Project update three - From hectares to tailor-made solutions

This is the third project update from the From hectares to tailor-made solutions study, with information for end-users and those interested in the latest from the project.

Riffin’ on RAF

Most of this update focuses on the Research Advisory Forum which took place recently at University House at ANU, Canberra on 18 and 19 October.

Day one of the RAF kicked off with research presentations from different projects. Highlights from Ross Bradstock’s talk for this project were:

• This project arose because there is no ‘one size fits all solution’ to prescribed burning.
• The project will deliver a set of solutions: explicitly accounting for the range of biophysical and human influences on prescribed burning impacts on risk across southern Australia.
• The project has two streams - a simulation modelling stream and an empirical analysis stream - and an end product, the Prescribed Burning Atlas.
• Ross then talked through initial results on the first, peri-urban round of case study simulations. Results included values for area burnt, house loss, lives lost, economic and environmental costs. These results can be partitioned by prevailing weather conditions (FFDI including drivers of FFDI), amount of treatment and other factors.  
• There is a huge amount of data at our fingertips, with much more on the way. We need to be sensible and methodical about how we organise, interpret and reconcile it with empirical work, ultimately within the Atlas.

Two other projects in the prescribed burning cluster present opportunities for collaboration and exchange of ideas: Optimisation of fuel reduction burning regimes for fuel reduction, carbon, water and vegetation outcomes and Savanna fire management in northern Australia. If you would like to know more about them, get in touch.

On day two there was a smaller gathering dedicated to discussion of this project, including the Utilisation Roadmap and the Project Proposal for the extension. We have been fortunate to have already had some good discussion about the project prior to the RAF. This continued with questions and comments from a range of end users, including representatives of AFAC, the Victorian, NSW and West Australian governments and academics. 

Next steps

The team is finishing off the first round of case study simulations and will soon be moving into the next phase of mixed agricultural inland case study areas. We are also knee-deep in empirical analysis, initially looking at fire severity data but soon building on previous work in leverage, ignitions and fuels.

If you’d like to know more about the project, want to add your two cents, or have anything to share with the team or the rest of the end-users, researcher Hamish Clarke would be delighted to hear from you. You can reach him at hamishc@uow.edu.au or 02 4221 5729.