Flood Response Surge Support for NRRA - Task 4: Economic Value at Risk Assessment Tool

NRRA requested surge team to develop a means to produce a defensible, evidence-based estimate of total economic impact of disasters for the recent flood events in Northern NSW and southern Queensland in February and March 2022 . Although the primary objective was to be quantify the total economic impact for the entire flood event, the team developed an approach that would enable estimation of value at risk and value impacted at higher spatial resolution or granularity that could also be used to inform policy and program design. The aim was to develop a minimum viable product (MVP) for immediate use by the NRRA. An approach was developed to estimating economic value at risk for administrative areas and then use flood extent to calculate percent of each administrative area impacted by the hazard, to estimate economic value impacted. Gross Value Added (GVA) by each administrative area (ASGS SA2 level) was selected as the headline economic value at risk figure. The GVA for each administrative area can be aggregated to a headline figure of total economic impact. The approach was intended to be rapid and robust, and to provide a preliminary view of direct impacts soon after a disaster occurs. The outputs include: A) An Economic value-at-risk data stack (including a range of economic data - jobs, productivity by worker, property reconstruction value, inter-regional and sectoral economic activity and built environment data) B) A calculation sheet to calculate value impacted based on value at risk (GVA) and input parameters to quantify hazard within each administration unit Both outputs are contained within a Microsoft Excel document.