Resilient cities, user-driven planning, and open data policy

We present a framework for user-driven planning that links disaster management policy and legislation, Open Data, and individual households and residents, focusing on Queensland. Relating open datasets to a practical model of planning reveals two major problems with currently available data. First, they are fragmented, and so multiple datasets maintained by different agencies must be consulted for a user to be able to obtain a holistic view of their risk. Second, the use of the data generally requires some expertise in data analysis. We propose that narrative policy analysis may ameliorate this problem, by presenting data (a) in amalgamated platforms that combine data of various hazards and risks; and (b) so that the user is positioned in a ‘resilience narrative’, and their disaster risk is more readily understood.