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 activities. The model was developed using existing literature and extensive consultation with stakeholders and fire researchers.

As part of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research’s contribution to the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre’s Fire Impact and Risk Evaluation – Decision Support Tool project, high-resolution and very-high-resolution simulations of the meteorology across Victoria on Black Saturday (7 February 2009) have been performed. These simulations are described and validated against available observational data.

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 disciplines highlight adoption of a ‘reflexive learning approach’ could enable such a capacity.

Fire Note 112: This Fire Note outlines research investigating why many residents of bushfire prone areas delay their decision to defend or evacuate in response to a bushfire until the day of a fire. The research examined several plausible reasons for such a delay stemming from decision avoidance research. This Fire Note discusses the research findings, as well as the opportunities and obstacles to overcoming the problems associated with decision delay.