House, Home and Place - A Visual Mapping Tool

Picture drawing a circle around ‘home’ on a map and it probably extends well beyond the property.

For most, home exists within the surrounding landscape, a place filled with emotional meaning, as well as social and physical/environmental connections, reflecting aspects of our sense of self, where we come from and what we value.

Bushfire CRC research indicates that fire and land managers can benefit from understanding community values, perspectives and insights in targeting and tailoring safety and engagement programs in fire and hazard-prone communities.

Model Pinpoints Factors Driving Extreme Bushfire Behaviour

Fire Note 137: In the 2003 Canberra bushfires, a number of unusual fires were observed in which bushfire spread sideways in a diagonal or crosswise direction to background winds. It occurred alongside rapid and intense downwind fire spread due to spotting. The atypical fire occurrence was on steep leeward slopes (a sheltered slope facing away from the wind) where background wind was mostly perpendicular to the terrain.

Anxiety and Worry Linked with Lower Bushfire Preparedness: Study

Fire Note 134: This Fire Note outlines research undertaken within the bushfire-prone communities of Roleystone and Kelmscott in the Perth Hills, about 45 minutes east of Perth, Western Australia. The researchers surveyed householders to assess the role of anxiety and worry in relation to how people process bushfire safety and warning information and the impact of these emotions on how they prepare for threat.

National study profiles bushfire preparedness

Fire Note 133: The national research featured in this Fire Note investigated the community and householder characteristics that contribute to bushfire preparedness in Australia's bushfire-prone areas.

The findings are based on four separate but related studies (both qualitative and quantitative) conducted over two years in a total of 288 fire-prone communities across four states: Western Australia (WA), Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

Prepared for action: new tools and insights

Fire Note 132: Offers a new way of thinking about bushfire preparedness and its measurement.  The study defines preparedness in terms of three householder goals:  stay and defend, evacuate safely or improve the property’s fire resistance when left unattended.  The research also offers a new framework for measuring householder preparedness in relation to these differing goals. The measures will be useful for assessing the effectiveness of community safety campaigns, especially those targeting specific goals, such as preparing communities to evacuate.

Study captures insights on bushfire risk and response

Fire Note 131: In October 2013, bushfires swept across parts of New South Wales, leaving a trail of destruction and loss. The NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) commissioned the Bushfire CRC to conduct community-focused research with a number of communities hit hard by the 2013 bushfires in the Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands and Port Stephens. The aim was to understand how people prepared for and reacted to these disasters and assist future development of emergency management responses, community education and public safety initiatives.

Bushfire decision support toolbox radiant heat flux modelling - Case study three 2013 Springwood fire, New South Wales

This report details the third of three case studies used to explore spatial modelling of RHF incident on a house during a fire as an alternative of the AS3959 approach for hazard classification. This case study uses data collected during and after the fire that occurred at Springwood in NSW in October 2013. The study develops detailed modelling of radiant heat incident on houses using topographic information, while accounting for vegetation (fuel) structural variability across the landscape.

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