Supply chain impacts during the January 2023 Kimberley, Western Australia, floods

Until recently, the capacity to quantify and understand disruptions to Australian domestic supply chains due to external events (e.g., natural hazards) as they occur was very limited. This is an important capability as it enables emergency managers to direct resources to improve response and recovery times during supply chain disruptions to greater effect, and to better understand and quantify the potentially far-reaching community and economic impacts likely to be felt during such events. The Transport Network Strategic Investment Tool (TraNSIT, CSIRO) was recently adapted in partnership with the Australian Climate Service (ACS) to fill this information gap. Specifically, a decision support service was stood up to supply a daily snapshot on the current state of the national supply chain network to emergency management agencies during natural hazard events, particularly flood events. In this paper, we present some of the key capabilities of this service in the context of a recent major flood event which occurred in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia (WA) during January 2023. This event caused extensive damage to major freight routes and communities within northern WA and left several communities completely cut-off from the broader transport network. TraNSIT modelling during the event indicated that significant immediate-term supply chain impacts were likely to be felt, including detours of several thousand kilometres for some cross-country freight, and substantial blockages of essential food and fuel to several population centres within the region. Such impacts were substantiated by observations during the event. Planned improvements will address current model limitations, as well as bring significant new capabilities to the ACS TraNSIT service. This includes a supply chain impact forecasting capability, which will help emergency managers to make better-informed preparations for flood events before they occur.

• Record URL:
  • https://australasiantransportresearchforum.org.au/papers/2023
• Authors:
  • Price, B
  • Boulaire, F
  • Higgins, A
  • Smolanko, N
• Conference:
  • Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF), 44th, 2023, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
• Publication Date: 2023-11

Media Info

• Pagination: 12p
• Monograph Title: Australasian Transport Research Forum, 2023, 29 November-1 December, Perth, Western Australia

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Disasters; Emergencies; Floods; Forecasting; Freight transportation; Logistics; Rural areas; Supply
• Uncontrolled Terms: Supply chains
• Geographic Terms: Australia; Western Australia
• ATRI Terms: Disaster management; Emergency; Flooding; Forecast; Freight transport; Logistics; Rural area; Supply
• ITRD Terms: 2184: Emergency; 132: Forecast; 1112: Freight transport
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01914558
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB Group Limited
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Apr 15 2024 2:20PM