Fact Sheet - Assessing disaster risk

Know your business

The types of risks you face are specific to your business and what it does. To effectively manage risk, consider both what you do in your business, what happens outside your business, what helps your business to operate and how disruptions to these activities could affect your operations.

Understand who and what your business relies on. Risks from natural hazards can combine with these areas of reliance within your business to create a significant impact on your operations. Understanding what areas of your business are most important will help you plan for disaster.

• Understand your important business areas and functions, including:
  • what are the key services your business provides?
  • who are your key staff?
  • what are the key resources you use in performing or delivering your services?
  • where do your resources come from? Who/what is your primary supplier?
• Understand who and what your business relies on, and who and what relies on you, including whether your business is part of a supply chain, whether it relies  on a supply chain, or whether it needs access to certain supply routes.
• Understand how your important business areas, and what your business relies on, might be impacted by disruption resulting from a natural disaster, such as:
• loss of power or water supply that means you can't deliver your services
• road closure that prevents access to your property
• destruction of property or records
• injury or death of you, your staff, customers or clients
• disruption to key suppliers and the flow on effects due to that disruption.

Some impacts of these disruptions could include an immediate downturn in visitors, closure of your business for an extended period of time, legal proceedings and limited cash flow. It is important that you consider ways to mitigate these impacts. One method is insurance. See the Business Insurance fact sheet at www.business.tas.gov.au for more information on insurance.

Know the natural hazards in your area

Knowledge of your locality and the risks and hazards that may arise from the location of your business will help you develop strategies to manage these risks. Note that if your business operates across multiple locations, the risks could be different for each location.

Research your local area: this will give you an idea of the pattern and frequency of natural disasters such as drought, storm, fire and flood. The following may be of assistance:

• Land   Information System Tasmania (LIST) Maps provide information on fire history, floodplains, and coastal vulnerability from Sea Level Rise, amongst other   hazards. To access, go to www.thelist.tas.gov.au
• the Bureau of Meteorology provides information on weather and warnings, forecasts, past weather and longer-term outlooks for Tasmania www.bom.gov.au/tas
• climate profiles for individual councils in Tasmania are available on the climate change pages at www.recfit.tas.gov.au. These climate profiles contain   information on past and current climate, as well as projections for future changes to rainfall, extreme events and other climate impacts. For primary producers, Agricultural Futures information sheets are also available.
• natural   hazard information on key hazards can be found on the following sites:  Tasmania State Emergency Services (SES) www.ses.tas.gov.au Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) www.fire.tas.gov.au and TasALERT www.alert.tas.gov.au

Some natural hazards that could affect your business include:

• bushfire  –  proximity to bush, particularly where more bushfire fuel is available, increases risk. The south and south-east is particularly vulnerable. For  further information on bushfire, see the TFS website www.fire.tas.gov.au
• storms  –  affect all parts of Tasmania but the north-east, west and north-west are particularly exposed. The highest storm risk is likely to come from a broad-scale front moving from the west bringing thunderstorms and tornadoes.  For further information on storms, see the SES website www.ses.tas.gov.au
• flood  –  there are two main types of floods that can affect businesses: flash flooding, which occurs over a short period of time, and riverine flooding, which occurs when rivers burst their banks. For further information on floods, see the SES website www.ses.tas.gov.au

Longer term threats, such as sea level rise or drought may be applicable in some cases:

• businesses on the coast or near a significant body of water should check localised maps for projected sea level rise, available on LIST Maps www.thelist.tas.gov.au
• the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment has several resources available to assist farmers to manage drought and other seasonal conditions. For further information see www.nre.tas.gov.au