This project is a significant extension to the
work of the Bushfire CRC, and establishes a national project on
fuels and fire issues in Australia's high country. Following the
devastating fires of 2003, debate around land management
intensified with many opposing views, mostly unsupported by
scientific research. Through its HighFire project, the Bushfire CRC
is creating an evidence-base that can be drawn upon by land
managers in formulating future policy and practice.
Central to this project is the establishment of new, long-term
research sites and experiments across Victoria, New South Wales and
the ACT. These sites and experiments are providing data to
underpin efforts to model the impacts of climate change on fuel
loads and the trade-offs among fuel management and water
yield. The project is also addressing issues raised in major
reports (such as the Nairn Inquiry and COAG reports on the 2003
fires, the Allen Consulting Group report to the Australian
Greenhouse Office on climate change risks). Aims include the
development and provision of evidence to underpin future policy
planning, for use in fire management of high country landscapes, to
mitigate wildfire impacts on multiple values, and contribute to
improved evidence-based policy for prescribed fires, to manage the
protection of communities, ecological values, water yield, and
mitigation of wildfire.
The project is examining fuel accumulation rates, flammability
and fire severity, and will provide empirical data on how
communities learn to live with fire. The project is providing an
understanding of community values and expectations for the fire
management of high country areas by establishing engagement with
and among land managers in those areas, and examining a range of
socio-legal governmental, economic, regulatory and policy issues
currently influencing bushfire management in the high country.
Click here to see
the main web pages of this significant project.
Project Leaders: Mark Adams - University of Sydney, John
Handmer - RMIT University, Rick McRae -Emergency Services
Authority, ACT, Rodney Weber - University of New South Wales,
Australian Defence Force.
