A multidisciplinary group of researchers from the Sydney Environment Institute (SEI) have published the final papers from their research project funded through the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund (DRRF) – a joint Australian Government-New South Wales (NSW) Government National Partnership on Disaster Risk Reduction. This project investigated how disaster-impacted communities in NSW self-organised their immediate responses, longer-term recoveries, and forward-looking resilience building following catastrophic bushfires and floods.
One article, 'Enablers of community-led action in Australian climate disasters: Recognising the role of pre-existing social foundations and local knowledges', published in Disasters and led by postdoctoral researcher Dr Scott Webster, based in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), argues that 'spontaneous' is an inadequate and misleading label for community organising during climate disasters.
Rather, community-led actions are significantly enabled by pre-existing local networks and the access to local knowledges they provide, which can and should be supported and strengthened ahead of future disasters. The article outlines the breadth of meaning contained in the phrase 'local knowledges' which had otherwise remained undefined in both academic literature and disaster planning: the knowledges that come from close familiarity with place and community, as well as the skills, expertise and training that exists within community networks.
Another recent article, 'Social infrastructure and centralisation in community response and recovery from disasters', led by Associate Professor Petr Matous of the Faculty of Engineering and published in Natural Hazards, goes further in illustrating how pre-existing social structures shape community mobilisation during crises, highlighting the importance of investing in local social infrastructure ahead of these extreme events. Here, 'social infrastructure' does not just mean physical sites and buildings like libraries and community centres, but also the relationships and processes of building social connections between people.
Communities argue that the 'spontaneous' label is a form of misrecognition that informs negative perceptions of risk and chaos. This obstructs effective partnership and collaboration with formal emergency and disaster management agencies – overwhelmingly identified as the key barrier for community-led actions during future shocks.
Importantly, recognition of the essential role that communities fulfill during crises is not limited to symbolic gestures but genuine structural and cultural change in how agencies engage with communities before, during and after disasters. This is explored in 'Recognition and relationship-building: key ingredients for effective collaboration between disaster management agencies and community', led by Emma Pittaway of the University Centre for Rural Health (UCRH) in the Faculty of Medicine and Health (FMH) and published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
Communities impacted by climate disasters are often overburdened with research, including from non-local researchers and institutions; another of the project’s articles, 'Using trauma-informed approaches: research with climate disaster affected communities', led by Dr Jo Longman of UCRH/FMH and published in BMJ Global Health, reflects on the process of developing and implementing sensitive and appropriate methods for conducting this research with both locally embedded and external researchers.
These academic publications are joined by the 'Stories are the Toolkit' vignette series, released as a digital magazine with some stories also released as podcasts. These vignettes amalgamate real stories to illustrate what communities did across the full spectrum of catastrophic floods and fires in New South Wales, and how what enables these actions are commonly rooted in everyday life.
The project also supported the formative meetings that established the Northern Rivers Community Resilience Alliance (NRCRA) – a regional-in-scale network of local community groups across seven local government areas in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Participants in the project's community workshops expressed strong support for a community-led resilience network of this kind, which will enable knowledge sharing between geographically dispersed communities and mitigate duplication of local efforts.
Research findings also informed two submissions made to Federal Senate inquiries – the Senate Select Committee on Australia’s Disaster Resilience and the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee Inquiry into the National Volunteer Incentive Scheme (Climate Army). These findings were cited numerous times in the report of the former ('Boots on the ground: Raising resilience'), while researchers Webster and Celermajer gave testimonial evidence during a hearing for the latter.
The research findings were also initially released in a public report entitled 'Empowering communities, harnessing local knowledges: Self-organising systems for disaster risk reduction', published by the Sydney Environment Institute.
The research team expresses their gratitude to all the community organisations and individuals who participated in interviews and gatherings for this project. We acknowledge that your time is valuable and that in many respects the work in disaster recovery, preparation and adaptation in your communities remains ongoing. Special thanks go to Maddy Braddon, Rachel Hall, Mary Lyons, Serena Joyner and Jean Renouf for their place-based guidance and contributions throughout the project.
Project team: Professor David Schlosberg, Professor Danielle Celermajer, Dr Scott Webster, Emma Pittaway, Zachary Gillies-Palmer, Dr Gemma Viney, Professor Amanda Howard, Professor Kurt Iveson, Dr Pam Joseph, Dr Jo Longman, Associate Professor Petr Matous, Associate Professor Nader Naderpajouh, Associate Professor Margot Rawsthorne, Professor Jakelin Troy, Dr Blanche Verlie
Header image: NRCRA Training Day, by Olivia Katz Photography.