Large fires

2009 Black Saturday and other large fires -  modeling the state of landscape dryness based on fuel moistures of live and dead fuel components in the dry, damp, and wet forests on Black Saturday.

This research is being undertaken for the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI).

Project Brief

The project aims to:

• provide systems on how to model landscape dryness and its live and dead fuel moisture components of representative forest types for the second iteration of the Bushfire Intelligence System and Dynamic Fire Hazard Mapping Statewide Project in 2012–13;
• assist in the development of monitoring and modelling techniques.

The project will provide DEPI with an enhanced understanding of:

• the state of landscape dryness based on modelled fuel moistures of live and dead fuel components in dry, damp, and wet forests on Black Saturday;
• the relationship between live moisture of forest live fuel moistures with grassland curing;
• how these fuel moisture conditions compared with other notable fire seasons, such as 1982-83, 1984-85, 2002-03, and 2006‑07; and
• how key hazard change states in forests, based on significant dead and live fuel components are determined for input to the state-wide dynamic fire hazard models.