geography is a relatively recent discipline that has enjoyed controversy, acclaim, and change in its short life. Beginning as a merger of natural sciences and social sciences, applied geography has faced critics from both sides of science; however, it has also been hailed by both as having the ability to help humanity. The term first appeared during a time when educational programs at the high school and college level were reevaluating the curriculum being taught then. Until this time, the discipline of geography had included only the natural sciences, such as geology and meteorology. John Scott Keltie (1890) was influential in suggesting that it is possible for the gap between natural and social sciences to be bridged through the application of geographic science to human behaviors. Most of what was written about applied geography during this time emerged from Europe. The first college to develop an applied geography program in the United States was the University of California, Berkeley, and even then it was only included as a part of an economics program. Applied geography uses geographical theory and methodology to solve problems on many topics as long as a problem has a geographical component, and therefore, the field has found a home in disciplines outside of geography. Some 20 years after the first academic program was created, applied geography classes and research emerged throughout the country

Demographic Projection as a Tool for Analysing Trends of Community Vulnerability

This paper discusses the potential for using demographic and socioeconomic data projections to study geographical and temporal trends of community vulnerability to hazards. Several techniques are outlined, and their practical application critically discussed in relation to variables considered to be indicators of hazard vulnerability. Demographic projections for Southeast Queensland Local Government Areas were generated, mapped and discussed as an illustration of possible information outputs

Note from the Editors: Australasian Journal of Regional Studies - Volume 17, Number 2, 2011

This edition of the 'Australasian Journal of Regional Studies' (AJRS) is the first that we have produced since formally taking over as editors at ANZRSAI's AGM in December 2010. Volume 17 (1), which was published in the first half of 2011, contained selected conference papers and keynote addresses from the December 2010 meeting. It was guest-edited by our President, Professor Paul Dalziel. After a challenging transition of editorship we are now operating optimally. Both the pace of article submission and referee turn-around times accelerated greatly in the second half of the year so that we are close to copy-editing Volume 17 (3) and we now have a good number of articles now in the refereeing pipeline. Since Volume 18 (1) will also contain refereed material from the 2011 Conference in Canberra, we expected to be back on track to produce our three issues on schedule during 2012

Minutemen and Desert Samaritans: Mapping the Attitudes of Activists on the United States' Immigration Front Lines

While the immigration attitudes of those in societal and ethnic minority groups have been well documented, the attitudes of immigration activists on specific issues have seen little systematic study. This article reports the findings of surveys on US immigration and trade-liberalisation policy conducted with members of the civilian border-patrol Minuteman group, and border humanitarian groups such as Samaritans and No More Deaths. Previous surveys have found relatively high levels of support for the Minuteman effort in US border states. This study finds significant divergence on actual attitudes between such activists and non-activists, the majority of whom in both groups reside in Arizona, the border state with the highest reported traffic of unauthorised immigrants. Survey findings also suggest that the relationship between attitudes toward immigration and trade liberalisation is more complex than has been presumed. The specific provisions of liberalisation agreements, in particular those on labour and the environment, can play a major role in determining support for them, including support from those with strong attitudes on related issues such as immigration

Privatised development and the quality of urban life

Extensive residential communities, created by corporate developers and marked by walls and even gates, have emerged in metropolitan areas across the world. They have been criticised by many urbanists as evidence of a widespread process - the privatisation of space - which is frequently viewed as a negative development that is promoting social fragmentation and alienation. In this paper, this assertion is explored, drawing in part upon a decade of empirical research in the American Southwest, where privatised urban development is especially pervasive; it is manifested in the widespread construction of shopping malls, office parks and residential communities governed by legal covenants. Contrary to much academic opinion and popular commentary, the authors have found that such residential developments, managed by developers and home owner associations, are nonetheless popular with residents, who assess their quality of life highly and frequently choose to live in such developments again when they move. The significance of these results is explored in relation to understanding the quality of urban life and what this may imply for the urban development process

Note from the Editors: Australasian Journal of Regional Studies - Volume 20, Number 3, 2014

The six articles in this final issue of the Australasian Journal of Regional Studies for 2014 once again cover key themes in modern regional science. The first of these concerns regional economic development processes in non-metropolitan Australia. A difficult task at the best of times, the demand for local development stimulus across rural Australia remains undiminished despite poor track records over the last half century. But the two articles by Kotey and Sorensen and Mangoyana and Collits neatly come together to explain some key dimensions of the struggle for regional development in the encroaching second machine age. The first of these details many of the difficulties faced by rural small businesses as they grapple with the need to innovate to stay alive, while confronting numerous barriers often not of their own making in an uncertain world. Alas for them, it is now becoming clear that intensive networking is becoming a key element both in starting new businesses or modernising existing enterprises. This is, of course, difficult in small and widely scattered communities, a situation underscored by the second of the two articles, this one dealing with collaboration among businesses and agencies charged with promoting local development in Wide-Bay Burnett. Mangoyana and Collits witness silo cultures among both governments and businesses rather than widespread networking among all the local players, and advocate new networking models able to facilitate high level interaction among all relevant parties

Australasian Journal of Regional Studies: Volume 17, Number 1, 2011

The 'Australasian Journal of Regional Studies' is a refereed journal published three times yearly by the Australia and New Zealand Regional Science Association International Inc. (ANZRSAI), which is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of efficient and effective regional development policies through research, education and the discussion of ideas. Its interests cover a wide range of Australian and international regional issues with a major focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Its goal is to provide a platform for a multidisciplinary approach to regional analysis. Submissions which fall within this general framework of regional analysis, policy, practice and development are welcome. The journal includes research notes and reviews of books