The amount of government funding available is finite, so it has to be targeted. To help with the decision-making process, local governments should align to national goals and common scenarios, identify local impacts and consider current and future risks in their area (see Table 2.1). This would enable resilience priorities to be compared with other communities.
The process would include assessing existing assets, networks and systems performance and conducting gap analysis. This will identify the most pressing systemic vulnerabilities and risks for each local government area, and allow their comparison.
To make this approach effective, collecting performance data for infrastructure assets across Australia would need to be routine and standardised. Network and asset-level performance data is a critical input into both place-and network-based resilience assessments, and into systemic thinking.
Another valuable input into scenarios is refined estimates of hazard frequencies and damages. A national risk and disaster probability model for all hazards should be created to ensure they are more accurately predicted and mitigated.