The Western Australian Government has awarded a $2.2 million contract to a University of Adelaide research group to implement UNHaRMED - a natural hazard risk reduction approach and decision support system - in the state.
Photo credit: Philip Thurston.
The system, which has the full name 'Unified Natural Hazard Risk Mitigation Exploratory Decision support system', was developed over 10 years as part of the research group's collaboration with Natural Hazards Research Australia and the Research Institute for Knowledge Systems (RIKS) in the Netherlands.
UNHaRMED's implementation in WA will be managed by the state's Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage.
"We are excited to win this contract from the WA Government, which will provide us and our partners from RIKS with the opportunity to work with a range of government departments in WA to increase their capacity to deal with a riskier future," said project lead Professor Holger Maier, from the University of Adelaide's School of Architecture and Civil Engineering.
UNHaRMED was designed to support policy makers to better understand and address the long-term risks of natural hazards, such as coastal inundation, riverine floods, bushfires and earthquakes.
The support system considers how these events interact with agricultural assets, buildings and other infrastructure in a spatially explicit manner, and how the resulting risks change over time in response to climate change and socio-economic development.
"By allowing decision makers, policy analysts and others in strategic and climate-risk reduction planning roles to consider how the risk from multiple hazards changes over time and space, UNHaRMED allows for the exploration of the effectiveness of different combinations of risk reduction and adaptation options via scenario analysis," said Professor Maier.
"Such options include structural measures, such as dams, levees and seawalls; land use planning, such as zoning and managed retreat; land management, through initiatives like prescribed or cultural burning; changes to building designs, such as floor levels or building materials; and community education, thereby changing social vulnerability."
The implementation of UNHaRMED in WA builds on research conducted under a 2017-22 National Disaster Resilience Program grant funding, which built the basis for undertaking a new project in the state.
Using two case studies, the project will allow the University of Adelaide team to develop the research prototype into a fully functional and operational decision support approach suitable for application across WA, while building the capacity of the state to deal with the increasing threats of natural hazards in a proactive manner.
Research prototypes of UNHaRMED have previously been implemented in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia as well as in Western Australia.
