@article {bnh-8332, title = {Engaging communities to prepare for natural hazards: a conceptual model}, journal = {Natural Hazards}, year = {2022}, month = {03/2022}, abstract = {

Natural hazard preparation by communities reduces disaster-induced physical health problems and adverse experiences, lowers potential for post-traumatic stress disorders, and aids faster recovery. However, approaches to community engagement for preparedness vary widely leaving those responsible confused and often overwhelmed. This study builds on natural hazards behavior, community development, participatory, and codesign research to understand current community engagement approaches in an Australian context. Key principles for engaging communities were operationalized from document analysis and interviews with 30 community engagement practitioners from 25 Australian emergency management agencies. A thematic analysis of the agency documents and interviews led to a visualization of the pathway to community-led preparedness with the iterative community-centered engagement model for preparedness. The model reflects both current practice and aspirations. It contributes theoretically to a collaborative community-led engagement approach for risk personalization and protective action by highlighting the need to develop a deep understanding of the specific features of local communities. The model maps a pathway through different levels of community engagement toward the ultimate aim of a community-led approach to natural hazards preparation. It recognizes the changing circumstances and the situation of communities within their environment, and the barriers and enablers to support community-led preparedness. The model is significant in that it delivers a practical framework for engagement practitioners to build capacity in their communities and support their local communities to prepare for natural hazards and build relational capital for longer-term resilience.

}, keywords = {community engagement, Community-centered, model, Multi-hazard, Preparedness, risk mitigation}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05290-2}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-022-05290-2}, author = {Kim Johnston and Maureen Taylor and Barbara Ryan} } @article {bnh-6642, title = {A report on WRF software development (preliminary)}, number = {539}, year = {2020}, month = {01/2020}, institution = {Bushfire \& Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Bushfire is one of the major natural hazards Australia encounters every year because of its dry weather and widespread bushlands. During the dry season, occurrence of simultaneous bushfires at different locations is quite common. The fire management authorities face challenges on deployment of resources (human and other logistics) properly to mitigate multiple bushfires. To prioritize, they depend on the modelling of real-time behaviours of the fire under consideration. Fire rate of spread (RoS) is one of the most important parameters that the authority wants to determine before proceeding to resource allocation. RoS during forest fire can be slowed by reduced sub-canopy wind. In operational models, it is accounted by a parameter, wind reduction factor (WRF). Current values used as WRF are not based on science. In this work, we are presenting a software (preliminary version) that can calculate WRF scientifically. We apply a dynamic WRF obtained from a mathematical model in an operation model, Spark. This will lead to better prediction of RoS, once fully implemented.

}, keywords = {Bushfire, fire management, model, Rate of spread, software development}, issn = {539}, author = {Mahmood Rashid and James Hilton and Nazmul Khan and Duncan Sutherland and Khalid Moinuddin} } @article {BF-4288, title = {Dead fuel moisture research: 1991{\textendash}2012}, journal = {International Journal of Wildland Fire}, year = {2013}, month = {09/2013}, abstract = {The moisture content of dead fuels is an important determinant of many aspects of bushfire behaviour. Understanding the relationships of fuel moisture with weather, fuels and topography is useful for fire managers and models of fuel moisture are an integral component of fire behaviour models. This paper reviews research into dead fuel moisture for the period 1991{\textendash}2012. The first half of the paper deals with experimental investigation of fuel moisture including an overview of the physical processes that affect fuel moisture, laboratory measurements used to quantify these processes, and field measurements of the dependence of fuel moisture on weather, vegetation structure and topography. The second set of topics examine models of fuel moisture including empirical models derived from field measurements, process-based models of vapour exchange and fuel energy and water balance, and experimental testing of both types of models. Remaining knowledge gaps and future research problems are also discussed. Opportunities for exciting research in the future exist for basic fuel moisture processes, developing new methods for applying models to fire behaviour prediction, and linking fuel moisture and weather forecast models.}, keywords = {forest litter, fuel moisture content, model, review}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WF13005}, url = {http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/WF13005.htm}, author = {Stuart Matthews} }