An understanding of the vulnerability of the built environment to ground shaking is vital to the impact and risk assessment process. The vulnerability of Unreinforced Masonry (URM) buildings to earthquake hazard as been repeatedly demonstrated around the world. A portion of Australia's building stock is made up of legacy URM buildings dating from before the First World War. These buildings are typical of inner-city suburbs and the centres of country towns. The Kalgoorlie Earthquake of 20 April, 2010 offered the best opportunity to study the vulnerability of Australian URM buildings to ground shaking since the Newcastle Earthquake in 1989. The Kalgoorlie earthquake caused shaking of MMI intensity VI in Boulder and intensity V in Kalgoorlie. Damage was principally confined to turn-of-the-century URM buildings with only slight damage observed in more modern cavity masonry domestic residential buildings. Geoscience Australia led a post-event field survey to record damage to buildings in Boulder - Kalgoorlie. The survey recorded street-view imagery of the entire urban area and subsequently a detailed survey template was complete during a door-to-door foot survey. The foot survey targeted the entire population of turn-of-the-century buildings in Boulder-Kalgoorlie together with a sample of modern cavity masonry domestic residential buildings. The aim of the foot survey was to capture sufficient information to enable the calculation of a damage index (or loss ratio) for each surveyed building. The survey and subsequent analysis revealed an average damage index for turn-of-the-century URM buildings of 0.062 in Boulder (MMI VI) and 0.019 in Kalgoorlie (MMI V). These values are slightly higher than those reported post-Newcastle for ? . Difficulties encountered with computing damage indices for individual buildings are enumerated and recommendations are presented to improve future post-earthquake population surveys.

To determine the magnitude of severe wind gust hazard due to thunderstorm downbursts using regional climate model output and analysis of observed data (including radar reflectivity and proximity soundings).

Probabilistic earthquake hazard maps were prepared for the Fiji Islands. Damage has been caused by Fiji earthquakes around 1850, in 1884, 1902, 1919, 1932 (twice), 1953 and 1979. No previous assessment had produced a comprehensive description of the earthquake hazard in Fiji and the present study was initiated in 1990 when the author was attached to the Mineral Resources Department, Fiji. Collection and analysis of data continued at MRD until 1992 and the study was completed at the Australian Geological Survey Organisation in 1993-1997. The aim of the study was to produce probabilistic earthquake hazard maps which can be used in the National Building Code for Fiji, for design of special structures, for planning, for emergency management and for risk management. Few, if any, similar studies have been undertaken in the seismically active Southwest Pacific.

In 2009 Geoscience Australia (GA), Australia's national geoscience agency, initiated a project to update the National Earthquake Hazard Map for Australia. This talk will summarise the work done by the Earthquake Hazard Section to update the National Earthquake Hazard Maps and will also present the new maps themselves. The maps have mainly been designed to be used as a basis informing Australia's earthquake loading code. However they can also be used to help to improve Australia's ability to better prepare for earthquakes more generally. This talk will provide a brief overview of the work done for this project. Topics to be highlighted in this talk include how we put together a new catalogue of earthquakes for Australia and revised their magnitudes. Our new method for automatically classifying earthquakes as main shocks, foreshocks and aftershocks will also be discussed, as well the new set of earthquake source zones we have produced. In addition, the talk will also discuss new way we have tried to estimate the maximum expected magnitude for earthquakes in Australia from the results of GA's neotectonics program. The completely new set ground motion prediction equations for eastern Australia we have produced will also be presented. Finally, the talk will also show the revised and updated set of earthquake hazard maps based on the latest version of GA's EQRM (Earthquake Risk Model) code. The hazard and spectral curves for selected locations around Australia will be shown and the potential implications for earthquake risk will be briefly discussed. From the 9th International CO2 conference, Beijing 2013

A multihazard (volcano, earthquake, tsunami) assessment for East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea.

