Science and fire danger

Australian fire experts discussed the science behind fire danger ratings at a Bushfire CRC seminar in June.

In this seminar at the University of Sydney, Dr Marty Alexander provided a broad overview of the fundamental principles of fire danger ratings.

This was largely based on his experiences with the development and application of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System over the course of his career with the Canadian Forest Service (1976-2010). This included a one-year secondment to New Zealand (1992-93) coupled with his early involvement as a student assistant with the US National Fire-Danger Rating System project (1972-74) and more recently as an subject matter expert for the European Joint Research Centre to examine the feasibility of developing a global fire danger rating system.

The entire seminar was filmed to provide access to those who could not attend. The video can be viewed on the event page.

This seminar was part of the Bushfire CRC Professional Development event series - it was co-hosted with the New South Wales Rural Fire Service and the University of Sydney.