Communication Process During 2011 Brisbane Flood: Gaps And Issues

Communication Gaps and Issues during 2011 Brisbane Flood

In 2011, Brisbane which is the state capital of Queensland, Australia had witnessed its second highest flood since the start of 20^th Century. Extensive level of flooding had its occurrence across major areas of the Brisbane River Catchment, causing relentless impact in the areas of catchments surrounding the Lockyer Creek as well as Bremer River which is recognized as the key tributaries of the Brisbane River. The Bremer River as per studies has undergone frequent record of flood heights (Catriona et al. 2018). The following report evaluates the communication process taken place between Brisbane Council and its residents as well as businesses during this situation of crisis by shedding light on significant gaps and issues which affected the communication.

Reports reveal that during the period of 2011 downpour in the 600 to 1200 mm range has been extensively prevalent along major areas of the Queensland coast. Certain stations located in north and west of Brisbane over reached the level of 1200 mm during this period. It has been reported that the massive flood in regions of southeast Queensland in the beginning of 2011 has been caused by the interface of low pressure system (Chiefscientist.qld.gov.au  2018). This system furthermore has been positioned specifically in the mid as well as south of Queensland and upper level as well as monsoonal channels.  The Brisbane Council has been involved in the risk management process of Brisbane floods in 2011.

The Brisbane floods obtained a substantial prominence as Australia most expensive natural disaster which has outlaid billions of dollars in dent. However as the massive floods initiated to recede wide range of useful volunteers congregated on the relentlessly hit regions which further resulted in extensive level of perplexity and misdirection. Bohensky and Leitch (2014) reveal that both the local administrative that is the ‘Brisbane City Council’ along with government of Queensland corresponding with volunteer implementation supervised the volunteers to register through a digital platform via volunteering organisations or establishing personal sphere at four volunteer registration centres. This further has resulted in over 60,000 recorded volunteer whereby a major segment were bussed directly from registration agencies to be severely impacted regions in order to help in the rescue session (Wickes, Britt and Broidy 2017). The spontaneous volunteers engaged in the Brisbane flood risk management converged on disaster areas and further played a highly responsible role in the rescue session of the victims. The section of spontaneous volunteers has been identified as individuals who offered assistance immediately after the occurrence of the disaster (Wickes, Britt and Broidy 2017). However the communication process executed by these spontaneous volunteers who are further identified as one of the major stakeholders of the Brisbane flood have posed critical challenges for the disaster relief and recovery team in executing their rescue session effectively. Zheng et al. (2015) reveal that as the spontaneous volunteers have been perceived to create certain forms of hindrances towards the relief services on the other hand government and emergency management organisations have shown resistance towards harnessing such workforce. Such crisis events and behaviours further related to environmental reliance and transition are often signified in the conjectures presented in chaos theory of communication (Barton et al. 2015). Two conditions related with bifurcation elements tend to incorporate cosmology events as well as self-organization (Bohensky and Leitch 2014).

Spontaneous Volunteers and Communication Challenges

Furthermore it has been observed that designing communication which tends to persuade people for volunteering and providing assistance in the process of community recovery efforts during large scale emergencies has been considered to be highly critical. However to the most resourceful assist recovery efforts spontaneous workforce necessitates to be instructed about the most effective way to assist and implemented to regions requiring immense level of assistance (Deo et al. 2015). For proper or highly effective recruitment and sustainability of such work force comprehending spontaneous volunteers and their level of enthusiasm is important for establishing productive disaster communication plans and mitigate any such communication errors daring rescue sessions. It has been highly evident that people will converge in disaster management procedures in order to help the victims suffering from these natural disasters (Leonard et al. 2014). As a result comprehending the diverse range of influences which stimulates such assistance is regarded as immensely critical for disaster response agencies to establish any communication base to activate and further direct the mass section of spontaneous volunteer which materializes following these natural calamities. However it has been observed that though volunteer convergence sectors can pose critical forms of challenges towards relief systems it is essential to reinstitute the definition of spontaneous volunteers identified as a vital source for positive involvement in disaster reaction as well as recovery. As natural disasters evoke certain emotions which are ubiquitous as well as dynamic change to enthuse an outputting of community assistance (Deo et al. 2015). The key information which to Brisbane Council and volunteers to communicate required coordinated efforts to employ volunteers or other assistance to the regions where their efforts were mostly required. There had being a white gap of communication which needed to be established by utilising incorporated mass media platform and social media communication approaches (Leonard et al. 2014).

• Stakeholders must adapt community flexibility as well as revival as a psychological process whereby forms of communication is recognised to be the essential tool for achieving effective disaster activities. These wide gaps of communication drawing the disaster recovery process requires to be established into the act in order to prevent any critical lack of knowledge along with deficit of resources from derailing the disaster recovery procedure as it has been in Lockyer Valley (Catriona et al. 2018).
• Volunteers and Brisbane Council can implement forms of communication and cooperation technology in order to effectively communicate extensive evaluation along with other strategies to circumvent any forms of criticalities.

Conclusion

To conclude it can be stated that the disaster recovery process in Brisbane flood 2011 that is considered by the Queensland government through its legislative framework and political senior management team to be and operational action has been reflected by the engagement of logistics specialists to supervise the revitalization process. The stakeholders must adhere to certain strategies in order to mitigate any forms of challenges or misinterpretation during the emergence of any natural disasters.

References 

Barton, C., Wallace, S., Syme, B., Wong, W.T. and Onta, P., 2015. Brisbane River catchment flood study: comprehensive hydraulic assessment overview. In Floodplain Management Association National Conference (pp. 19-22).

Bohensky, E.L. and Leitch, A.M., 2014. Framing the flood: a media analysis of themes of resilience in the 2011 Brisbane flood. Regional Environmental Change, 14(2), pp.475-488.

Catriona, A., Team, O., Media, C., Speak, B., Communications, C., Clients, O., Stories, S., Relations, P., Media, S., Marketing, C., Leadership, T., Branding, P., Coaching, M., Training, S., Training, P., Training, B., Training, P., Training, M., Training, P., Expert, U., Pack, P. and System, U. 2018. Social media and the Queensland floods. [online] Public Relations Sydney. Available at: https://publicrelationssydney.com.au/social-media-and-the-queensland-floods/ [Accessed 4 Sep. 2018].

Chiefscientist.qld.gov.au 2018. How do we communicate and warn about floods? (Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist). [online] Chiefscientist.qld.gov.au. Available at: https://www.chiefscientist.qld.gov.au/publications/understanding-floods/flood-warnings/ [Accessed 4 Sep. 2018].

Deo, R.C., Byun, H.R., Adamowski, J.F. and Kim, D.W., 2015. A real-time flood monitoring index based on daily effective precipitation and its application to Brisbane and Lockyer Valley flood events. Water resources management, 29(11), pp.4075-4093.

Leonard, M., Westra, S., Phatak, A., Lambert, M., van den Hurk, B., McInnes, K., Risbey, J., Schuster, S., Jakob, D. and Stafford?Smith, M., 2014. A compound event framework for understanding extreme impacts. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 5(1), pp.113-128.

Wickes, R., Britt, C. and Broidy, L., 2017. The resilience of neighborhood social processes: a case study of the 2011 Brisbane flood. Social science research, 62, pp.96-119.

Zheng, Z., Lee, J.B., Saifuzzaman, M. and Sun, J., 2015. Exploring association between perceived importance of travel/traffic information and travel behaviour in natural disasters: a case study of the 2011 Brisbane floods. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 51, pp.243-259.