The Cressbrook Creek alluvial aquifer system, Southeast Queensland : hydrochemistry and isotopes to determine hydrological processes and response to floods

This study developed an understanding of hydrological processes within the Cressbrook Creek catchment of the upper Brisbane River, in particular for the alluvial aquifers. Those aquifers within the lower catchment are used for intensive irrigation, and have been impacted by long-term drought followed by flooding. The study utilised water chemistry, isotopic characters and hydraulic measurements to determine factors such as recharge, links between creeks and groundwater, and variations in water quality. The catchment-wide study will enable improved management of the local water resources.

Exploring association between perceived importance of travel/traffic information and travel behaviour in natural disasters : a case study of the 2011 Brisbane floods

A sound understanding of travellers’ behavioural changes and adaptation when facing a natural disaster is a key factor in efficiently and effectively managing transport networks at such times. This study specifically investigates the importance of travel/traffic information and its impact on travel behaviour during natural disasters. Using the 2011 Brisbane flood as a case study, survey respondents’ perceptions of the importance of travel/traffic information before, during, and after the flood were modelled using random-effects ordered logit. A hysteresis phenomenon was observed: respondents’ perceptions of the importance of travel/traffic information increased during the flood, and although its perceived importance decreased after the flood, it did not return to the pre-flood level. Results also reveal that socio-demographic features (such as gender and age) have a significant impact on respondents’ perceptions of the importance of travel/traffic information. The roles of travel time and safety in a respondent’s trip planning are also significantly correlated to their perception of the importance of this information. The analysis further shows that during the flood, respondents generally thought that travel/traffic information was important, and adjusted their travel plans according to information received. When controlling for other factors, the estimated odds of changing routes and cancelling trips for a respondent who thought that travel/traffic information was important, are respectively about three times and seven times the estimated odds for a respondent who thought that travel/traffic information was not important. In contrast, after the flood, the influence of travel/traffic information on respondents’ travel behaviour diminishes. Finally, the analysis shows no evidence of the influence of travel/traffic information’s on respondents’ travel mode; this indicates that inducing travel mode change is a challenging task.

Factors influencing vulnerability and positive post-disaster response following the Mackay 2008 and Brisbane 2011 floods

This project investigated which aspects of being flooded most affected mental health outcomes. It found that stress in the aftermath of the flood, during the clean-up and rebuilding phase, including stress due to difficulties with insurance companies, was a previously overlooked risk factor, and social support and sense of belonging were the strongest protective factors. Implications for community recovery following disasters include providing effective targeting of support services throughout the lengthy rebuilding phase; the need to co-ordinate tradespeople; and training for insurance company staff aimed at minimising the incidence of insurance company staff inadvertently adding to disaster victims' stress.

Floods and property values: A hedonic property and efficiency analysis

This study investigates the impact floods on property values using the hedonic property price approach and other relevant econometric techniques. The main objectives of this research are to investigate (1) the impact of the release of flood-risk information and the actual floods on property values (2) the temporal behaviour of negative impacts (3) the property submarket behaviour (4) the behaviour of flood affected vs flood non-affected areas and (5) the property market efficiency. The thesis expanded on the existing literature on natural disasters by applying a range of econometric techniques. Findings of this research are useful for policy decision-making which is aimed at minimizing the negative impacts of natural hazards on property markets. The thesis findings also provide a better framework for decision-making in the property insurance market. The methodological improvements that are made in the thesis will be invaluable for analysing the impacts of natural hazards elsewhere.

Impact of wildfires and floods on property values: A before and after analysis

One of the most evident casualties of a natural disaster is the property market. The private and social costs from such events run into millions of dollars. In this paper, we use a unique dataset to examine the impact on residential house prices affected by natural disasters using a hedonic property (HP) values approach. For this purpose, we use data before and after a wildfire and floods from Rockhampton in central Queensland, Australia. The data is unique because one suburb was affected by wildfires and another was affected by floods. For the analysis, three suburbs namely Frenchville, Park Avenue and Norman Gardens are used. Frenchville was significantly affected by wildfires in the latter part of 2009 and to a lesser extent in 2012, while Park Avenue was affected by floods at the end of 2010, January 2011–2013. Norman Gardens, which was relatively unaffected, is used as a control site. This enables us to examine the before and after effects on property values in the three suburbs. The results confirm that soon after a natural disaster property prices in affected areas decrease even though the large majority of individual houses remain unaffected. Furthermore, the results indicate that the largely unaffected suburb may gain immediately after a natural disaster but this gain may disappear if natural disasters continue to occur in the area/region due to the stigma created. The results have several important policy decision and welfare implications which are briefly discussed in the paper.

Flood risk information, actual floods and property values: A quasi-experimental analysis

Hedonic property price analysis tells us that property prices can be affected by natural hazards such as floods. This paper examines the impact of flood-related variables (among other factors) on property values, and examines the effect of the release of flood risk map information on property values by comparing the impact with the effect of an actual flood incidence. An examination of the temporal variation of flood impacts on property values is also made. The study is the first of its kind where the impact of the release of flood risk map information to the public is compared with an actual flood incident. In this study, we adopt a spatial quasi-experimental analysis using the release of flood risk maps by Brisbane City Council in Queensland, Australia, in 2009 and the actual floods of 2011. The results suggest that property buyers are more responsive to the actual incidence of floods than to the disclosure of information to the public on the risk of floods.

