Using fire simulations to assess house vulnerability at the urban interface

Fire Note 126 presents an alternative approach to evaluating building vulnerability using a dynamic bushfire simulator. The approach creates sets of fire predictions, which can then be used to create maps of potential fire behaviour. Simulation approaches allow a much wider range of factors to be considered such as location specific effects of vegetation, weather and terrain. Potential fire behaviour maps can provide a more detailed indication of the likely impacts to buildings, allowing ‘Wildfire Interface Zones’ to be mapped based on specific criteria of interest.

This research has demonstrated that dynamic fire characterisation models are likely to be a valuable tool for improving the way risk at the rural/urban interface is characterised. Management activities, such as prescribed burning, fuel modification, the application of building construction guidelines and the construction of firebreaks can then be objectively assessed in terms of their cost and benefits.

View the Fire Note here. More details on this project are available in the full report, available here.