Hazard perception in northern New South Wales.

Symposium Dates 26-29 May 1976

A natural hazard is frequently defined as the conflict between the variable natural environment and the human management of that environment. Within any community this management depends upon the extent to which its physical environment provides for human gain; economic, pleasure or habitation. However, in the natural setting there are certain geophysical events that detract from the desired human gain and the detraction is dependent both upon the severity and the nature of that event and the understanding by a community of its environment, in particular, its normal and abnormal behaviour. It is the aim of this paper to discuss those facets of the natural environment that five different Australian communities perceive as natural hazards, the action taken and the awareness of measures to reduce the unwelcome components. As communities consist of different individuals with a diversity of attitudes, one would not expect unanimity of response. For example, in the Moree region, minor floods are considered as beneficial by farmers in the watercourse country to the west while to the irrigation farmers to the east of Moree, floods are a hazard as they destroy irrigation works and levels. The level of agreement as to which events are hazards is nevertheless a useful indicator of the perception by a community of its physical environment