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LEGACY RESEARCH

Greenhouse gases, particulate emissions and air quality

Work Package 3 - Balancing bushfire risk with smoke impacts on the environment and human health. This research helps us to understand whether prescribed burning can be used to reduce overall population exposure to smoke.

Key Outcome: NSW fire managers have guidelines to minimise the air quality impacts of individual prescribed burns and longer-term burn programs


Smoke from bushfires is a major health hazard and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Prescribed burning potentially reduces the area of bushfire but also produces its own emissions and smoke. 


To understand the trade-off between smoke from prescribed burning and reduction of bushfire risk, researchers modelled the smoke impact of individual fires based on their intensity, fuel moisture content, proximity to population centres, and the weather and atmospheric conditions. This will help fire managers to plan prescribed burning that minimised the overall impact on human health and the environment.


What they did:

  • Measured fuel consumption and estimating greenhouse gas and particulate emissions from a range of prescribed burns and bushfires

  • Analysed the drivers of air-quality impact from past fires to improve understanding, prediction and mitigation

  • Evaluated air quality prediction models as used by fire management agencies

  • Modelledthe emissions from a range of prescribed burning rates and arrangements to identify strategies that minimise emissions and pollution exposure

KEY PUBLICATIONS (ALPHABETICALLY BY LEAD AUTHOR)


  • Borchers Arriagada, N., Horsley, J. A., Palmer, A. J., Morgan, G. G., Tham, R. & Johnston, F. H. (2019). Association between fire smoke fine particulate matter and asthma-related outcomes: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Environmental Research, 179, 108777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2019.108777

  • Borchers Arriagada, N., Palmer, A. J., Bowman, D. M. J. S. & Johnston, F. H. (2020). Exceedances of national air quality standards for particulate matter in Western Australia: sources and health-related impacts. Medical Journal of Australia, 213, 280-281. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50547

  • Borchers Arriagada, N., Palmer, A. J., Bowman, D. M. J. S., Morgan, G. G., Jalaludin, B. B. & Johnston, F. H. (2020). Unprecedented smoke-related health burden associated with the 2019–20 bushfires in eastern Australia. Medical Journal of Australia, 213, 282-283. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50545

  • Borchers-Arriagada, N., Bowman, D. M. J. S., Price, O., Palmer, A. J., Samson, S., Clarke, H., Sepulveda, G. & Johnston, F. H. (2021). Smoke health costs and the calculus for wildfires fuel management: a modelling study. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5, e608-e619. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00198-4

  • Borchers-Arriagada, N., Palmer, A. J., Bowman, D. M. J. S., Williamson, G. J. & Johnston, F. H. (2020). Health Impacts of Ambient Biomass Smoke in Tasmania, Australia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093264

  • Clarke, H., Cirulis, B., Borchers-Arriagada, N., Bradstock, R., Price, O. & Penman, T. (2023). Health costs of wildfire smoke to rise under climate change. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 6, 102. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-023-00432-0

  • Desservettaz, M., Phillips, F., Naylor, T., Price, O., Samson, S., Kirkwood, J. & Paton-Walsh, C. (2019). Air Quality Impacts of Smoke from Hazard Reduction Burns and Domestic Wood Heating in Western Sydney. Atmosphere, 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10090557

  • Forehead, H., Barthelemy, J., Arshad, B., Verstaevel, N., Price, O. & Perez, P. (2020). Traffic exhaust to wildfires: PM2.5 measurements with fixed and portable, low-cost LoRaWAN-connected sensors. PLOS ONE, 15, e0231778. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231778

  • Johnston, F. H., Borchers-Arriagada, N., Morgan, G. G., Jalaludin, B., Palmer, A. J., Williamson, G. J. & Bowman, D. M. J. S. (2021). Unprecedented health costs of smoke-related PM2.5 from the 2019–20 Australian megafires. Nature Sustainability, 4, 42-47. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00610-5

  • Marfori, M. T., Campbell, S. L., Garvey, K., Mckeown, S., Veitch, M., Wheeler, A. J., Borchers-Arriagada, N. & Johnston, F. H. (2020). Public Health Messaging During Extreme Smoke Events: Are We Hitting the Mark? Frontiers in Public Health, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00465

  • Price, O. F. & Forehead, H. (2021). Smoke Patterns around Prescribed Fires in Australian Eucalypt Forests, as Measured by Low-Cost Particulate Monitors. Atmosphere, 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12111389

  • Rahmani, S. & Price, O. (2021). Effects of 38 years of wildfires on tree density in the Blue Mountains, Australia. Austral Ecology, 46, 20-30. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12952

  • Storey, M. A. & Price, O. F. (2022). Prediction of air quality in Sydney, Australia as a function of forest fire load and weather using Bayesian statistics. PLOS ONE, 17, e0272774. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272774

  • Storey, M. A. & Price, O. F. (2022). Statistical modelling of air quality impacts from individual forest fires in New South Wales, Australia. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 4039-4062. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-4039-2022

  • Storey, M. A. & Price, O. F. (2023). Comparing the Effects of Wildfire and Hazard Reduction Burning Area on Air Quality in Sydney. Atmosphere, 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14111657

  • Storey, M. A., Price, O. F. & Fox-Hughes, P. (2023). The influence of regional wind patterns on air quality during forest fires near Sydney, Australia. Science of The Total Environment, 905, 167335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167335

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