Kingborough Council Community Resilience Initiative

Kingborough Council Community Resilience Initiative
Project insights, summary and lessons learned.
Author: Donovan Burton, Climate Planning
This project received funding from the Australian
Government Attorney-General’s Department
Version 1.3 (2014) Kingborough Council
Cover Photo: Snug Beach temporary housing following the 1967 bushfires.
Snug beach was one of the most affected communities during the fires with
considerable loss of life and destruction of homes, businesses and Council
assets. The temporary housing at the Snug Oval was played an important role
in the recovery of the local community.
Relevant Natural Hazards
The Kingborough region is exposed a number of natural
hazards. The known risks for the region include:
•
Tsunami
•
Bushfire
•
Landslip
•
Heatwave
•
Storms and extreme wind events
•
Flooding (including coastal inundation)
•
Pandemic
•
Dam break
•
Bio-security issues
Many of the above risks can result in a broad array of
cascading impacts and left unmanaged can have profound
impacts on the community. These include energy security
(electricity and fuel), insurance availability and affordability,
business interruption and closure and population shift.
Council is currently working with the community member on
the Emergency Management Committee (EMC) and other
key stakeholders to identify the likelihood and consequences
of the above risks. This is being done with the use of the
Tasmanian-specific CERA tool with the results of the
analysis due in the coming months.
All low lying coastal areas in Kingborough would face a degree
of risk from a Tsunami with Kingston Beach, Blackmans Bay and
Adventure Bay likely to be the most vulnerable. This map does
not reflect any specific modelled event but highlights the extent
of Kingston Beach below 10m Australian Height Datum.
TSUNAMI
According the Tasmanian State Natural Disaster Risk Assessment (TSNDRA)
a tsunami presents a low-medium threat to the Tasmania. The most likely
threat of a Tsunami comes from an earthquake in the Puysegur Trench area
off the south coast of New Zealand (see image right), which would allow
approximately 90 minutes warning before it hit the Kingborough coast
(source Geoscience Australia in TSNDRA 2013, p.64 ).
Climate Change Considerations
Many of the issues are also likely to be affected by a
changing climate. The latest projections for the Kingborough
region highlight an array if issues that may exacerbate
existing risks and may also create new ones. Projected
changes to the local climate include:
•
Increased warm spells and heatwaves
•
Increased bushfire risk days
•
Increased extreme rainfall (up to 40% increase)
•
Sea level rise (up to 109cm above 1996 average by
2100)
•
Current 1 in 100 year storm tide event to become a 1 in
6 year event by 2090
BUSHFIRE
Like most of Tasmania, bushfire is Kingborough’s most likely risk
with catastrophic consequences associated with a region-wide
event. Parts of Kingborough have recorded Tasmania’s highest fire
danger index (during 2013) (Tasmania Government 2013, p.25)
and the municipality has approximately 10,000 properties exposed
to bushfire.
BUSHFIRE THREAT
The 1967 Tasmania bushfires was
Kingborough’s worst natural disaster
with over 430 buildings destroyed
and many lives lost.
With over 90% of Kingborough
properties currently located in a
bushfire risk location it remains the
region’s most serious and likely risk.
Kingborough’s Approach to
Emergency Management
When it comes to managing natural hazards Kingborough
has opted for a community resilience approach, where it
advocates planning with the community as opposed to
planning for the community.
Prior to the Kingborough Council Community Resilience
initiative the previous emergency management focus had
been on response. The catalyst for change came after the
2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Final Report and
the release of the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience.
With an exposure to a high number of natural hazards and
a vulnerable community it was recognised that a business
as usual approach was not in the best interests of the
community or Council.
Key Actions that supported the initiative
Emergency Management Committe Member Distribution
Taroona / Albion Heights
areas: Skey Harvey
Longley / Neika / Leslie
Vale areas: Julian Punch
Kingston area: Sarah XX
Sandfly / Margate / Snug
areas: Tracy Hemmings
Southern Channel
areas: Katrina Graham
Application for National Disaster Resilience Project
funding: Council was awarded $85,000 for the 2013/2014
financial year to pilot the Community Resilience initiative.
Redesign of the Emergency Management Committee
(EMC): The EMC was change was recommended by Ian
Holloway (Emergency Management Coordinator) to ensure
that the community was strategically placed to have the
largest representation. This was achieved by disbanding
the exiting top-down EMC structure and advertising
for expressions of interests from the community. Six
geographically dispersed residents were selected, with a
broad range of skills, networks, interests and ages (see figure
on right).
