Fire science exchange

A crop of CRC fire scientists matched their methodology with a group of peers from North America in a one-day workshop last week.

The 10 participants in the 2018 North American Study Tour of Australia and New Zealand attended the AFAC18 annual conference in Perth and then visited Victoria, before moving on to New Zealand.

The Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC hosted the group at the Victorian Emergency Management Institute at Mt Macedon with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

The fire science workshop covered discussion on fire behavior, fire weather, carbon and water impacts, as well as developments in the fire danger rating index and the new Centre for Prescribed Burning.

CRC researchers included Tina Bell, from the University of Sydney, Marta Yebra, Australian National University, Jason Sharples, University of New South Wales, Alex Filkov, University of Melbourne, and Mika Peace, Bureau of Meteorology. Simon Heemstra, NSW Rural Fire Service, and Deb Sparkes, Centre for Prescribed Burning also participated.

The North American visitors were from US Forest Service, British Columbia Wildfire Service, and Natural Resources Canada.

The group also did field trips to sites of recent fires in south-west Western Australia and south-west Victoria.