AITPM Email Newsletter Volume 0902, February 2009: Presidents Message

President’s Report Hello fellow AITPM members, Welcome to the first edition of the AITPM National Newsletter for 2009! I trust we all had a relaxing break and managed to lose track of all things transport for just a little while. I know I had trouble doing so when hunting for a car space at the shopping centre, and experiencing new projects such as the Tugun Bypass – the new gateway between New South Wales and Queensland. Byron Bay is now as close as Noosa for those high profile beach goers of Brisbane. There was also my experience of the reduced posted speed of 90km/h on the Bruce Highway around the troublesome Gympie stretch, when returning from a short Fraser Coast holiday. I expect that this relatively inexpensive safety improvement will pay substantial dividends in terms of crash reduction. The Newsletter took its annual leave last month and is refreshed and ready for a new year to keep us all informed of the latest in traffic and transport engineering, planning and management. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the ongoing significant contributions of many volunteers in the Newsletter’s production. Mr Andrew Hulse, AITPM’s Immediate Past National President, serves as the Editorial Coordinator on behalf of the Institute. Each Branch Committee also includes a Newsletter Coordinator and committee members frequently contribute as well. And the ongoing contributions of readers enable us to offer the Newsletter as a vehicle for dialogue and debate around our sector. If you would like to contribute please email AITPM’s administration officer Josephine Mitton at aitpm@aitpm.com or through your local Branch Committee. I would also like to welcome back on deck our Editor, Mr David Brown of Driven Media, who creates a fantastic package for us each month. Lastly, members would have received the Call for Papers for the AITPM 2009 National Conference, Traffic Beyond Tomorrow, to be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre between 5 – 7 August. Abstracts will be accepted up to 20 February 2009. We look forward to seeing everyone at this, our flagship event for the year. To all a good year ahead, Jon Bunker Post Script: We all will have seen through the media the enormous scale and nature of the two natural disasters Australia is experiencing at present. AITPM’s thoughts are with all of those members, family and friends who may be experiencing hardship as a result of the Victorian bushfires and North Queensland floods. AITPM is a not for profit organisation however the National Executive has taken the decision to donate in measure to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Disaster Relief fund and the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief fund as a gesture to support our fellow Australians in their time of need. Details about these funds can be found via the Victorian and Queensland Governments’ websites.

AITPM Email Newsletter Volume 0903, March 2009: Presidents Message

President’s Report Hello fellow AITPM members, First I would like on behalf of all AITPM members to send our condolences to all who have been affected by February’s tragic bushfires in regional Victoria, and deliver our best wishes to all of those involved in the rebuilding efforts. Over time I expect that the Victorian Government’s Royal Commission will analyse the circumstances and put forward a range of measures which will improve fire safety in vulnerable areas. As transport professionals it will be important for us to consider the findings and look to undertaking any recommendations that relate to the work we do. Not only in Victoria, but nationwide. In particular, the importance of logistics was highlighted following the fire events. Donors across Australia were this time requested to donate money rather than goods, presumably due in part to problems associated with the transport system coping with additional uncoordinated freight load, whilst being needed to support emergency management vehicle and managed freight movements. Notwithstanding, it was wonderful to see otherwise difficult to obtain goods, such as animal feed, being donated from far afield and transported in kind by trucking operators. As stated in last month’s Newsletter, AITPM made a direct cash donation to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal immediately following the events, and a further donation to the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Fund to support recovery after the North Queensland floods, which claimed seven lives. Again, we will need to monitor how the rebuilding effort unfolds particularly in regional Victoria and centres including Ingham in North Queensland, but I would urge all AITPM members who are in a position to support the restoration of the affected communities to play a part, particularly over time once the initial shock subsides and the steady job of rebuilding is underway. Onto lighter matters, AITPM’s flagship event, the 2009 AITPM National Conference, Traffic Beyond Tomorrow, being held in Adelaide from 5 to 7 August, is fast approaching. www.aitpm.com has all of the details about how to register, sponsor a booth, and so forth. We are looking forward to catching up with our conference “regulars” and meeting with new folks to AITPM, and Australian traffic and transport planning and management. Adelaide is one of my favourite places to visit and I’m looking forward to riding the light rail line extension through town and checking out progress on the road system development. Best regards all, Jon Bunker

The impact of natural disasters on residential property markets

Over the past ten years various residential property markets throughout Australia in general and NSW in particular have been subject to substantial natural disasters. These occurrences have included floods, bushfires and hailstorms. In extreme cases the actual rectification costs have been up to AUD$1.5 billion, which occurred with the severe hailstorm in Sydney in April 1999 and cyclone Tracey in Darwin in 1974. Natural disasters such as severe storms and hailstorms have tended to be very indiscriminate in relation to frequency and the actual location of damage, whereas the nature of bushfire and flooding tends to be more defined. Although these extreme natural disasters tend to be infrequent, occurrences of floods and bushfires in residential property areas are more frequent, particularly as urban sprawl encroaches closer to national Parks, State recreation Parks and State forests. Considerable work has been carried out on flood effects on property markets by Bell (1999), Donnelly (1988), McClusky and Rausser (2001), Skrantz and Strickland (1987) in the US, and Chou and Shih (2001) in Taiwan. Fibbens (1994), Lambley and Cordery (1991) and Eves (1999, 2001, 2002) have carried out studies in relation to the effect of flooding on residential property values in the Sydney region, including the tracking of flood prone property values over time. However, no similar rigorous research has been carried out in relation to the impact of bushfires on residential property markets in the Sydney region.