Disaster risk management

The quality of disaster risk management decision-making in New Zealand, and internationally, is varied. Disaster risk management decisions are often made using traditional economic evaluation tools. However, these tools often do not adequately account for the increasingly complex and uncertain world we are facing or the current regulatory and policy setting in New Zealand centred around well-being, resilience, and sustainability.

This framework will help decision-makers assess intervention options such as policy changes, investments in physical infrastructure, land use and zoning, and rules restricting certain types of activities.

ResOrgs, M.E. Research and collaborators have developed a framework to help decision-makers better understand and approach disaster risk decision evaluation: including a comprehensive accounting of social, environmental and economic costs and benefits; future uncertainty; risk appetite; equity and opportunity. The framework guides users through the selection of appropriate option evaluation tools (such as cost-benefit analysis, multi-criteria analysis etc), and helps users to design their assessment specific to their context. It is a tool that will be useful to both decision-makers and analysts.”

Using this framework will help to ensure that disaster risk management intervention assessment is undertaken in a systematic, transparent and comprehensive manner, leading to better disaster risk management outcomes for communities.