Community resilience after the 2011 Brisbane floods  

Authors / CoAuthors

Edwards, M.R.

Abstract

More than 17,000 dwellings in the Brisbane and Ipswich area were flood affected when the Bremer and Brisbane Rivers exceeded major flood levels in January 2011. Significant damage was caused to property and many households were severely disrupted for extended periods of time. The disaster prompted a large effort and a range of provisions to enable the clean-up of the direct damage and the promotion of recovery. The disaster provided a valuable opportunity to examine the community recovery following the event and to consequently obtain a better understanding of the resilience of Australian households to flood. During April and May 2012 Geoscience Australia, in collaboration with the New Zealand National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research, conducted a postal survey of residents in the flood affected areas of Brisbane and Ipswich. The response to the survey was very encouraging with nearly 1,300 households responding. The survey covered a range of topics including preparation in the days leading up to the flood inundation, evacuation behaviour, economic impacts and subjective well-being. It also included the reconstruction undertaken and associated recovery in the days, weeks, and months following the flood event. The presentation examines the survey data obtained and focuses on vulnerability and reconstruction. It discusses the composition of vulnerable households (for example people with disabilities, no access to a motor vehicle, single parents with young children), household well-being after the flood event (for example physical, emotional and financial stress) and building fabric issues (for example mould or warped timbers) during the reconstruction phase. Also examined are the steps taken to mitigate against future flood events. The presentation compares two different socio-economic areas and looks at any differences in recovery between the two areas. The survey analysis can point to what householders might experience following the January 2013 flooding in Queensland and NSW.

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

75586

Contact for the resource

Keywords

• PowerPoint

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Demography

• Published_Internal

Publication Date

2013-01-01T00:00:00

Creation Date

Security Constraints

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

Access - restricted

Use - license

Status

Purpose

Maintenance Information

asNeeded

Topic Category

society

Series Information

Lineage

Requested abstract for NATSEM presentation

Parent Information

Extents

Reference System

Spatial Resolution

Service Information

Associations

Downloads and Links

Source Information

Brisbane floods postal survey na