Bruny Island: Jenny Boyer
Creation of the Community Resilience Logo: Drawing
on the powerful messaging of the National Community
Resilience brand and logo Kingborough created its own logo,
intentionally separate from Council’s branding. The logo is
placed on all messaging.
Ensuring longevity of the initiative: Kingborough
Council created a Community Emergency Management
Policy to ensure that a Community Resilience focus was
mainstreamed into the organisation.
Strategic alignment: Council
is committed to ensuring that
its community emergency
management planning
strategically aligned with
agreed national frameworks
and State priorities.
BUILDING THE BRAND
The Community Resilience brand is intentionally disconnected from
the Kingborough Council logo and branding. It represents diversity and
highlights the importance of a community bond. Ultimately the end
goal is to have the community as active participants in shaping their
future. The logo and messaging will be present in key Council activities.
All six Emergency Management Committee members have been given
Community Resilience business cards.
“I wanted to portray a strong sense of survival
in the image, depicting the girl in bushland.
The face paint was used to help display a
tribal theme, so that the viewer recognizes
the essential idea of survival. The girl's facial
expression is worn, but still it shows a sense of
strength and determination.”
Angus Alexander, winner of
the “Risk and Resilience”
photography prize
Community Resilience
Initiatives and Outreach
Risk and Resilience Photography
Competition
Kingborough Council facilitated the Risk and Resilience
photography competition to ensure that opportunities
existed for the community to engage with each other. The
competition was supported by local businesses and agencies
and attracted entries from across Australia.
The theme, “risk and resilience” encouraged entrants to
provide the audience with their own interpretation of risk
and resilience to natural hazards and climate change. The
competition was open to all residents of Tasmania.
Over $2,000 in prize money was offered and the
photographs were judged by an independent panel of
photography professionals and the Mayor of Kingborough.
Generous support was given by Channel Court Shopping
Centre, Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, Clennett’s Mitre 10,
Bendigo Bank, the Tasmanian Office of Climate Change in
the Department of Premier and Cabinet and Kingborough
Council.
SECOND PLACE: Using the opportunity of a pre-planned prescribed burn-off in Snug,
Barefoot Photographer used the available light to capture the volunteer firefighters
monitoring the fire. The opportunity allowed the team to undertake training for
the busy fire fighting season ahead. Photo Specs:: 18mm f2.8 ISO 12800 1/15th
©Barefoot Photographer
The photographic competition received media attention
with Council’s resilience officer interviewed by Ryk Goddard
on the 936 ABC Breakfast Show and two articles were
published in the Kingborough Chronicle newspaper.
The photographs were displayed at the Community
Resilience Drop-in Centre (see next page) posted on the
Resilient Kingborough Website and will be displayed publicly
around the municipality.
Lessons learned:
•
Copyright risk or perpetual use rights limit the number
of professional photographers willing to enter photo
competitions.
•
The exhibition of the work should have been displayed
for longer (was displayed for one week) and in multiple
locations.
•
Combining the exhibition with the 1967 Bushfire
Display helped generate increased media interest.
•
That seeking printed works may have limited entries
from people who could not afford to print large images
(approximately $25).
THIRD PLACE: When I was standing photographing the lighthouse looking out to
the southern ocean I was thinking about what the extremes of weather could
do and trying to image how it could almost turn you inside out. Those thoughts
coupled with the incongruously perfect day gave birth to this image. ©Carolyn
Whamond.
Community Resilience
Initiatives and Outreach
Community Drop-in Centre
As part of the photograghy competition Council created
a community drop-in site which provided residents with
an access point to relevant information associted with
community resilience. Information was provided through
invited service staff (e.g. TasFire, Red Cross) and community
representatives on Council’s Emergency Management
Committee.
The drop-in centre also hosted an interactive touch-screen
computer application created by PhD candidate Mark
Brown, from UTAS Human Interface Technology Laboratory
(HITLab). The interactive computer application helped
inform residents about their bushfire risk and management
options.
“A much needed activity. We
need many more of these type of
events” - Kingborough resident
Community Resilience
Initiatives and Outreach
1967 Bushire Exhibition
In the lead up to the Community Resilience project Council
was fortunate to receive donated photographs of the 1967
bushfires. The photographs depicted the Kingborough area
before, during and after the tragic event.
