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Download issue (989KB PDF) Cover Page Executive Summary Introduction Data Sources Deaths Due to Natural Hazards A Building Damage Index 20th Century Building Damage Alternative Perspectives on Damage Spatial Variation in Damage A More Refined View Discussion Conclusion Further Reading Acknowledgements

Issues in Risk Science Natural Hazards Risk Assessment: An Australian Perspective - Russell Blong Introduction “Natural hazards risk assessment” - Which natural hazards? Risk to what or whom? When? Where? And over what time period? In the mid-1980s researchers at Macquarie University began struggling with some of these questions at a time when “risk”, to most users, referred not to “financial risk” but to a rather nebulous concept involving “hazard” and “vulnerability”. The researchers at Macquarie focused on several questions: Which natural hazard in Australia kills the most people? Which natural hazard in Australia causes the most damage? Which part of Australia is the most hazardous? and: Which natural hazard will kill the most people? and similar questions focused on the future. Now, nearly twenty years later, we are a lot older and a tad wiser. Whilst we can now answer these questions – with the usual fistful of academic caveats – we also know that the answers are a lot tougher than they first seemed. Australia now has an integrated database on natural perils that ranks amongst the best in the world and which, despite its limitations, would take a lot of effort and cash to emulate or improve and would most likely lead to many more intriguing issues. Its real potential is still to be fully realised. This report briefly describes the construction of the natural hazards database and comments on issues of data quality, and then focuses on: (i) qualified answers to the questions above; (ii) ways in which the data have been and could be used; and (iii) some thoughts on where natural hazards risk assessment in Australia should head from here. In 1994 the natural hazards researchers at Macquarie University formed the Natural Hazards Research Centre (NHRC), sponsored by the reinsurance broker Greig Fester (now Benfield), Swiss Re and QBE Insurance. In 2001 the NHRC was re-engineered as Risk Frontiers with 12 insurance industry sponsors, still including Benfield amongst a mix of direct insurers, reinsurers and reinsurance brokers (see Acknowledgements for the full list of sponsors). Inevitably, Risk Frontiers’ research has developed a focus on natural hazards issues that are of interest to the re/insurance industry and this report reflects that focus. «back to top«