Emergency Management Planning – Piloting a Health Check for Local Government          — ASN Events
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  2. What is Resilience?
  3. Emergency Management Planning – Piloting a Health Check for Local Government         

Emergency Management Planning – Piloting a Health Check for Local Government          (#53)

Michael Eburn 1 2 , Dovers Stephen 1 2 , Geoff Withycombe 3 , Ian Armstrong 3
  1. Bushfire CRC , EAST MELBOURNE, VIC, Australia
  2. Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
  3. Sydney Coastal Councils Group, Sydney, NSW, Australia
This presentation reports on a NSW State Emergency Management Natural Disaster Resilience Program conducted by the Sydney Coastal Councils group in collaboration with its partners. The project is developing a “Health Check” tool to assess and monitor the capability and resilience of Local Governments to deal with their role in emergency management.

The Sydney coastal region contains assets of national, state and local significance, including developments and landscapes, critical infrastructure, commercial centres, private and public property, heritage items, coastal amenity and tourism assets worth billions of dollars.  

Identifying best practice in Local Government emergency management is vital for such a large, hazard rich area and will produce:

• Improved understanding and clarification of role of Local Government;• Improved co-ordination and engagement in risk assessment and development of appropriate Prevention and Preparedness responses;• Improved consultation and engagement with the community to promote resilience;• Improved integration of Local Government Integrated Reporting and Assessment activities with Emergency Management; • Improved efficiency; and • Ongoing improvement and learning in all phases of Emergency Management through review of Local and District emergency plans after operations, exercises, or other changes to legislation or other relevant circumstances.A common process across Local Governments will assist local planning for emergency management across the state and the nation, providing the opportunity for collective learning and improved efficiency.  Accordingly the “Health Check” tool will be applicable to all local councils in NSW but will be made freely available to any interested agency.This presentation will be of interest to representatives from Local Governments and combat agencies from across Australia who are interested in learning about this cutting edge project, the development of best practice in local government emergency planning, and how the tool may be applied in their own jurisdictions."
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