Development of a national set of community service announcements for flood risk

This report details a five-month utilisation project linked to the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC ‘Flood Risk Communication’ core research project. The project aim was to deliver a nationally agreed set of public flood risk messages, informed by research and agreed by a national working group comprising state emergency service (SES) representatives from all Australian states and territories. Specifically, the messages developed in this project are ‘Community Service Announcements’ (CSAs) intended for initial use by ABC Emergency. These CSAs would typically be used in radio broadcasts during or in the lead up to, significant flood or storm events. These CSAs are messages of around 30 – 60 seconds duration; however, they may be combined to produce longer segments. In rolling emergency broadcasts, they provide breaks between status updates and warnings from the relevant state or territory emergency services and on-the-ground reporting. These flood CSAs contain public safety information about flood risks, desired behaviours and calls to action, and sources of help or support.

The report finds gaps between messaging and the action taken by stakeholders. Through the iterative review process and the scripting process some message elements identified in Stage 1 have not found their way into the final message set. In addition, gaps exist. Focus group participants identified desired content that is not included in the final message set, e.g., flood emergency kit (‘go-bag’) contents. However, to produce a usable ‘product’ compromises were required for the messages to be fit-for-purpose too, even though there is still room for future improvements. Fortunately, these CSAs form just one part of the messaging content that will be available when required. Despite the issues identified, all stages of the project ran smoothly and delivered their objectives successfully. Although timelines were short this worked to maintain momentum, but it also led to short turnarounds for CSA WG reviews at times. The user-centred approach taken by the expert CSA WG when co-creating the provisional CSA messages coupled with the end user message testing in the public focus groups worked extremely well.