Community Emergency Risk Assessment (CERA) - Victoria State Emergency Service

Community Emergency Risk Assessment (CERA) is an all hazards risk assessment tool which aims to identify, mitigate and reduce risk within the community following the Australian Standard for Risk Management, ISO 31000.

On this page:

About CERA

CERA identifies the hazard risk as a broad statement. For example: “There is a riverine flood risk in this municipality”. Given no risk is the same across an area as large as a municipality, the committee, agencies and community firstly can plan for the risk as a whole.

This process includes identifying any gaps in action taken to mitigate the risk, and also identifying specific areas in the community that may be at greater risk.

Contacts

For training or general user support enquiries please contact your regional VICSES representative in the first instance, if they are unable to assist they will lodge a query with CERA administration on your behalf.
For password, personal details, user access or any technical issues experienced please email cerasupport@ses.vic.gov.au.

CERA Online

CERA Online is available now!

CERA Online is a risk assessment tool used by Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committees (MEMPCs), established under the Emergency Management Act 2013.
The CERA tool has undergone a process of enhancement and modernisation to replace the original and outdated Excel spreadsheet with a cloud based platform, delivering an easy to use and widely accessible risk assessment tool to all stakeholders.
The transition to CERA Online will assist Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committees (MEMPCs) to participate in an efficient and effective risk assessment process. All participating MEMPCs will undertake future risk assessments using CERA Online.
If you participate in the CERA process and require access to the data, please speak to your local VICSES Operations Officer Emergency Management (OOEM).
For access, click on the CERA Online image below. The CERA Login and Registration Guide available in the resources table below will assist with first time login process.

CERA process

While the platform is new, the CERA process will remain unchanged.

The CERA process, facilitated by VICSES Operations Officer Emergency Management (OOEM), is designed for Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committees (MEMPCs) to:

Identify the risks that pose the most significant threat to their community.
Identify, describe and understand the exposure and vulnerability of key community assets, values and functions essential to the normal functioning of the community.
Discuss and understand the consequence and likelihood, causes and impacts for each risk.
Identify opportunities for improvement to prevention, control, mitigation measures and collaboration.
Inform emergency management planning.

To finalise the CERA process VICSES staff support the committee by loading the data from the group discussions into CERA Online that will calculate the levels of risk and create risk sheets (that can be exported) as well as heat maps for inclusion in Municipal Emergency Management Plans.