How to select the most suitable fuel management strategies to reduce bushfire risk

The research conducted through the Improved decision support for natural hazard risk reduction project is based on the premise that to reduce both the risk and cost of natural hazards, an integrated approach is needed to consider multiple hazards and a range of mitigation options.

There are two Hazard Notes summarising the utilisation of this research: 

This Hazard Note (Hazard Note 108) outlines the development of the Fuel Management Suitability Tool, a digital spatial modelling application that assess the suitability of a range of fuel management options for any location based on a variety of features to provide fire and land managers with a centralised source of information to help plan fuel management strategies. Researchers developed the Tool using a case study of bushfire risk in Western Australia,  by identifying different potential fuel management strategies and assessing the information and knowledge needed to apply them. Using the outputs from the tool, which display as digital maps, fire and land managers can select the fuel management layers of interest and zoom in on their specific location, providing a varied portfolio of mitigation activities to choose from.

Hazard Note 109 demonstrates that the Unified Natural Hazard Risk Mitigation Exploratory Decision support system, also developed through this project, can be used to assist fire and land managers in developing policies that build well-prepared and resilient communities.