Want to know if there's a bushfire near you, a wild storm on the way or a drought setting in? There's an app for that.
Now there is also an app to help regional Australians predict if their towns are ready to withstand and recover from those climate disasters.
The online dashboard brings hundreds of data sets together measuring factors such as housing availability, school attendance rates, the number of tradies and access to local spaces to calculate a council area's resilience level.
App goes national after trial
The tool, which is expanding into Tasmania, Victoria, WA, and the NT after a NSW pilot, was created by climate researchers from several Australian universities in collaboration with drought innovation hubs.
The dashboard helped pinpoint areas of local vulnerability so councils and community groups could act or apply for state and federal assistance, Southern NSW innovation hub director Cindy Cassidy said.
"(It measures) a combination of factors that are important when you're looking at recovery," Cassidy said.
"Access to tradies becomes really important when you've had something go wrong, like a flood or a fire, and you need to rebuild.
"Things like school attendance are typically indicators that communities are not functioning that well ... that there are things happening in the community that means school is not a priority."
Local infrastructure assessed
The Early Insights for More Resilient Communities tool also measures availability of major infrastructure such as telecommunications and high-quality roads, along with smaller amenities such as community halls and parks.
"There is a strong theory that resilience - people's ability to withstand and recover - has got a lot of underpinning in social cohesion," Cassidy said.
"That relies on having places for people to come and meet, so the town hall is a really important place in regional communities.
"If you lose that, communities lose a pretty significant piece of social cohesion."
An early warning system
The national version of the tool includes 2025 data and will be used in WA and Tasmania to prepare the agricultural sector.
"This is an early warning system for community resilience," Cassidy said.
