'Need to be smarter': bushfire research targets action

Natural Hazards Research Australia says findings from a multi-pronged research program, undertaken in response to the Black Summer bushfires, will help better prepare the country as it faces rising risks.

“Our fire seasons are getting longer and dangerous bushfire days are becoming more frequent,” CEO Andrew Gissing says. “We need to be smarter and use this new scientific knowledge and research to improve the ways we live with fire.”

The research program complements and builds on findings from state and territory inquiries into the 2019-20 bushfires and the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements.

Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC) CEO Robb Webb says the release of a summary of the key findings is timely.

“As climate influences that dictate our hazard landscape begin to shift, bushfire will return to Australia and fire agencies across the country will use every tool available to respond,” he says.

The research program has examined fire predictive services, cultural land management, community-centred disaster risk reduction and bushfire data and reconstruction. Some projects focused nationally while others analysed fire behaviour or technology in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, SA and WA.

Natural Hazards Research Australia says training is in development for fire behaviour analysts and meteorologists to better recognise factors that increase risk in the atmosphere and in the landscape over days, weeks, months and years. Work has also looked at how complex fire prediction information can be better tailored to communities.

Cultural land management research has focussed on how to learn from and empower First Nations fire and land management agencies in northern and southern Australia, while research on data and event reconstruction has examined prescribed burning and the effectiveness of aerial firefighting.

Results from one of the studies suggested in some cases prescribed burns slowed events, sometimes for several days, and gave firefighters more time to prepare.

Community-centred disaster risk reduction research findings include that around a third of those surveyed in a NSW study were unsure whether their house was built to bushfire risk reduction regulations. Another study found that once a building catches alight, regardless of construction material, it will likely be destroyed.

Mr Gissing says the Black Summer bushfires were long and challenging and the research has improved understanding of how extremely dry conditions and record-breaking temperatures impacted weather in ways previously not as well understood.

“The strength of the science was its multi-disciplinary approach that will lead to action. Better bushfire modelling, better warnings, better land management, including enabling cultural fire and better recovery after a disaster for those affected will come from this research.”

The report, Understanding the Black Summer bushfires through research, is available here.