For the first time we’ve calculated what effect a natural disaster has on income tax revenue, finding a 5% decline through lower incomes and higher tax deduction claims.
The urge to create, or donate to, crowdfunding campaigns in a crisis is understandable. But it’s worth asking: who can succeed in crowdfunding, and who gets left behind?
AAP Image/Supplied by the Department of Defence, Bradley Richardson
Kate R Saunders, Queensland University of Technology; Kate Helmstedt, Queensland University of Technology, and Kirien Whan, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute
Improved warnings are unlikely to protect houses, but it means people can prepare – they can move possessions, reach vulnerable loved ones and evacuate in a timely manner.
A weather system called ‘atmospheric rivers’ is causing this inundation. In March last year, an atmospheric river brought 800kg of water vapour over Sydney every second.
Flood-related stress can have a negative impact on pregnant mothers and their unborn babies. But our research found there are many strategies that can limit the harm.
Amid fears that parts of Townsville and other Australian cities might become “uninsurable”, making urban areas more resilient and adaptable to flooding is becoming more urgent.
Dirty water from Queensland’s historic flooding, triggered by weeks of exceptional monsoon rains earlier in the year.
NASA Worldview/EPA
What do the recent Townsville floods and Tasmanian heatwave have in common? Both were caused by weather systems that stayed put for days or weeks on end. And global warming could worsen that trend.
Journalists with the skills to dig into social media can discover connections between key players in complex, often global stories.
Mathias Rosenthal via www.shutterstock.com
From a social media post that cracked open a decades-old abuse scandal in the UK and Australia, through to tracking asylum seekers, social media can be vital in breaking investigative news stories.
Drought in southern Australia in 2015.
AAP Image/Jamie Duncan
The Millennium Drought was bad, but the most detailed record of droughts since 1500 reveals there were far more severe super-droughts in the past.
While firefighters battled widespread fires in New South Wales in October 2013, hundreds of thousands of people turned to social media and smartphone apps for vital updates.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Terry Flew, Queensland University of Technology and Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
When disaster strikes, more people than ever are turning to social media to find out if they’re in danger. But Australian emergency services need to work together more to learn what works to save lives.
Floodwater plumes, like this one in Moreton Bay, do less damage to reefs that are in marine reserves.
Healthy Waterways/supplied
Marine reserves are a hot topic in Australia, with federal and state governments debating whether to allow recreational fishers to take fish from within their boundaries. But new research demonstrates…
The swollen Fitzroy River in Queensland, Australia, where heavy rains in early 2011 led to extraordinary regrowth with a global impact.
Capt. W. M. & Tatters/Flickr
Record-breaking rains triggered so much new growth across Australia that the continent turned into a giant green carbon sink to rival tropical rainforests including the Amazon, our new research shows…
The last few years provided plenty of data to help us reform our approach to floods. With devastating flooding in Queensland and Victoria in 2011 and 2013, we should have learned a great deal about which…
Cost was one of the reasons why Queenslanders remained uninsured for flood damage but there were other surprising factors.
AAP
Queensland towns and suburbs have been hit by floods again. Flooding is not a rare event here and most residents are not surprised by the recurrence of floods. But the memory of the 2011 floods is still…