Australian IT experts are developing a disaster management platform that will help companies and agencies improve mitigation and responses.

The University of Melbourne, IBM and technology researcher National ICT have joined forces on the Australia Disaster Management Platform (ADMP), which will allow real-time, easily accessible information on catastrophes.

ADMP Organisation Director and Academic Leader Abbas Rajabifard told insuranceNEWS.com.au the aim is to come up with a platform “with improved technical processes to connect entities and thus better manage disasters”.

The open-standards platform is expected to address management problems that arise from emergency services and other stakeholders using incompatible systems.

Professor Rajabifard says it will focus on all phases of disaster management – preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery.

However, an emphasis on preparation will benefit both insurers and policyholders, he says.

“Our aim is to better facilitate preparedness, with the result that people and communities are more protected and fewer claims will arise.

“It means we’re doing more than just waiting to react – we’re being proactive.”

The platform will be accessible from channels including mobile phones and tablets. Users will be able to communicate on it and customise it to meet their needs.

“We’re designing a common infrastructure, so individual organisations can use their own data and their own technology,” Professor Rajabifard said.

Users will be able to see risks relating to different land areas and properties, such as damage to various types of material from floods or earthquakes.

This “smarter” platform will be unique and cater for “all hazards and all agencies, supporting data from any source at any time”, he says.

A pilot of the new system is due for launch in November.