Whilst in France during July 2014 I took the opportunity of meeting up with researchers in three laboratories. Researchers at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) at Avignon work closely with the developers of FIRETEC located at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The team at INRA contributes to specifying the geometrical structure of vegetation and its effect on the interaction with the atmosphere and estimating radiation through vegetation. They also carry out research on strategies for reducing the rate of propagation of bushfires.
My host at INRA was Dr François Pimont whose doctorate was supervised by Professor Dominique Morvan at the Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, whom I also visited. As one might expect, there is some synergy between the two groups. Professor Morvan has recently produced a detailed study on the aerodynamics of the interaction of the atmosphere and vegetative canopies, work that could play an important role in the development of next generation physics-based models of bushfires.
Nancy, in the North East corner of France, is not renowned for being subject to large bushfires. It is, however, renowned for its Laboratoire d’Energétique et de Mécanique Théorique et Appliquée (LEMTA) at the Université de Lorraine. I was welcomed by Professor Pascal Boulet who outlined his laboratory's research on detailed measurements on the spectral properties and pyrolysis of vegetative materials. The laboratory also works on modelling bushfires and it has recently installed a six metre long wind tunnel along with a particle image velocimeter for studying the rate of spread of bushfires over undulating terrain. LEMTA researchers also work on the suppression of fires using water mists and the re-design of firefighters' uniforms.
A bushfire in the Mediterranean region of France is considered large if it destroys 100 hectares or more of bushland. Each year there are about 20 such fires, and largest fires in the last couple of decades covered 6700 hectares. This compares with the 1,200,000 hecatres destroyed in the Eastern Great Divide bushfires of 2006-2007. Nonetheless, the French authorities have cause to be concerned by wildfires because they are likely to encroach on settlements and valuable infrastructure. As a result there is an active community of bushfire researchers in France who are at the forefront of knowledge.
Bushfire research in France appears to be tightly focussed and it spans the spectrum from advanced computational science to applied projects. The work of the laboratories complements that of several projects being carried out by the BNHCRC and I encourage Australian researchers to pursue collaborative projects with our French counterparts.
Financial support for the visits from the BNHCRC and Victoria University is gratefully acknowledged.