New online - May 2020

This month, several new CRC research publications have become available on the website, including research reports, journal articles, books and a completed postgraduate thesis.

CRC reports

The Indigenous Fire and Rescue Employment Strategy was established in 2013, initiated by Fire and Rescue NSW, to help break down barriers to Indigenous recruitment to fire services. A new report by Prof Bruce Rasmussen and Neelam Maharaj (Victoria University) examined the costs and benefits of the program and found that, for every dollar invested in the program, the benefits to the community are approximately 20 times the amount invested. This report is part of the Diversity and inclusion: building strength and capability project.

A/Prof Khalid Moinuddin (Victoria University), Dr Mahmood Rashid (Victoria University) and Dr Duncan Sutherland (University of NSW) have written a report for the CRC’s Fire spread prediction across fuel types project. The report describes improvements in physics-based bushfire modelling so that risks and losses can be reduced. The results will lead to utilisation of new application tools for fire behaviour analysts and regulators.

A new report is available for the Cost-effective mitigation strategy for building related earthquake risk project, by Dr Itismita Mohanty at University of Canberra, and Martin Wehner, Dr Hyeuk Ryu and Mark Edwards at Geoscience Australia. The report details progress in economic modelling of the benefits of retrofit strategies in buildings vulnerable to earthquake damage, specifically the cost-effective benefits of avoided salary loss, business loss and health care costs.

From the University of Sydney, A/Prof Tina Bell, Dr Malcolm Possell have released two new reports for the Optimisation of fuel reduction burning regimes project:

The first report, with Dr Mengran Yu and Dr David Pepper (University of Sydney), presents the results of testing whether a simple model could be used in conjunction with satellite imagery to detect the effect of prescribed burning on the hydrological cycle and found that vegetation and climatic variables were the best predictors for changes in evapotranspiration due to prescribed burning.

The second report, with Danica Parnell (University of Sydney), describes the use of near infrared (NIR) scanning as an alternative to the Munsell colour system when measuring fire severity. In a laboratory, researchers heated fire fuels until combustion and found that there is potential for NIR technology to determine more accurate fire severity than the Munsell system, according to the colour of residue after fire.

Journal articles

The journal article RUIM – A fire safety engineering model for rural urban interface firefighter taskforce deployment by Greg Penney, Prof Daryoush Habibi and Dr Marcus Cattani from Edith Cowan University was published in the Fire Safety Journal. The research relates to the CRC student project Through the flames – quantitative analysis of strategic and tactical wildfire suppression and presents the Rural Urban Interface Model, an adaptation of the Fire Brigade Intervention Model that enables systematic analysis of firefighter safety during catastrophic and dynamic wildfire events.

Dr Korah Parackal (James Cook University), Prof John Ginger and Dr David Henderson from James Cook University, researchers on the CRC student project The structural response and progressive failure of batten to rafter connections under wind loads published the journal article Progressive failures of batten to rafter connections under fluctuating wind loads in Engineering Structures. The work presents a method for examining load redistribution and progressive failure behaviour of batten to rafter connections in light framed structures.

The paper Models and frameworks for assessing the value of disaster research by Dr Ken Strahan, Dr Adriana Keating and Prof John Handmer from RMIT University was published in Progress in Disaster Science. The research falls under the CRC commissioned research project The value of disaster research and reviews frameworks that assess the impact of research, considering their usefulness in the conceptualisation and measurement of research impact in the disaster domain.

Prof Emilio Chuvieco (University of Alcalá), Inmaculada Aguado, Javier Salas, Mariano Garcia (University of Alcalá), Dr Marta Yebra (ANU) and Patricia Oliva (Universidad Mayor de Chile) have the journal article Satellite remote sensing contributions to wildland fire science and management published in Current Forestry Reports. The paper reviews the most recent literature related to the use of remote sensing (RS) data in wildland fire management and falls under the CRC project Mapping bushfire hazard and impacts.

Michael Storey, Dr Owen Price, Prof Ross Bradstock (University of Wollongong) and Prof Jason Sharples (University of New South Wales) have the journal article Analysis of variation in distance, number and distribution of spotting in southeast Australian wildfires published in Fire. The paper details research undertaken in the CRC student project Empirical analysis of spot fire and ember behaviour during extreme fire weather conditions which aims to provide important tools to improve the understanding of spot fire and ember behaviour in dry forests of south east Australia, complementing and improving existing fire behaviour models.

A journal article by Thilini Pathiranage and Weena Lokuge from the University of Southern Queensland was published in Natural Hazards in the paper Vulnerability assessment of bridges subjected to extreme cyclonic events. The research provides a methodical approach to evaluate the failure of bridges to improve their resilience and provide base knowledge for developing emergency maintenance response, and relates to the CRC project Enhancing resilience of critical road infrastructure.

Research by Brett Cirulis (University of Melbourne), Dr Hamish Clarke (University of Wollongong), Dr Matthias Boer (Western Sydney University), A/Prof Trent Penman (University of Melbourne), Dr Owen Price (University of Wollongong) and Prof Ross Bradstock (University of Wollongong) was published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire. The journal article Quantification of inter-regional differences in risk mitigation from prescribed burning across multiple management values presents research outcomes from the From hectares to tailor made solutions for risk mitigation CRC project, showing = that the effectiveness of prescribed burning at mitigating area burnt by wildfire and other key values varies considerably across landscapes and values.

A/Prof Trent Penman and Brett Cirulis from the University of Melbourne were published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire with their paper Cost effectiveness of fire management strategies in southern Australia. The work is part of the CRC project Threshold conditions for extreme fire behaviour and compares potential future-management approaches that consider prescribed burning, suppression and fire exclusion. These data combined costs of treatment and impacts on assets to undertake a quantitative risk analysis.

The paper Adaptive prescribed burning in Australia for the early 21st Century – context, status, challenges by Adj Prof Jeremy Russel-Smith (Charles Darwin University), Dr Lachlan McCaw (Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions) and Dr Adam Leavesley (Australian Capital Territory Parks and Conservation Service) was published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire as part of the CRC project Tools supporting fire management in northern Australia. The paper provides a sample illustration of the diversity of approaches currently being undertaken in different Australian regions to address complex adaptive management and monitoring challenges.

Angela Gormley, A/Prof Tina Bell and Dr Malcolm Possell from the University of Sydney published the journal article Non-additive effects of forest litter on flammability in Fire. The paper relates to the CRC student project Effects of Sydney coastal dry sclerophyll forest litter on fuels and fire behaviour in Hornsbury Shire and discusses how land managers could use various models as a tool to assist in prioritising areas for hazard reduction burns and how the methodology can be extended to other fuel conditions or forest types.

Books

A/Prof Janet Stanley, Prof Alan March and Dr James Thompson from the University of Melbourne, along with Prof James Ogloff from Swinburne University have authored the book titled Feeling the heat: International perspectives on the prevention of wildfire ignition. The book aims to join up the story on wildfires to provide a strategic perspective on the vital but international neglected topic: the prevention of wildfire, and relates to the CRC project Urban planning for natural hazard mitigation.

CRC student completions

Dr Alireza Zabihi’s Masters thesis Seismic retrofitting of reinforced concrete beam-column joints using diagonal haunch has been accepted by Swinburne University of Technology. His study investigates the feasibility of using single diagonal haunch with post-installed anchors for improving the seismic performance of limited-ductile beam-column joints in reinforced concrete structures.