Life Saving Victoria’s Aquatic Risk team offers a range of risk oriented services for land managers of open waterways that include coastal, inland and urban waterway developments. These can include existing or proposed waterways (i.e. urban waterway) or those waterways needing major redevelopment. These risk oriented services are provided for those land managers (i.e. Council, Committee of Management) that as a prime operational objective seek to mitigate the risk of drowning and aquatic related injuries.

Risk services are tailored to the specific land manager scope and context requirements. Land manager requirements are managed in manner that reflects the process elements of the commonly accepted risk management standard ISO AS/ NZ 31000:2009. In addition to the adoption of the risk management process workflows, all projects utilize contemporary research, statistics and spatial analytics specific to drowning and aquatic related injury. This enables the leveraging of both local and global risk factor and rates comparison and division of probabilities specific to each project extent; providing better context of the risk factors and exposure rates for the waterway under assessment.

Once known risk factors and risk rates have been devised for the specific waterway under assessment, appropriate risk treatment options can be nominated and worked though systematically via a consultative process with the land manager and/or other vested parties. Depending on the risk assessment process findings, risk treatment options can range from signage and education, infrastructure design and or modification, provision of publicly accessible rescue equipment and the provision of lifesaving services. The Aquatic Risk team can also provide detailed risk treatment plans, ongoing assessment of effectiveness of risk treatments and the provision of safety equipment and design and supply of aquatic safety signs.