The Australian Flood Risk Information Portal (the portal) is an initiative of the Australian Government, established following the devastating floods across Eastern Australia in 2011. The portal is a key component of the National Flood Risk Information Project (NFRIP), and aims to provide a single point of access to Australian flood information. Currently much of Australia's existing flood information is dispersed across disparate sources, making it difficult to find and access. The portal will host data and tools that allow public discovery, visualisation and retrieval of flood studies, flood maps, satellite derived water observations and other related information, all from a single location. The portal will host standards and guidelines for use by jurisdictions and information custodians to encourage best practice in the development of new flood risk information. While the portal will initially host existing flood information, the architecture has been designed to allow the portal content to grow over time to meet the needs of users. The aim is for the portal to display data for a range of scenarios from small to extreme events, though this will be dependent on stakeholder contributions. Geoscience Australia's Australian Flood Studies Database is the portal's data store of flood study information. The database includes metadata created through a purpose-built data entry application, and over time, information harvested from state-operated catalogues. For each entry the portal provides a summary of the flood study, including information on how the study was done, what data was used, what flood maps were produced and for what scenarios, as well as details on the custodian and originating author. If the study included an assessment of damage, details such as estimates of annual average damage, or the number of properties affected during a flood of a particular likelihood will also be included. During the last phase of development downloadable flood study reports and their associated flood maps have been added to the portal where available. As the portal is populated it will increasingly host mapped flood data, or link to flood data and maps held in authoritative databases hosted by State and Territory bodies. Mapping data to be made accessible through the portal will include flood extents and to a lesser degree information on water depths. The portal will also include water observations obtained from Geoscience Australia's historic archive of Landsat imagery. This data will show whether a particular location was 'wet' at some point during the past 30 years. While this imagery does not necessarily represent the peak of a flood or show water depth, the data will support the validation and verification process of hydrologic and hydraulic flood modelling. This work will prove useful particularly in rural areas where there is little or no flood information. The portal also provides flood information custodians with the ability to either upload mapped data directly to the portal or to make this data accessible via web services. Data management tools and standards, developed through NFRIP, will enable data custodians to map their data to agreed standards for delivery through the portal. A portal framework and supporting principles has been developed to guide the maintenance and development of the portal.

In response to the catastrophic flooding in south east Queensland in early 2011 that caused between AUS$5-6 billion damage, the Australian Government initiated the National Disaster Review; an independent review into the insurance arrangements for individuals and businesses for damages and losses due to flood and other natural disasters. The review emphasised that consumers need to be aware of the risks they face, and highlighted the lack of consistency in the collection and provision of flood risk information. In response the Australian Government committed AUS$12 m over 4 years to the National Flood Risk Information Project (NFRIP). NFRIP was established to improve the quality, availability of accessibility of flood information across Australia and commenced in July 2012 with Geoscience Australia as the technical lead and Attorney Generals department taking the policy lead. The project comprises three core activities. 1) Development of the Australia Flood Risk Information Portal (AFRIP; www.ga.gov.au/afrip ), an online flood information portal that provides free access to authoritative flood study information and associated mapping from a central location. Centralising this information will make it easy for the public, engineering consultants, insurers, researchers and emergency managers to find out what flood information and mapping exists and where, and to better understand their risk. 2) Analysis of Geoscience Australia's historic archive of satellite imagery from 1987 to the present to provide an indication of how often surface water has been observed anywhere in Australia over the period of the archive. These Water Observations from Space (WOfS; www.ga.gov.au/wofs ) provide baseline information that can be used when no other flood information is available and an understanding of where surface water may impact assets and utility infrastructure. 3) Improving the quality of future flood information by completing the revision of the Australian Rainfall and Runoff guidelines (ARR; www.arr.org.au ). ARR is a series of national guidelines, methodologies and datasets fundamental for flood modelling that was updated in 1987 and modified 1997. The revised guidelines will provide flood professionals with information and data necessary to produce more accurate and consistent flood studies and mapping into the future. This presentation will provide a brief summary of the NFRIP objectives and progress to date, discuss some of the problems encountered in sourcing and making natural hazard and risk information public, and reflect on the broader challenges in the communication of risk to the wider community.

40 years atmospheric reanalysis for Australia region. http://www.ecmwf.int/products/data/archive/descriptions/e4/index.html

A community Safety Capbility Flyer was produced to showcase the work undertaken in the Community Safety Value Stream. The flyer includes an introduction to the Community Safety Value Stream, case studies of the work Geoscience Australia does in this space and information on how to engage with Geoscience Australia via the products, tools, models and applications that are produced. This flyer is intended for use a conferences and where promotional material would beneficial to showcase the work undertaken at Geoscience Australia such as the Floodplain Management Association Conference on 19-22 May 2015.

These videos are recordings of online secondary teacher professional learning sessions, delivered by Geoscience Australia’s Education Team. “Can I Fall Down the Cracks?” Plate Tectonic Misconceptions Part 1 This session focused on common misconceptions that are encountered when teaching plate tectonics. The student misconceptions addressed are: 1. We can’t see the tectonic plates (starting at 5:35) 2. The mantle is made of liquid rock (starting at 11:25) 3. The plates move by convection in the mantle (starting at 17:35) 4. When plates collide one always goes under the other (starting at 22:15) 57 minutes total duration, with Q&A with an expert scientist starting at 34 minutes. “Can I Fall Down the Cracks?” Plate Tectonic Misconceptions Part 2 This session focused on common misconceptions that are encountered when teaching hazards associated with plate tectonics. The student misconceptions addressed are: 1. Earthquakes are measured using the Richter scale (starting at 3:15) 2. The magnitude of an earthquake depends on how far away it is (starting at 7:20) 3. Earthquakes can be predicted (starting at 10:52) This section includes a description of Raspberry Shake equipment: low cost earthquake monitoring for the classroom 4. There are no volcanoes in Australia (starting at 18:25) 5. You can surf a tsunami (starting at 24:17) 51 minutes total duration, with Q&A with an expert scientist starting at 37 minutes.