Research Forum

Across the country, fire management faces the common challenge of adapting to a changing climate. However, alongside social, environmental and economic changes, climate change will manifest differently across the country. If fire management is to support the capacity of our social-ecological systems to adapt to these interacting changes, the sector itself must be adaptive. Insights from literature across a range of...

Predicting probable fire spread is vital to the success of fire suppression and protection of lives and property. Fire authorities responsible for deploying resources gain a valuable advantage if they know in advance where the fire is likely to be by the time resources arrive. Researchers at the University of Western Australia (UWA) have developed software, called Australis, to simulate bushfire spread over the various...

Evidence from several sources indicates that during the 2009 Victorian bushfires (Black Saturday), many couples did not have a bushfire plan, others failed to execute their plans and some members of couples perished. Whilst there were many cases of successful couple decision-making, there were also apparent failures of survival-related couple decision-making. In this study, transcripts of 29 interviews with members of...

In the Otago region of New Zealand, Naseby is a small tourist town faced with an increasing risk of a severe fire event. Burning of tussock grasslands by pastoralists and recreational activity are just a few land management actions that pose significant risks to the town, surrounding communities, and biodiversity assets. We present a quantitative decision framework to provide an integrated assessment of the land management...

The full proceedings from the 2012 Research Forum are now available. Held as part of the annual conference in Perth, the Research Forum focuses on the delivery of research findings across different disciplines for emergency management personnel who need to use this knowledge for their daily work.

Wildfires are a strong driver of change in many landscapes (e.g. south-eastern Australia, western USA, Canada, and the Mediterranean). Vegetation removal and changes to soil properties by wildfire result in altered surface hydrology and erosion rates. When wildfire occurs in a water catchment these changes can cause negative impacts on water quality, supply, and treatment. Therefore, being able to predict the potential...

Strong normative statements have been made in key policy documents and public inquiries about the need to focus on a principle of ‘Shared Responsibility’ in Australian emergency management. However, these statements give very little guidance on what sharing responsibility might look like on the ground, leaving stakeholders wondering what this idea mean for the way they interact and what they are expected to achieve in this...