Emerging insights from the 2026 Natural Hazards Research Forum

The AIDR team manages the Australian Disaster Resilience Handbook Collection and the Australian Disaster Resilience Glossary. We also produce the Major Incidents Report, Riskscape Report, and What’s New in Knowledge, and contribute to the Australian Journal of Emergency Management, and other AIDR Knowledge Hub resources. To support this work, we actively monitor developments in policy, practice and research, helping ensure that AIDR’s knowledge products continue to reflect evolving best practice in disaster risk reduction and resilience. 

Attending the NHRF each year provides a valuable opportunity for us to engage directly with the disaster risk reduction research and implementation community, and to identify emerging areas of research that may shape future knowledge development priorities and products. 

New and emerging research 

Following the Los Angeles fires, there is increased attention on understanding the risks and potential impacts of urban conflagration fires in Australia – where fire spreads from structure to structure. A new project will examine the potential for fires to escalate into large-scale urban conflagrations in Australia, with the aim of improving planning and community safety. We also heard insights on this from keynote speaker Dr Faraz Hedayati, and from researcher Anna Durkin, whose internship is exploring how lessons from the LA fires could be applied in WA.   

There is also a stronger focus on post-disaster displacement, accommodation and housing. It was good to see this under-researched area is gaining momentum, with new projects evaluating resilient homes funds in Queensland and New South Wales, exploring temporary and emergency accommodation, and building a case study of large-scale assisted relocations following floods. 

There are a growing number of Indigenous-led research projects underway, examining the impacts of colonial load and cultural conflict on First Nations people employed in the fire and land management sector, and an evaluation of the Australia Women-in-Fire Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (AUS-WTREX) program. These important projects speak to a significant gap in understanding the expertise and experiences of First Nations people working in emergency management.  

Another positive trend is the growing diversity of research disciplines being brought together in project teams. This is bringing new perspectives, research questions and methodologies into disaster risk reduction and resilience research. 

For example, migration researchers are bringing deep understanding of the realities of newly arrived migrants to the development of a framework for multicultural inclusion in emergency management. Design and architecture researchers are using participatory design methods to help the sector understand and visualise people’s lived experience of post disaster temporary accommodation. We were also impressed by the innovation and interdisciplinarity being brought to the Fire mosaics project. Fire mosaics are landscapes composed of patches of vegetation that have experienced fire at different times, intensities, and frequencies. This project is drawing on western and Indigenous science to produce tools and guidance to incorporate fire mosaics in landscape fire planning.  

As always, the range and quality of PhD research showcased at the Forum were excellent. These projects complement the core research program by exploring a broader range of topics and questions, contributing valuable research-driven insights alongside more targeted, sector-driven work. 

For example, Associate Professor Bhiamie Williamson’s call to recognise and name colonisation impacts in Forum discussions was in mind as PhD student Natale Froia shared their historical investigation of ongoing colonial influences in floodplain management practices in Carisbrook, Victoria.  

The commitment of PhD students to stakeholder engaged research and codesign was also evident. A key example of this was Pallav Pant’s presentation of his doctoral research: Advancing accessible emergency communication: Co-designing digital solutions for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing communities in Queensland. 

While new and emerging research continues to expand knowledge and capability, the forum also reinforced the importance of building on existing foundations. The keynote panel Envisioning the future, informed by the past was a highlight, bringing together leading voices in natural hazards research to reflect on key moments of change and the effort required to achieve them. 

Knowledge translation  

Knowledge translation was showcased across the forum in a range of formats, with a particularly strong focus in the pre-forum workshops. 

AIDR is a key partner in the Foundations in Indigenous disaster resilience project, which is developing a National Framework for Indigenous Disaster Resilience. The pre-forum workshop for this project provided an overview of the emerging shape of the framework and offered participants the opportunity to contribute to the extensive consultation process informing its development. 

An implementation plan for the framework is also underway. There are several key streams of work where AIDR can contribute—through sharing knowledge with partners, aligning our products with the framework, and by reflecting on and strengthening our own ways of working. AIDR Senior Project Officer Dr Isabel Cornes shared how AIDR is approaching this implementation work as part of the forum panel: ‘Sustainable (social equity, environment, sustainability and sustainability of systems)’. 

Isabel also attended the workshop on co-developing a national framework for risk reduction programs, as part of the Evaluating and Monitoring for Impact project. An ongoing challenge for risk reduction programs has been the ability to measure their impacts consistently at a national level and therefore justify their value and effectiveness to secure ongoing funding. The creation of a national framework will be a valuable resource to support decision makers and practitioners in building a strong case for risk reduction programs into the future.  

The Recovery Capitals workshop explored the ReCap framework and its potential to support recovery planning and decision-making. It provided an interesting look at how data and evidence can be used to understand recovery outcomes over time. Discussions explored future directions for the framework, including how it might be better aligned with recovery principles and made more accessible for practitioners and communities. It was a valuable opportunity to hear about the challenges and opportunities involved in translating research approaches into practical tools that support recovery.  

Knowledge translation in action was evident in many of the established research projects, with 3 projects standing out: Bushfire risk at the rural-urban interface, Best practice for tracking potentially traumatic event exposure, and Predictions in public. 

Across these projects, a consistent theme was the importance of sustained relationships, deep co-design and ongoing co-learning between researchers and practitioners. Maintaining this level of meaningful engagement in a highly competitive research environment requires considerable time, effort and commitment from both researchers and stakeholder partners. All those involved are to be commended for their dedication and curiosity, and for their continued collaboration despite the pressures and challenges of the research landscape. 

With this in mind, we extend our genuine congratulations to the winners of the Natural Hazards Research Australia Awards: Sathursahn Mathavanayakam (Postgraduate Student Award), the Enhancing decision making in emergency management team (Research Team Award), and Celeste Young and Roger Jones (Leading to Impact Award for the Emergency management volunteering: more than just words project).