Fire Risk Modelling

Fire risk modelling provides robust calculations of risk at local and landscape scales. This helps to guide decision-making and management for assets including people, property, economic, environmental, cultural and infrastructure.

Mitigating risk from wildfire is a balancing act

A better understanding of the economic, social and environmental consequences of major wildfires is important for reducing impacts to businesses, communities, individuals and ecosystems. Fire and land management agencies around the world invest significant resources to try to reduce the impacts of wildfires. Strategies are largely focused on fuel modification with the primary aim being the protection of human life and property. However, land and fire agencies have limited budgets for undertaking fuel management and this is further complicated by the environmental, social and financial risks of undertaking fire-based fuel treatments.

Risk modelling helps support land management decisions

Wildfire risk modelling increases our ability to predict fire behaviour and the associated impacts on human and environmental features. Our research is focused on helping agencies and organisations quantify fire risk decisions and optimise management expenditure to reduce the risk of fire to people, property and other assets. Our risk modelling approach provides a systematic method for assessing trade-offs between different management strategies, with estimates of residual risk and cost-effectiveness across a range of values and assets types. Through the FROST software developed by our team we also have the capacity to integrate future climate scenarios, enabling the assessment of risk under a changing climate. Our work in this field aims to provide robust calculations of risk (at the local and landscape scale) to assist decision making and inform on-ground management for a range of assets including people, property, economic, environmental, cultural and infrastructure.

We use a range of approaches to model risk across Australia

We use a range of modelling approaches to quantify risk and specialise in fire simulations, spatial data analysis, Bayesian Network modelling, fire regime simulations and expert elicitation. Our team is currently working on a range of projects across Australia, with a diverse range of research partners including both government and commercial agencies.

Projects we are currently working on in this field

The Prescribed Burning Atlas: a new system to plan effective prescribed burns

Planned or prescribed burning is widespread in forests and grasslands across Australia. The primary aims of these programs are for: hazard or fuel reduction: prescribed burning is used to reduce the amount of fuel in order to reduce the ...

Reducing landscape fire risk with green fire breaks

Currently in Australia the biodiversity crisis and wildfire risks are in direct opposition to one another. Increased wildfire risks under climate change place pressures on sectors and organisations attempting to revegetate the landscape and ...

Cost effectiveness

Fire managers are increasingly relying on fuel management and suppression efforts to control the impacts of shifting fire regimes. Previous research has demonstrated that when properly applied, these management actions can reduce risks. ...

Examining forest flammability pathways as a function of previous fire event severity

This Master of Science (Ecosystem Science) research project will examine the effect of past fire severity on subsequent fuel structure and fire hazard. By combining field work with remote sensing, this project will test approaches to using ...

Other Capabilities

Future Fire

Predicted hotter and drier climates will modify wildfire intensity, extent, frequency, and seasonality. The Future Fires program will use strategic foresight and cutting-edge models to anticipate and help prepare for the wildfires of the future.

Ecosystem Interactions

Our work aims to understand how fire regimes affect plants, animals and ecosystem function and in-turn how ecological processes such as post-fire vegetation growth interact to influence fire behaviour and risk.

Fire Behaviour

Fire behaviour research considers the mechanisms of fire spread across the landscape. Uncovering the physics behind it through innovative and novel approaches helps us develop and improve predictive models of fire behaviour.

Calling for PhD Candidates…

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