HighFire has three major research themes:
High Country Fuels
and Ecosystem Functions (Project leader - Prof Mark
Adams, UNSW) has established research sites in New South Wales,
Victoria and the ACT to examine how fuel management practices
(prescribed fire, browsing and grazing) and wildfire interact with
a range of complex ecosystem functions including: rates of plant
growth (fuel accumulation); types of plants; landscape
flammability; gas emissions from plant growth, plant combustion and
from soils; climate change and water quality and quantity.
Living with Fire
in the High Country (Project leader - Prof John
Handmer, RMIT) is working with local communities to improve our
understanding of what makes a community or an individual resilient
to living in fire-prone areas.
Managing the Risk of Fire in the High Country
(Project leaders - Assoc. Prof Rod Weber, ADFA & Rick McCrae,
ACT ESA) is developing a bushfire risk model for high country
landscapes incorporating drivers of fire unique to mountainous
areas.
