In 2002 Geoscience Australia (GA) embarked on the development of the National Exposure Information System (NEXIS) project in response to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) reform commitment on Australian’s ability to manage natural disasters and other emergencies. Public access to NEXIS has been limited to products based on Local Government Areas or ABS Statistical Areas.

 

In 2013, the Bushfire and Natural Hazard Cooperative Research Centre (now incorporated into Natural Hazards Research Australia) and Geoscience Australia led a three year research project in collaboration with University of Melbourne and the University of Canberra, to document a comprehensive Natural Hazard Exposure Information Framework. The objective was to fully describe and categorise exposure information elements in a consistent framework to be used as a reference for developing future exposure information systems.

 

In 2018, in partnership with the Bushfire & Natural Hazard CRC, Geoscience Australia has made available the Australian Exposure Information Platform (AEIP). The aim for AEIP was to make nationally consistent exposure information, directly accessible to key stakeholders involved in emergency management situation awareness, risk assessments, impact analysis research, and disaster management.

 

The Platform combines the extensive work from NEXIS and the comprehensive ‘Natural Hazard Exposure Information Framework’, by providing user’s direct access to national Exposure Information. It includes 'elements' on building, businesses and people; public facilities and infrastructure assets; agricultural commodities, and environmental holdings within Australia.

 

Exposure Reports provides a detailed statistical summary of the 'elements', within a user defined area of interest. The reports are accessible via two self-serve approaches:

 

CREATE

• Obtain Australian Exposure Information within Geoscience Australia’s interactive mapping application.

• Use the available tools to upload, draw or select an existing geographic extent, then submit to request a customised Exposure Report. The application is available here.

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CONNECT

• An application programming interface has been created for software developers wanting to incorporate the exposure report capability within their own systems.

• Custom application(s) can be connected directly access Australian Exposure Information via a user defined area of interest. The API documentation is available here.