About us We support those who are there when we need them the most
Our Community Safety Team is a group of scientists, engineers and mathematicians who believe sharing knowledge is the best approach for keeping our communities safe from natural hazards. Our work forms part of the backbone behind the most important decisions made by governments, emergency services, and the industry sector.
Last updated:18 June 2024
We build a better understanding of natural hazards
Our team provides scientific capabilities that monitor and model the impact and extent of damage from potential hazard events.
- Understanding this exposure decreases the likely impact on Australia’s economy, environment and society.
- Making this data available means Australians are less vulnerable to the threat of natural hazards.
This helps save lives, reduce damage to property and infrastructure, decrease disruption to business, and bring stability to people’s lives.
We foster collaborative communities
Our team of earth system scientists, mathematicians and engineers bring expertise on how to be better prepared for the consequences of natural hazards through:
- earth observation from space
- location derived statistics
- population data, and
- an understanding of the built environment
We also partner with government agencies such as the Australian Geoscience-Intelligence Organisation, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Bureau of Statistics as well as local and state governments to combine knowledge and boost capabilities.
These programs include the Australian Climate Service, the National Earthquake Alert Centre and the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre.
We enable science informed decisions
We inform the Australian Government and other stakeholders of the likelihood of natural hazards and their consequences to community safety. These standards guide how Australia designs and maintains buildings, roads, critical infrastructure important for the longevity of transport systems, power, water and communication networks.
We share our knowledge
With the latest science and technology, and a growing catalogue of freely available open-source data, we provide the community safety sectors with information they need to minimise everybody's vulnerability to natural hazards.
We also contribute to Australia's overseas development program by harnessing our science, sharing our knowledge and developing technology to help other countries reduce their risk.
Community Safety's latest projects
The NSHA defines the level of earthquake ground shaking across Australia, allowing higher hazard areas to be identified and mitigation strategies to be developed.
Use this interactive tool for querying, visualising and downloading cyclone scenarios plausible future tropical cyclone scenarios used for risk management and planning.
Develop a statistical summary of the number of people, dwellings, buildings, infrastructure assets, agricultural and environmental assets potentially exposed during a threat or hazard event.
How we support your sector
Our natural hazard resources can help your organisation be better prepared
Emergency managers
We offer a range of scientific tools to help emergency services plan and prepare for natural hazards, with the goal of reducing their impact when they do occur.
Government
Our scientific community safety resources can help inform robust government policy making with an evidence-based understanding of natural hazards.
Infrastructure
Our scientific tools and resources can help the infrastructure industry understand the exposure and vulnerability developments may have to natural hazards.
Industry
Our scientific tools and resources can help industry understand the exposure and vulnerability businesses may have to natural hazards.
Insurance
Our modelling and estimation resources helps the insurance industry better prepare for natural hazards with premium modelling.
Academia
We research and collaborate on projects to build a strong range of data, tools and publications for man-made and natural hazards.
International development
We work with governments, Industry and NGOs across the Asia Pacific to strengthen their capacity and resilience to natural hazards.