REC324-4313 |
8 - Communications and warnings
8 - Communications and warnings
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NSW disaster app: That, to improve community confidence in government messaging and warnings, the SEOCON and DCS develop a single ‘NSW disaster app’. This:
• will consolidate individual agencies warning apps
• have a simple interface that is accessible via mobile devices
• provide real time flood warnings and information, both raw information from gauges and processed information from publicly available models
• allow citizens to provide information during a flood to help authorities and community, including flood imagery and local knowledge observations in the lead into, during and immediately after flood events. Further, the SEOCON and DCS develop a single impact assessment tool accessible by DCS/Service NSW to expediate grants for and insurance claims on homes and businesses.
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REC324-4314 |
8 - Communications and warnings
8 - Communications and warnings
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PIFAC function: That, to ensure the community can better understand the threat of flood, storm and tsunami activity, the Department of Customer Service (DCS) be made accountable for PIFAC in all emergencies. This will improve access to clear, reliable and consistent messaging prior to and during emergencies. This transfers the PIFAC role from NSW Police Force to Service NSW. Under this PIFAC function, DCS would be responsible for:
• proactively assessing community sentiment and working with agencies to effectively disseminate key disaster information to all communities including vulnerable, culturally, linguistically, and religiously diverse communities
• coordinating clear, consistent, reliable messaging from all government agencies, especially during a disaster
• working with the SEMC, the Bureau of Meteorology, the new NSWRA and SEOCON to provide public statements evaluating the likely risk of flooding and the effectiveness of planning and preparation for the upcoming season. This should be based on sophisticated monitoring of key risk factors and signals for extreme flood events. It should form the basis for clear public communication about these risks on a regional basis and the actions that the Government proposes in preparation.
• working with the NSWRA and SEOCON to deliver a single communication tool for riverine floods, flash floods and dam warnings which uses all available inputs (such as information from the Bureau, real-time river and rain observations data and citizen science data) and provides an assessment of antecedent conditions (such as saturated catchments, soil moisture and water storage capacity). This information should be available to communities and individuals in real-time, on live warning signs in town centres (using satellite connections so they are not reliant on local telecommunications infrastructure)
• recognising that community will revert to social media platforms to self organise when government is unable to respond, the NSW Government should also consider how to work with social media companies and online communities to ensure consistent messaging during an emergency. This may include directing individual users to Government platforms for updated information.
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REC324-4294 |
34 - Local knowledge
34 - Local knowledge
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Environment: That, to maximise protection for the environment in and around floodplains, Government, working with local communities especially Indigenous communities, the NSWRA, other agencies and local councils ensure Indigenous voices are well heard in land use planning and natural resource management by:
• developing an Indigenous led cultural landscape restoration strategy for the Northern Rivers for nature-based flood mitigation and adaptation which would see large-scale native revegetation and wetland restoration across the Richmond River catchment, including the Tuckean swamp • supporting Indigenous people to engage in cultural stewardship practices to build the resilience of people and Country, including the Jagun Alliance “Healing our River Country for Community and Landscape Resilience” proposal
• establishing a NSW Indigenous Natural Hazards Trust for research into and development of Aboriginal caring for Country and ‘green’ infrastructure to build back resilience in nature and community
• embedding Indigenous voices and representation in governance structures for the NSW Reconstruction Authority.
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REC324-4319 |
26 - Research
26 - Research
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Climate and weather research: That, to enable effective mitigation and adaptation measures in response to changing climate risks, Government establish NSW as a world centre of disaster research and technology development. This should include:
• maintaining and enhancing climate and weather research capability in NSW through establishing a long-term research funding network/partnership (the NSW Climate Extremes Network – NCEN –modelled on other successful research networks such as NSSN) with the state’s universities, coordinated and led through the ARC Centre of Excellence in Climate Extremes (with funding renewed based on performance every 5 years) to ensure leading-edge climate change research and modelling capabilities are available to government agencies and NSW businesses and communities. The funding will enable NCEN to hire researchers and build training programs for students and researchers to enrich the research environment, and the impact of the research in decision making within NSW
• commissioning further research and technology development (through NCEN working as appropriate with the Bureau of Meteorology, Natural Hazards Research Australia, CSIRO and research organisations worldwide, as well as the ARC Centre of Excellence in Climate Extremes) to understand the weather patterns conducive to extreme rainfall (including more detailed rainfall event attribution studies) with a view to increasing rainfall forecasting accuracy in time and location.
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REC324-4295 |
11 - Evacuation and shelters
11 - Evacuation and shelters
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Roads: That, to improve the planning and protection of road infrastructure and to ensure communities, freight movers, combat agencies and emergency services have appropriate access and egress during and following a flood event, Government, through TfNSW and NSWRA and working with combat agencies and local and federal governments as needed, should:
• develop a state-wide road evacuation plan to establish a coordinated view of evacuation routes to ensure they are well-maintained and, particularly working with the Commonwealth Government, ensure that funding is coordinated and prioritised to target upgrades where it is most needed to increase flood resilience. This plan should be informed by catchment-wide flood risk modelling
• identify and prioritise communities at high risk of flooding where access and egress will be affected (for example rural communities connected by a single road affected by landslips) to coordinate logistics options to sustain communities isolated as a result of flooding.
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REC324-4298 |
37 - Funding
37 - Funding
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Housing and development funding options: That, to empower vulnerable people and communities to avoid significant impacts from flood as well as drive broader investment in adaptation, Government through NSWRA:
• consider establishing a NSW Mitigation Fund as a form of secured finance as a lien on title, such as rates-based or utility-based financing, to allow the Government to harness private sector monies to deliver cost-effective flood-resilient retrofits for existing dwellings
• investigate whether trading mechanisms for development rights, renegotiation with developers with existing rights, or uplift value capture to fund buy-outs could reduce existing and anticipated development in areas of greatest flood risks, with an initial focus on the Northern Rivers region and the Hawkesbury-Nepean. In doing so, Government should:
— ensure that tradeable rights facilitate the construction of additional homes in line with regional plans, in particular the Government’s six cities vision developed by the Greater Cities Commission
— fund voluntary property purchases in identified locations through the issuing of tradeable development rights
• work with the insurance industry to ensure that works are undertaken such that they would improve access to lower cost insurance products, improving upon existing guidelines from voluntary house raising schemes
• ensure that local delivery partners provide a seamless consumer experience in a cost-effective manner, whilst meeting community expectations for consumer protection and responsible lending
• consider how the NSW Mitigation Fund mechanism can address other adaptation and mitigation opportunities such as improving flood resilience for structures in areas of extreme risk and reducing emissions and bills whilst improving human health outcomes through energy efficient retrofits and home electrification.
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REC324-4308 |
26 - Research
26 - Research
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Compound mental helath studies: That, to inform Government policies and programs for mental health and disasters, Government commission a longitudinal study on the effect of consecutive disasters on community mental health.
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