AusGeo News  June 2005  Issue no. 78

New results on natural hazards in Perth

A major assessment of natural hazard risk for the Western Australian (WA) capital has been completed by Geoscience Australia in partnership with federal, state and local agencies.

Cities Project Perth provides authoritative new knowledge on the risks from the sudden onset of natural disasters in Australia’s fourth largest city.

Perth’s major hazards

Figure 1. The study areas for Cities Project Perth The study area covered greater metropolitan Perth (figure 1). Major natural hazards considered in the project included:

The project also investigated socioeconomic factors that might affect the capacity of Perth citizens to recover from natural disasters, and compared WA with other Australian states.

Work included the preparation of more than a dozen major spatial databases and risk assessment models, including the flood hazard model and comprehensive building and building footprint databases, digital elevation models and GIS hazard maps.

Figure 1. The study areas for Cities Project Perth. (Larger image [GIF 86Kb])

Key findings

Participating agencies

Many WA and local government agencies participated in the four-year project. They continue to play a key role as custodians of the project’s models and data and by implementing policy and practice based on the results. Our core partners were the WA Fire and Emergency Services Authority, the WA Department for Planning and Infrastructure, the WA Department of Environment, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s WA Regional Office.

The Cities Project Perth report was launched in Perth on 8 June by Parliamentary Secretary Warren Entsch, and a half-day workshop for local and regional emergency managers and other stakeholders was held to discuss the results and their implications for Perth.

The report can be ordered from www.ga.gov.au/sales. The full report will be also available for download on the Geoscience Australia website.

For further information: phone Trevor Jones on +61 2 6249 9559 or email trevor.jones@ga.gov.au


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