Australia’s recently adopted National Strategy for Disaster Resilience  recognizes four characteristics of disaster resilient communities: 1) they function well while under stress 2) they adapt successfully 3) they are self-reliant and 4) they have strong social capacity. However important questions are raised. How would progress towards the development of these characteristics be assessed?  How should investments to develop disaster resilience be prioritized, evaluated and reported? This project will develop an Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index as a tool for assessing, evaluating and reporting resilience to natural hazards under the NSDR. 

There is a burgeoning literature on using indices to assess community vulnerability or resilience.  Our concern is that such indicators need to be tested. When examined against recent disasters in Australia, what would such indicators have predicted? We propose that by retrospectively recreating indicators before past events, discussion with local authorities, emergency service professionals etc. will identify the traits of the community and the features of its environment that affect resilience. From this proven and tested information we will develop an index that aligns with the four NSDR characteristics of natural disaster resilient communities. A new research project for 2014 that is funded by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, this presentation will discuss the progress made in the development of the index as well as its future direction.