Satellites to help show when the bush is ready to burn

Fire and land managers are benefiting from a new vegetation condition and flammability online mapping tool – the first of its kind to be introduced in Australia.

Effectively providing a clearer picture of immediate fire risks, the Australian Flammability Monitoring System uses satellite data to collect information on live moisture content in trees, shrubs and grass. It then displays this information on an interactive map, which helps fire managers in their prescribed burning efforts and prepositioning of firefighting resources.

Dr Marta Yebra at the Australian National University leads the Mapping bushfire hazards and impact project which has developed the web-based system. Different filters and settings on the system give emergency services and land management agencies a new way to help evaluate the risk of a bushfire occurring in certain parts of the country, based on the dryness of soil and fuels and the flammability of vegetation. The system uses satellite data to provide a clear picture of the landscape where there are high levels of vegetation and soil dryness, which are the perfect conditions for a severe bushfire.

The data available through the system is invaluable to fire and land management agencies, explains Dr Adam Leavesley, the Bushfire Research Utilisation Manager at ACT Parks and Conservation Service.

“Fire managers across Australia need to understand when our landscape is in a position that is either not going to burn, burn in a way that will allow us to control a fire, or when conditions are so dry that if a fire starts it will be very dangerous and difficult to control,” Dr Leavesley says. 

“The Australian Flammability Monitoring System gives us a really good guide across the whole country to how we expect fire to behave on any particular day. This helps agencies position resources during a bushfire, keeping our people safe, and also with prescribed burn planning, particularly in mountainous locations where flammability changes depending on which side of a mountain you are on.

“It has been an amazing partnership with the research team. It is great quality science from a team that is driven by wanting to see their work make an impact – that has been the key to getting us to this stage.”

Access the Australian Flammability Monitoring System at http://anuwald.science/afms