Published works

This annual report is an output from the Bushfire and National Hazards CRC Project ‘Mapping Bushfire Hazard and Impacts’. It summarises the project objectives, introduces the team members as well as documents the project progress and outcomes during the finantial year 2014/2015. The project team has made great progress this year as demonstrated by:

1)    Developing a model framework, the High-resolution Fire Risk and Impact (HiFRI) framework, to provide best possible estimates on forest fuel load and moisture content and fire impacts on landscape values such as water resource generation and carbon storage.

2)    Developing and tested a new software tool based in MATLAB to automatically derive detailed vegetation structure information from ground-based LiDAR

3)    Successfully obtaining two student top-up scholarships from BNHCRC, what will have further positive impacts on the quality of our research.

4)    Maintaining a healthy and engaging relationship with end users. The strongest connections have been with ACT Parks and Conservation, with whom the team collaborate closely and hands-on. However, the expectations are that once the project team have been able to demonstrate the practical value of research in the ACT, additional end users will find it easier to see how they can concretely engage in the research.

5)    Publishing 1 journal paper, 4 conference abstracts and 2 milestone reports. In addition another manuscript is currently under review with Remote Sensing of Environment,top-ranked in the category of remote sensing.

6)    Communicating progress on the research goals to end users by organising two workshops with operational stakeholders and other researchersandpublishing divulgative material in blogs and other media.

7)    Receiving international researchers exchange visits and being approached by more than 15 domestic and international requests for PhD scholarships or postdoc positions on the topic of bushfire research. Of particular interest has been our innovative work in LiDAR vegetation mapping.