Project Leaders Jim Gould - CSIRO Forest Biosciences and Wendy Anderson UNSW ADFA

The need to improve firefighter and community safety in the management of bushfires continues to escalate as world events raise awareness and concern about disasters. This project addresses this need by providing better knowledge and understanding of the interactions between fire, fuel, weather and topography. The project integrates existing and new fire behaviour models into a National Fire Behaviour Prediction System for prediction of bushfire behaviour.

Factors include rate of spread, flame height, intensity and spotting for both wildfires and controlled prescribed fires. The research includes experimentation and validation of fire behaviour models, documentation, training and the production and delivery of fire behaviour systems to end users.

Research work includes field validation of the findings from Project Vesta results in south eastern fuels.  Project Vesta was a comprehensive research project between CSIRO and Department of Conservation and Land Management in Western Australia, investigating the behaviour of bushfires in different fuel ages and structures during dry summer conditions.  Experimental burning and the collection of fire behaviour information from major wildfires is a key component of the research.

See Research in mallee bush at Ngarkat Conservation Park

Project Leader: Jim Gould, CSIRO, Ph: (02) 6281 8341
Dr Wendy Anderson, University of NSW, Ph: (02) 6268 8890