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Risky Bites: Disaster Inquiry Keywords
I’ve been working on analysing recommendations from the list of disaster inquiries I’ve put together. At the moment I’ve come up with a list of keywords.
Here are the top 10 (note the analyser does it on a word root basis, so all plurals and forms are included):
- manage/management/manager
- fire
- emergency
- service
- government
- plan/planning
- develop/developing/development
- recommend/recommendation
- state
- ensure
Climate Change, Extreme Weather and Emergency Preparedness Senate Inquiry: Part 6
In this final instalment of my series on the Recent trends in and preparedness for extreme weather events Inquiry I’ll address the remaining terms of reference in a roundabout way. See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 here. The remaining terms deal with Australia’s overall response to climate change adaptation and national coordination of risk management. I want to address the impact of climate change on severe weather events being far from the only climate impact relevant to emergency management; climate change adaptation being far from the only emerging challenge in emergency management; and the interconnectedness of many current and emerging threats for Australia and the world.
(f) progress in developing effective national coordination of climate change response and risk management, including legislative and regulatory reform, standards and codes, taxation arrangements and economic instruments;
(g) any gaps in Australia’s Climate Change Adaptation Framework and the steps required for effective national coordination of climate change response and risk management; and
(h) any related matter.
Contemporary Disaster Inquiries in Australia
In my series on the Climate Change Emergency Preparedness Inquiry I’ve discussed past disaster inquiries. This post attempts to index all disaster related inquiries in Australia since 2000. See my newer post here for a list of inquiries prior to 2000.
For the purposes of this list I’ll define an inquiry as any investigation conducted or commissioned by an arm of state or federal government (ie. legislative, executive or judicial) into a specific disaster or a general disaster related topic. I won’t however list reports on disaster related bills or strategies (for example the National Disaster Resilience Strategy), reports that are not publicly available or those commissioned by NGOs, associations and the private sector. I’m including any inquiry that reported after 01/01/2000.
I find that there have been more than 200 disaster related inquiries since 2000. If you’re aware of anything I’ve missed please let me know in the comments.
L’Aquila Earthquake Verdict
On the 6th of April 2009, a devastating earthquake struck the medieval Italian city of L’Aquila. In the town and others nearby 309 people were killed, more than 1,500 people injured, 20,000 buildings destroyed and 65,000 people left homeless.
In the wake of the earthquake 6 Italian scientists and one government official, members of the National Commission for Forecasting and Predicting Great Risks, were charged with manslaughter on the basis that they provided misleading and confusing information. Information that, prosecutors alleged, directly led to people deciding to remain in their homes after a minor earthquake which happened just hours before the fatal shock hit.
Just under three weeks ago the magistrate found all seven guilty prompting massive criticism from scientists worldwide.
Casus Calamitas 