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

                             Noosa Local Disaster Recovery Plan 2015/2016

To assist in adapting the risk management approach to environment recovery, the sub-group
may choose to seek answers to key questions at each stage of the risk management
process.

These are outlined in the following paragraphs:

26.7 Establish the context for recovery of the environment
Question: What has happened to the natural environment as a result of the
disaster/emergency?

Action: initially the action is to investigate, monitor and evaluate the impacts. The natural
environment is a highly complex system. Some aspects of the environment might continue
to function well, but others may be devastated. Consideration should also be given to how
the environment reacts over time. For example, air quality immediately after a bushfire may
be bad, but soon recovers, but river water quality and biodiversity may be severely impacted
for many weeks or longer.

Question: Can the natural environment adequately recover on its own in an acceptable
timeframe?

If the answer to this question is ‘yes’, the natural environment will adequately recover on its
own in an acceptable timeframe, and no specific recovery activity needs to be undertaken (a
valid treatment option).

Action: continue to investigate, monitor the impacts (immediate and future) and evaluate the
ability of the natural environment to cope.

If the answer is ‘no’, the natural environment cannot adequately recover on its own.

Action: identify, analyse and evaluate the risks to the natural environment. (See ‘Identify
risks’, ‘Analyse risks’ and ‘Evaluate risks’ below.) In order to do this, criteria for evaluating
the risk need to be established.

Other questions that might assist in answering the question include:
•     what was the state of the natural environment and how was the natural environment
      progressing (refer to the Environment Profile for the Noosa in Part B to this plan.
•     how is it now functioning?
•     can it be fully functional again?
•     do we need a different plan to achieve effectively functioning ecosystems?

Some guiding objectives that might be appropriate to the process of answering these
questions and establishing the context after disaster include:

    1. avoid or prevent environmental harm
    2. reduce or minimise environmental harm
    3. mitigate the effects of environmental harm
    4. offset any environmental harm
Question: what are the criteria against which the risk to the natural environment is to be
evaluated?

Action: Decisions may be based on operational, technical, financial, legal, social or natural
environment or other criteria.




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