2015-06-23 I&S Agenda - Item 5 - Local Disaster Recovery Plan - Attachment 2

                           Noosa Local Disaster Recovery Plan 2015/2016

      business closure
      loss of experienced workers
      loss of supply chain linkages
      depleted customer base due to temporary or permanent population shrinkage or as a
       result of an influx of material donations to the area

25.3 Economic impact assessment and needs analysis
Assessing the impacts of emergencies and disasters is integral to the recovery process.
Impact assessments provide communities and policy makers with invaluable information
about how a disaster manifested and what needs to be done to return the community to
normal as well as helping to identify strategies to build back stronger. These assessments
can inform future disaster risk management, as well as broader sustainability goals.

25.4 Measuring economic impact
Measuring the economic impacts of a disaster can be a complex undertaking and needs to
be strategic in nature. It therefore requires thorough planning. The principle reference for
disaster loss assessment in Australia is the Emergency Management Australia, Disaster
Loss Assessment Guidelines, 2002. It provides guidance on assessing disaster loss
primarily for the purpose of planning and justifying future risk mitigation and community
resilience measures.

Due to the complexity of undertaking an economic impact assessment some specialist
expertise will be required. At a minimum some members of the Economic Sub-group should
have formal experience or training in disaster loss assessment or economics.

Economic impact assessment attempts to quantify, in a common unit (dollars), all impacts
(both costs and benefits) possible. Importantly, the economic in economic impact
assessment applies not only to goods and services that are traditionally traded in the market
place, but also to the value attributed to social and environmental assets. Economic impact
assessments are conducted to ensure long term economic outcomes can be visualised and
planned for.

25.5 Economic impact versus financial impact
Economic impact assessment is distinct from financial impact assessment. Economic impact
assessment includes all impacts on a community while financial impact assessment often
concerns a single economic unit such as an industry, business or household. In the early
stages of recovery, the Economic Sub-group may well focus on the conduct of a series of
financial impact assessments (across sectors) which will in turn collectively help inform the
overall economic impact assessment.

25.6 Tangible versus Intangible Impacts
As well as direct and indirect impacts, economic impacts are typically divided into tangible
and intangible impacts:
    tangible impacts—the loss of things that have a monetary (replacement) value (for
       example, buildings, livestock, infrastructure)
      intangible impacts—the loss of things that cannot be bought and sold (for example,
       lives and injuries, environment, memorabilia, heritage)
Tangible impacts are typically easier than intangible impacts to assign a dollar value to
because they are traded in the market place. Intangible impacts are much harder to assess.
Intangible impacts are often described as a ‘catch all’ that includes all those costs that are
very difficult to estimate, for which there is no agreed method of estimation and for which
there is no market to provide a benchmark. However they should be considered and
included appropriately in impact assessments.




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