Paying the price
This forum took place on 17 June 2014
Duration: 1 hour approx.
Presenters:
Prof. Stephen Dovers, Australian National University
Prof. David Pannell, University of Western Australia
Andrew Stark, Chief Officer ACT Rural Fire Service and lead end user
Hosted by Tanya Ha, award winning science journalist and former ABC Catalyst Reporter
Research projects covered: Economics and Integrated economic assessment of fire risk management strategies
Whats it about?
Studies into economics indicate that economic evaluation is a useful tool for bushfire management, but is currently under-utilised within agencies. A number of key actions have been identified to increase the use of economic evaluation methods. These include increasing economic expertise amongst bushfire management and policy professionals, and designing economic evaluation that connects to the broader social and political context of bushfire management decision-making.
Case Studies of integrated assessment of fire risk management strategies in New Zealand’s Central Otago region and South Australia’s Mount Lofty Ranges provide insights into the question of which fire-prevention strategies provide the best value for money. A decision framework has been developed to provide an integrated assessment of the benefits and costs of fire risk management strategies. The study highlighted which fire risk management strategies (including prescribed burning) are likely to produce the highest benefit per dollar spent. The research demonstrates that the methodology works and can provide valuable decision-making inputs to fire management programs.
Learn more about the research in this short video
Replay The Entire Forum
Who attended?
- Chief financial officers
- Senior executives
- Fire and land managers
Key resources you should know about
- Fire Note on Economic Contributions to Bushfire Management and Policy - Fire Note 105: Economics
- Fire Note on Making Strategic Choices - Fire Note 124: Making strategic choices
- Fire Note on Linking Assessment of future bushfire scenarios and economics - Fire Note 125
- Economics and Future Scenarios final report
- Integrated Economic Assessment of Fire Risk Management Strategies final report
