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LEGACY RESEARCH

Optimising cost-effective bushfire risk mitigation via planned burning

Work Package 6 - Prescribed burning is a key tool in reducing bushfire risk. Is there a prescribed burning strategy that protects biodiversity, environment, health and infrastructure, as well as being cost-effective? Does it work everywhere?

Key Outcome: A comprehensive evidence base to set the direction for the use of prescribed fire in future fire management


To get the best results, more understanding is needed in how prescribed burning affects the things people care about: loss of life and property, impacts on infrastructure, biodiversity, health and the environment. 


The research team integrated insights from fire behaviour modelling and analysis of the trade-offs in risk reduction amongst different impacts to understand the cost-effectiveness of different prescribed burning strategies and how this varies across NSW.


What they did:


  • Simulated fire behaviour under a wide range of prescribed burning strategies and weather conditions in key landscapes

  • Analysed the bushfire risks to biodiversity, environment, health and infrastructure under these different fire scenarios

  • Determined the cost-effectiveness of different prescribed burning strategies


KEY PUBLICATIONS (ALPHABETICALLY BY LEAD AUTHOR)


  • 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(9), e608–e619. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00198-4

  • Cirulis, B., Clarke, H., Boer, M., Penman, T., Price, O. & Bradstock, R. (2020). Quantification of inter-regional differences in risk mitigation from prescribed burning across multiple management values. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 29, 414-426. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF18135

  • Clarke, H., Cirulis, B., Borchers-Arriagada, N., Storey, M., Ooi, M., Haynes, K., Bradstock, R., Price, O. & Penman, T. (2023). A flexible framework for cost-effective fire management. Global Environmental Change, 82, 102722. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102722

  • Clarke, H., Cirulis, B., Penman, T., Price, O., Boer, M. M. & Bradstock, R. (2022). The 2019–2020 Australian forest fires are a harbinger of decreased prescribed burning effectiveness under rising extreme conditions. Scientific Reports, 12, 11871. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15262-y

  • 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

  • Clarke, H., Tran, B., Boer, M. M., Price, O., Kenny, B. & Bradstock, R. (2019). Climate change effects on the frequency, seasonality and interannual variability of suitable prescribed burning weather conditions in south-eastern Australia. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 271, 148-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.03.005

  • Di Virgilio, G., Evans, J. P., Clarke, H., Sharples, J., Hirsch, A. L. & Hart, M. A. (2020). Climate Change Significantly Alters Future Wildfire Mitigation Opportunities in Southeastern Australia. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2020GL088893. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088893

  • Penman, T. D., Clarke, H., Cirulis, B., Boer, M. M., Price, O. F. & Bradstock, R. A. (2020). Cost-Effective Prescribed Burning Solutions Vary Between Landscapes in Eastern Australia. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2020.00079

  • Price, O. & Roberts, B. (2022). The role of construction standards on building impact of the 2013 Linksview Wildfire, Australia. Fire Safety Journal, 128, 103545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2022.103545

  • Price, O. F., Whittaker, J., Gibbons, P. & Bradstock, R. (2021). Comprehensive Examination of the Determinants of Damage to Houses in Two Wildfires in Eastern Australia in 2013. Fire, 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire4030044

  • Price, O. H., Nolan, R. H. & Samson, S. A. (2022). Fuel consumption rates in resprouting eucalypt forest during hazard reduction burns, cultural burns and wildfires. Forest Ecology and Management, 505. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119894

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