Safer Places

Safer Places
Author:
Publisher: Thomas Telford
Total Pages: 108
Release: 2004-04-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0727732617

Sustainable communities are communities which succeed now economically, socially and environmentally, and respect the needs of future generations. This is why the new Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 1, the overarching PPS setting out the Government's planning objectives, will highlight the need to plan for sustainable communities.

Public Inquiries, Policy Learning, and the Threat of Future Crises

Public Inquiries, Policy Learning, and the Threat of Future Crises
Author: Alastair Stark
Publisher:
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2018
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0198831994

In the aftermath of major crises governments turn to public inquiries to learn lessons. Inquiries often challenge established authority, frame heroes and villains in the public spotlight and deliver courtroom-like drama to hungry journalists. As such, they can become high-profile political stories in their own right. Inquiries also have a policy learning mandate with big implications because they are ultimately responsible for identifying policy lessons which, if implemented, should keep us safe from the next big event. However, despite their high-profile nature and their position as the pre-eminent means of learning about crises, we still know very little about what inquiries produce in terms of learning and what factors influence their effectiveness in this regard. In light of this, the question that animates this book is as important as it is simple. Can post-crisis inquiries deliver effective lesson-learning which will reduce our vulnerability to future threats? Conventional wisdom suggests that the answer to this question should be an emphatic no. Outside of the academy, for example, inquiries are regularly vilified as costly wastes of time that illuminate very little while inside social scientists echo similar concerns, regularly describing inquiries as unhelpful. These commentaries, however, lack robust, generalizable evidence to support their claims. This volume provides evidence from the first international comparison of post-crisis inquiries in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, which shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the post-crisis inquiry is an effective means of policy learning after crises and that they consistently encourage policy reforms that enhance our resilience to future threats.

Worst of Days

Worst of Days
Author: Karen Kissane (Aus)
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0733626637

Saturday, 7 February 2009. Truly the worst of days... From dawn, the bush was tinder dry, and hot winds grew and fed off the baked landscape, sucking out every last drop of moisture, whipping sparks from power lines, and stirring up menace and danger. WORST OF DAYS is the behind-the-scenes story of the people who were inside Black Saturday's most deadly firestorm, the Kilmore blaze. It is a powerful and gripping narrative of disaster and resilience, of men and women and children facing the ultimate stress. This is the story of what we do at the very worst of times: from the man who braved the flames to help a mate, to another who refused even to cover the face of a dead man, saying, 'No mate, not my job.' It is the story of officials' bungles and best efforts, towns and their heroes, of survivors, saviours and lost souls.

Natural Hazards in Australasia

Natural Hazards in Australasia
Author: James Goff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2016-07-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1107682592

A textbook designed for students taking a course in natural hazards with an Australasian focus and context. In full colour and richly supported by photographs, illustrations and maps.

Natural Disasters and Adaptation to Climate Change

Natural Disasters and Adaptation to Climate Change
Author: Sarah Boulter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2013-10-14
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1107010160

Eighteen case studies of worldwide natural disasters are used to inform actual climate change adaptation practice for researchers and decision makers.

The Routledge Handbook of Australian Urban and Regional Planning

The Routledge Handbook of Australian Urban and Regional Planning
Author: Neil Sipe
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2017-08-25
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317604636

Where is planning in twenty-first-century Australia? What are the key challenges that confront planning? What does planning scholarship reveal about the state of planning practice in meeting the needs of urban and regional Australians? The Routledge Handbook of Australian Urban and Regional Planning includes 27 chapters that answer these and many other questions that confront planners working in urban and regional areas in twenty-first-century Australia. It provides a single source for cutting edge thinking and research across a broad range of the most important topics in urban and regional planning. Divided into six parts, this handbook explores: contexts of urban and regional planning in Australia critical debates in Australian planning planning policy climate change, disaster risk and environmental management engaging and taking planning action planning education and research This handbook is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in urban planning, built environment, urban studies and public policy as well as academics and practitioners across Australia and internationally.

Essential Bushfire Safety Tips

Essential Bushfire Safety Tips
Author: Joan Webster OAM
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2012-10-10
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0643107819

By the author of the acclaimed The Complete Bushfire Safety Book, this third edition of Joan Webster OAM’s Essential Bushfire Safety Tips deals with people's fears and concerns about wildfires in general, and the maze of official safety policies. Its concise and straightforward style clears a path of understanding through the tangle of conflicting opinions and misconceptions. It identifies the shortcomings and likely adverse repercussions of some of these policies, defines the actions necessary for people to stay safe during a bushfire – and their homes to remain intact – and sets out safe procedures. Essential Bushfire Safety Tips reveals the scientific post-wildfire research into why people who stayed with their homes died during the 2009 Black Saturday fires, and shows that, despite the almost universal media reports that 'nothing could be done to save homes on such a day', many householders did, in fact, save their homes. Included are chapters on township protection; shelters, refuges and bunkers; as well as information on choices of home bushfire safety strategies; protective house design, furnishings and gardens; protection of animals; and first aid. This book fills the gap between bushfire authority brochures and long, in-depth books. Backed by scientific facts, it brings a message of hope and empowerment: that with appropriate knowledge, preparation and awareness, towns, homes and people can survive wildfires. Set out in easy-to-access dot-point one-liners, it demystifies bushfire behaviour, explains how to prevent a bushfire from destroying houses, details wildfire safety at each stage of threat, describes weather factors and safe burning-off, details the benefits and hazards of staying, non-defensive sheltering, and evacuating, and how to make the decision on which course is best for you.

Rebuilding FEMA

Rebuilding FEMA
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs
Publisher:
Total Pages: 344
Release: 1994
Genre: Nature
ISBN:

Feeling the heat: International perspectives on the prevention of wildfire ignition

Feeling the heat: International perspectives on the prevention of wildfire ignition
Author: Janet Stanley
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1648890105

In the context of climate change, world population growth and crashing ecological systems, wildfire is often a catastrophic and traumatic event. Its impact can include loss of life, life-changing injuries, long-term psychological stress; increases in domestic violence; destruction of properties, business and livestock; long-term housing insecurity; increased insurance premiums, fire-fighting, legal and health costs; as well as significant changes and species losses in the natural environment. In Australia, an average of 4,500 wildfires occur weekly. Yet how to prevent these wildfires, 85% of which are caused by human activities, has received extraordinarily little attention. The current approach to the prevention of arson can be summarised as small in scale, uncoordinated and rarely evaluated. ‘Feeling the heat: International perspectives on the prevention of wildfire ignition’ is the culmination of over a decade of research into wildfires and arson; taking an interdisciplinary approach to comprehensively understand the topic. This book reviews current international knowledge and presents new findings on political, spatial, psychological, socio-ecological and socio-economic risk factors. It argues that if we are to reverse the increasing occurrence and severity of wildfires, all prevention approaches must be utilised, broadening from heavy reliance on environmental modification. Such prevention measures range from the critical importance of reducing greenhouse gases to addressing the psychological and socio-economic drivers of arson. In particular, it calls for a coordinated and collaborative approach across sectors, including place-based, state and country coordination, as well as an international body. It will hold appeal for researchers and students from a range of disciplines and interests, government planners and policymakers, emergency services, counsellors and NGOs, and those in agriculture and forestry.

Self-Defense

Self-Defense
Author: Gary Freeman
Publisher: Capstone
Total Pages: 25
Release: 2011
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1429668857

Presents self-defense tips encompassing both confrontation avoidance measures and techniques to defend against physical attacks.