The Difficulty of Undertaking Preparation Tasks for Different Disasters and Sociodemographics
Tracks
Prince Room
| Monday, July 14, 2025 |
| 12:10 PM - 12:40 PM |
Overview
Dr Amanda Muller, Torrens Resilience Initiative
Details
Key Presentation Learnings:
1. People: a) a very able 10%, b) a middling majority, c) a least able 4%. The most able people are 1,000 times able to prepare than the least able.
2. Disaster preparation difficulty: ranked easiest to hardest was heatwave, bushfire, storm, drought, flood, earthquake. For specific tasks, the hardest task was around seven times more difficult than the second-easiest task.
3. Main barriers to be addressed are supporting animal owners, those with mobility issues, providing clearer government communication, and supporting knowledge/skill gaps. Housing tenure and housing quality also posed issues for preparation.
Speaker
Dr Amanda Muller
Associate Professor
Torrens Resilience Initiative
The Difficulty of Undertaking Preparation Tasks for Different Disasters and Sociodemographics
Abstract
The outcomes of pilot research into indexing how well households are prepared for future disasters will be presented. It focuses on the main SA problems of heatwave, bushfire, storm/high winds, riverine flooding, drought, and earthquake.
Given the proposition that households need to prepare themselves for disasters, the question is what is their ability to undertake advice from emergency services?
Further to this, are some disasters harder to prepare for, or particular preparation tasks simply too difficult to undertake by households?
The talk will discuss the following questions:
Are households equally able to undertake disaster preparation tasks, and by how much difference?
What preparation tasks are easier and more difficult preparations to undertake, and by how much?
Do some households find specific disasters easier or more difficult to prepare for?
Are there particular factors influencing the ability to undertake preparation tasks?
This project involved 360 respondents and their ability to undertake 46 preparation tasks across the 6 main disaster types in South Australia.
The questions were developed directly in consultation with the State Emergency Service (SES), Country Fire Service (CFS), Red Cross, Local Government Association (LGA), and South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS). The preparation tasks were copied from the publicly available preparation checklists from these emergency services.
Extra questions about barriers to preparation were formed in consultation with organisations (e.g., carer duties, animal ownership, time, resources, motivation, etc).
The results were calibrated using Rasch Analysis. This means the results were measured on an equal scale, allowing comparison of task difficulty across different disaster types, while also controlling for different levels of person ability.
Given the proposition that households need to prepare themselves for disasters, the question is what is their ability to undertake advice from emergency services?
Further to this, are some disasters harder to prepare for, or particular preparation tasks simply too difficult to undertake by households?
The talk will discuss the following questions:
Are households equally able to undertake disaster preparation tasks, and by how much difference?
What preparation tasks are easier and more difficult preparations to undertake, and by how much?
Do some households find specific disasters easier or more difficult to prepare for?
Are there particular factors influencing the ability to undertake preparation tasks?
This project involved 360 respondents and their ability to undertake 46 preparation tasks across the 6 main disaster types in South Australia.
The questions were developed directly in consultation with the State Emergency Service (SES), Country Fire Service (CFS), Red Cross, Local Government Association (LGA), and South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS). The preparation tasks were copied from the publicly available preparation checklists from these emergency services.
Extra questions about barriers to preparation were formed in consultation with organisations (e.g., carer duties, animal ownership, time, resources, motivation, etc).
The results were calibrated using Rasch Analysis. This means the results were measured on an equal scale, allowing comparison of task difficulty across different disaster types, while also controlling for different levels of person ability.
Biography
Associate Professor Amanda Muller is a member of the Torrens Resilience Initiative at Flinders University. She conducts research into community resilience to disasters, with specific expertise in culturally & linguistically diverse communities, people at risk, disability, and assistance animals.