While the fires occurred almost 50 years there remains a
significant number of residents who experienced the event
still reside in the region. The photographs were displayed
at the community drop-in site and acted as a catalyst for
community conversation about the past event and the
current bushfire threat.
The photographs also gained strong media coverage
with ABC Television interviewing Pene Hughes about her
experiences as a child during the fires and time spent at the
temporary housing built at Snug Beach.
The photographs acted as powerful reminders about the
very real threat that bushfire presents the area. Some of
the photographs were used to create bushfire awareness
posters (see following pages). Approximately 80 posters
were displayed throughout the community.
The 1967 photographs were also displayed at Kingborough’s
Love Living Local festival which attracted approximately
3,000 people (see following page).
Lessons learned
•
The 1967 bushfires still form a powerful conduit for
communicating community resilience;
•
That many members of the community expressed a
desire to share their own 1967 stories and collections;
•
The 1967 themed bushfire posters were a good visual
base for messaging;
•
More (and different) direct messaging is needed
to strengthen the brand (e.g. stickers on Council
envelopes, information sheets in letters to residents,
more exhibitions).
Community Resilience Display at
the Love Living Locally Festival
“Pleased to see this survey and the resilience
website coming out. Please ensure that the
knowledge that these exist is clearly communicated
to all members of the community via rate notices
etc.”- Kingborough Resident
Community Resilience
Initiatives and Outreach
UTAS Student Project
Kingborough Council invited 3rd year students from the
University of Tasmania course “Making Sense of Climate
Change” to selected Kingborough as a case study for their
major assessment. The course was led by Kristin Warr
and ‘presents the students with an integrated picture
of climate change that requires understanding of, and
dialogue between, a variety of disciplinary and professional
experiences. What is unique about this unit is the emphasis
on students demonstrating their integrative understanding
of climate change’ (pers comm. Warr 2013).
“Social media was indicated to
be valuable in communicating
the risks of natural hazards
amongst the community.
However, most residents
specified that other methods of
communication including email,
ABC radio and the local council
webpage would be a more
appropriate communication
means than Facebook and
Twitter” (UTAS Woodbridge Group)
When do you think climate change will start to affect Kingborough?
The aim of the student project was two-fold:
a) to help the Client better understand the community’s
perception of risk from natural hazards including those
exacerbated by climate change; and
b) to help Council inform the community of those risks and
what they can do.
In all fifteen UTAS students (forming three geographically
separated project groups) participated in the project. They
were:
Kingston Beach Project: Li Chen, Eric Daley, Jason Graham,
Lauren Long and Mitchyl White
•
•
•
Sandfly and Surrounds Project: Carolyne Carlson, Qu Chen,
Neal Kember, Therese Murray and Danny Robertson
Woodbridge Project: Clare Cromarty, Tuan Do, Skey Harvey,
Teneille Tress, Bethany Walker
The output of the work was a small report about the key
findings of the study and a presentation to Kingborough
Councillors and staff (see graphs at the right for selected
results).
The student project was a successful collaboration
between Council and UTAS with the results providing
a valuable contribution to the Community Resilience
Project. Furthermore the project helped to strengthen the
relationship between the university and Council.
It is interesting to note that one of the students (Skey
Harvey) joined Council’s EMC as a result of the project.
Community interest in participating in projects
associated with planning for improved community
resilience?
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•
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Provide household tips that apply to individuals
Engage insurance brokers to explain the options
TasFire re service and SES to provide ideas about
how to prepare for emergencies and how to
react in emergency situations
Implement a neighbour system (check on your
neighbours in emergency situations)
Sign up via email or mobile at the workshops to
receive information from the council during an
emergency
Distribute basic fridge magnets with emergency
contact details
(Selected recomendations from the UTAS Kingston Beach Group)
Community Resilience
Initiatives and Outreach
Resilient Kingborough Website
Council recognises the need for a range of communication
techniques. One such way was the creation of the “Resilient
Kingborough” website (www.resilientkingborough.com).
The site was intentionally separated from the Kingborough
Council website (although the two are linked) to continue
to drive the Community Resilience brand and show the
community that Kingborough was a stakeholder (together
with the community) as opposed to the owner of the
initiative. The site provides information on known hazards,
emergency management, climate change and other relevant
insights on community resilience.
