Alignment of social and environmental resilience in flood responses

Abstract

Resilience encompasses the principles and processes of 'bouncing back following disruption or crisis. Australia's National Strategy for Disaster Resilience refers to four characteristics of disaster resilient communities: functioning under stress, successful adaptation, self-reliance and social capacity. In contrast, the characteristics of disturbance resilient ecosystems are seen as heterogeneity, diversity, redundancy and connectivity. Reconciling social and environmental views of resilience is important in managing and responding to flood hazards because floods have potentially damaging social impacts as well as environmental benefits. In January 2011, a flood within the top 0.01% of flows on record occurred in the Tenterfield area of Northern NSW. The flood caused substantial change in the river landscape, and significant damage to farm and other infrastructure. We examined the effect of funding made available for recovery works on the social and environmental resilience of the district. The funding enhanced social capacity by building trust, recognition of difficulty and shared responsibility. Self-reliance was demonstrated by the substantial contributions made by landholders to repair farm infrastructure. The district has a social memory of this and previous floods, and an awareness of catchment processes, although only moderate adaptation was displayed in the rebuilding of infrastructure to avoid future damage. The river landscape contains the ability to recover, but environmental works conducted after the flood such as the removal of instream woody debris, may have decreased ecosystem resilience. Organisations responsible for social and environmental management should work in alignment to ensure that disaster recovery is integrated to produce holistic resilience outcomes.