Researchers from a Centre-funded project received an Excellence in Research award at the Emergency Media and Public Affairs Australia (EMPA) Awards 2026 in May, honouring their improvement and design of effective public-facing fire spread prediction maps.
Presented in Brisbane, the Centre’s Predictions in Public (PiP) project team was award the 2026 Emergency Media and Public Affairs (EMPA) Award for Research Excellence in Emergency Communication.
The project establishes practical, evidence-based design principles for public-facing fire spread prediction maps.
Before the Black Summer bushfires, fire spread prediction maps were largely used as internal operational products. Agencies wanted to understand how to best design, communicate and disseminate fire spread prediction maps to the public to support community safety.
The PiP project – funded by the Centre and a collaboration between researchers and emergency agencies – conducted extensive research to understand how the community uses and understands existing products, including the warnings in the Australian Warning System and how predictive maps can complement existing risk communication strategies.
The project is now in the final phase and is working with jurisdictions on developing practical outputs based on the research findings.
The project team includes lead researcher Dr Chloe Begg from the Victorian Country Fire Authority; Angela Gardner from the Victorian Department of Education; Dr Erica Kuligowski, Dr Amy Griffin, Gita Pupedis and Phillippa Perry from RMIT University; A/Prof Paula Dootson and A/Prof Deanna Grant-Smith from the Queensland University of Technology and A/Prof Timothy Neale and Gabrielle Miller from Deakin University.
The project aims to address this, with the following objectives:
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To understand how members of the fire and emergency services sector would prefer predictive maps to be distributed and used by members of the public.
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To understand how members of the public use, comprehend, perceive, and take-action in response to existing predictive map designs and other types of maps used by agencies across Australia.
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To develop a set of evidence-based guidelines/principles for the design and dissemination of predictive maps to the public based on existing research on hazard mapping.
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To work with the fire and emergency services sector to develop practical project outputs to translate the research findings into fire agency policy and practice.
The project has delivered measurable outcomes across all four objectives, with impact extending from individual community comprehension through to national doctrine and operational deployment during active fire seasons.
The Centre congratulates the research team for this outstanding achievement.