Supporting people to relocate from areas at high risk from natural hazard was the topic of several discussions in Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane this month.
Natural Hazards Research Australia hosted visiting US expert Prof Gavin Smith from North Carolina State University in talks with government, business and community leaders.
In partnership with the Suncorp Group, Prof Smith was joined by Federal Minister for Emergency Management, Senator the Hon Murray Watt, at a breakfast event at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
More than 40 leaders and experts added their insights and questions in a two-hour discussion on the challenges of managing assisted relocations, including issues around mitigation, rebuilding after hazards, risk mapping, the success of past programs, and understanding the needs of vulnerable residents and Indigenous communities.
Prof Smith also shared his expertise and experience in Sydney with NSW Reconstruction Authority staff and in Brisbane with the Queensland Reconstruction Authority and the office of the Inspector General of Emergency Management.
At the Canberra event, Senator Watt noted the mood in many Australian communities to not just repair what is damaged in a natural hazard but to shift to “betterment” funding for longer-term benefits. For many years, he had heard communities question rebuilding to the same standard only to see structures washed away or destroyed again in following years.
“So, we have been working very closely particularly in New South Wales and Queensland around how we can be injecting betterment funding into the disaster recover funding arrangements," he said.
"Before too long, we will see some of those projects actually being built and making sure those communities are much better prepared for the future.”
Prof Smith shared his expertise on natural hazards, disasters and climate change adaptation both as an academic and as an advisor to governments after major disasters, including Hurricane Katrina. He spoke about both the successes and failures of assisted relocation schemes - or buyouts or managed retreats - in the United States and New Zealand, and the limitations of simply “throwing money” at such complex problems.
“We tend to throw a lot of money at a problem, but we don’t address the root fundamental issues of inequity, bad land use planning, and bad design, and we seem to keep doing it over and over again and expect a different outcome. That’s the definition of insanity," he said.
“The term managed retreat is a loaded term. We have these ideas that we are going to drop into communities and do this work and manage the retreat, but we don’t always give voice to the people directly impacted.”
As an outcome of this event, Suncorp and Natural Hazards Research Australia will soon publish a discussion paper that will draw on the diversity of views expressed, as well as the current state of research, both in Australia and globally. The paper aims to provide a way forward on the complex issues around assisted relocations.