Published works

Settlement patterns and projected climate change impacts for Victoria are increasing the likelihood of bushfire exposure to human settlements. Urban planning is now considered an important component in disaster risk reduction and bushfire risk management; however, it has not always played such a role. Bushfire planning controls in Victoria have adapted to the threat of bushfires over time, but the changes have not been documented in detail. A review of past and present policy and regulations is needed to determine the comprehensiveness of Victoria’s approach to bushfire risk management and to identify any gaps so that bushfire threats can be better addressed in the future.

This thesis seeks to examine the comprehensiveness of bushfire planning controls in Victoria between 2008 and 2018 and how changes to planning scheme regulations have modified the level of comprehensiveness over time. To determine comprehensiveness, bushfire risk management policy from the Victoria Planning Provisions were analysed at key time periods against a conceptual framework based on five accepted categories of approaches for reducing and adapting to hazards in human settlements. The five categories were hazard avoidance, hazard reduction, vulnerability reduction, preparedness for response and preparedness for recovery. Policy was analysed using a pattern matching technique and a simple time series analysis. The results indicate that Victoria’s current approach to bushfire risk management is more comprehensiveness than that was in place in 2008 because risk, vulnerability and bushfire behaviour, and four of the five categories for reducing and adapting to hazards are better addressed through policy. Overall, current policy is not as comprehensive as policy that was introduced in 2011. This thesis concludes by highlighting gaps in current policy that should be addressed in the future to improve resilience to bushfire hazards and outlines recommendations for further research.