New fire research for Victoria

New Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC research into fire weather and climate change, grassland fire danger and cropland fire behaviour have commenced as part of the Victorian Government Safer Together program for the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and Country Fire Authority. The three projects join the growing range of research that the CRC has been commissioned to undertake for the Department.

The Climate change and fire weather project will consider the impacts of climate change on fire weather in Victoria, including how variables such as rainfall, temperature, wind and relative humidity might change in the future. The project will consist of Dr Tim Brown (Desert Research Institute, Nevada), Dr Graham Mills, Dr Ailie Gallant, A/Prof Julie Arblaster (Monash University) and Dr Sarah Harris (CFA), as they work to strengthen the knowledge and data available in Victoria, informing decision making and climate change models.

Dr Mingzhu Wang and Andrew Gissing (Risk Frontiers) will utilise past satellite data to create a new dataset of grassland curing. This will form one part of a two-part project, where the data will be integrated to calculate a grass fire danger dataset. The project will better enable communities and agencies to understand grassland fire danger and fill knowledge gaps.

Fire agencies, managers and farmers are set to benefit from the Cropland fire behaviour project. The team will investigate crop fires to strengthen Victoria’s ability to model and predict fire in these landscapes. The project will be led by Miguel Cruz and Andrew Sullivan from CSIRO, who will assist DELWP and the Country Fire Authority by providing research that could integrate into nation-wide fire models.

More research undertaken for DELWP and for CFA will commence in the coming months.