Examining the resilience of rural communities to flooding emergencies

This paper aims to examine the resilience of an Australian rural community to the impact of flood emergencies. In the past five years, a number of serious flood events have impacted Australian communities, resulting in death and injury to people as well as devastating loss and damage to property and infrastructure. Many inland rural communities are declining in population whilst the average age of these communities is increasing. This decrease in population and increase in age reduces the service functions within those communities which in turn has an impact on the vulnerability of those communities to the impact of natural disasters such as flooding. This vulnerability relates to not only the potential increase in susceptibility of those communities to flooding, but also the decrease in community resilience.

A study of an Australian rural community susceptible to flooding has been conducted to examine the resilience of that community to flooding and to identify issues relating to community vulnerability i.e. resilience and susceptibility, that exist within that community. From this study we hope to be able to identify community resilience strategies that may help other rural communities better prepare for and respond to the impact of natural disasters, including flood.