The front page of the website displays live Twitter feeds
to key State agencies that provide information about
natural disasters. The live feeds include links to TasFire,
SES Tasmania, the Tasmanian Police and Population Health
Tasmania.
Since its inception the website has received approximately
3,000 web views and growing the number of hits over the
coming year is a key performance target.
Council also displays relevant information on Kingborough’s
Facebook page (see below).
Photo credit: Scott Basham
Key Lessons Learned
Recommendations
The Community Resilience initiative has been a successful in a number of ways. The project has
provided an insightful snapshot of the issues associated with Community Resilience and started the
Council and community on a pathway that focuses on resilience, capacity and recovery. In particular
the key lessons for this project are:
While the initiative has been successful considerable potential exists to continue to improve the
brand and expand on the Community Resilience project. Key recomendations (in no particular order)
include:
•
The new Emergency Management Committee (EMC) structure is a powerful conduit for
community engagement, community insight (for Council) and multi-directional communication. It
also has future potential to be a community-to-community point of information;
1.
•
The establishment of the project has been more time consuming than first anticipated (especially
in relation to engaging with networks face-to-face);
2.
•
That many members of the community are willing participants in community resilience but
require some further direction and/or mandate from Council;
•
That for some residents considerable confusion still exists about bushfire safety (i.e. during
bushfire events) ;
•
That the 1967 bushfires are a powerful conduit for messaging (seemed to also get more media
attention than any other approach);
•
The community drop-in site was successful - but too short in during and requires a geographic
spread;.
8.
•
The majority of residents surveyed in the community see climate change as a serious issue that is
likely to exacerbate current risks;
9.
•
That community engagement is difficult and the biggest challenge is engaging with elements of
the community who do not normally engage with Council;
10.
11.
•
Relationships with the University of Tasmania (UTAS) are very important - with the students
providing great non-council insight into the issues and potential solutions;
•
Websites and social media are important elements of communication - but traditional methods
(e.g. strengthening community bonds and messaging in letters to residents is likely to be more
important and successful);
•
That traditional internal silos still affect the potential to capitalise on economies of scale and
networking (in the past the Community Resilience focus did not exist, as such it is still finding its
space within the organisation);
•
That bushfire is a considerable threat and more effort in messaging is required throughout the
year;
•
That others (outside of Kingborough) are interested in the approach (the method and lessons
learned in this initiative has recently been presented to the Australia New Zealand Emergency
Management Committee (ANZEMC));
•
That little is known about the potential economic impacts of a natural disasters occurring in
Kingborough (need to better understand the capacity of local businesses);
•
That telecommunications may be an issue when electricity is cut (especially with the National
Broadband Network roll-out in Kingston Beach); and
•
The project reinforced critical relationship between emergency management and climate change
adaptation.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
12.
13.
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15.
During the buildup to specific periods of known or increased risk (e.g. El Nino and bushfire
risk) ensure that the messaging is frequent and span multiple modes (e.g. social media, EMC
community members, posters, messages on Council correspondence) and occur frequently;
Explore the capacity / training needs of the community representatives on the EMC and respond
accordingly;
Increase social media presence (e.g. Twitter for Council and community representatives);
Explore the potential for business-council partnerships (e.g. develop memorandum of
understandings with key organisations);
Better understand the community’s capacity to respond and recover;
Identify a natural hazard alert system that links key information to key community networks;
Quantify potential economic shocks (assess insurance coverage and other approaches
undertaken by local businesses);
Establish the transition for community leadership (shifting from a Council supported to a
community-driven initiative);
Undertake multiple information sessions in key locations with the community (especially in the
lead up to bushfire season);
Consider creating and selling on an emergency kit to the community;
Identify processes / systems that support community led activities and actions - for example one
of the strongest links to community resilience may come through the work that Council does that
is difficult to quantify (e.g. the work undertaken by the community services department is one of
the most under-valued conduits to adaptation);
Explore potential land use planning responses to manage the longer-term natural hazard risk
(this is best done through a site-specific pilot);
Undertake deeper and more effective community engagement.
Identify how climate change and other external stressors may affect community resilience (e.g.
explore the region’s exposure and vulnerability to energy security and food security
Undertake a forum Community Resilience forum. Considering bringing in international
presentations and national online (e.g. using Council’s Vidyo technology). Also consider flying in
one keynote to increase the interest (e.g. someone from Christchurch, New York etc).