Forest Fire Occurrence and Modeling in Southeastern Australia

Forest fire is one of the major environmental disturbances for the Australian continent. Identification of occurrence patterns of large fires, fire mapping, determination of fire spreading mechanisms, and fire effect modeling are some of the best measures to plan and mitigate fire effects. This chapter describes fire occurrence in New South Wales (Australia), the Australian National Bushfire Model Project (ANBMP), fire propagation modeling methods, the McArthur’s model and current forest fire modeling approaches in the state of New South Wales of Australia. Among the established fire models, PHOENIX Rapidfire predicts fire spread and facilitates loss and damage assessments as the model considers many environmental and social variables. Two fire spread models, SPARK and Amicus, have been developed and facilitated fire spread mapping and modeling in Australia

Models and frameworks for assessing the value of disaster research

Funders, governments, stakeholders and end-users expect to see tangible evidence that an investment in research is a worthy use of resources. Research has impact if it makes a demonstrable contribution to the economy, society, culture, public policy, health, the environment, or quality of life, beyond academia. This paper reviews frameworks that assess the impact of research and considers their usefulness in the conceptualisation and measurement of research impact in the disaster domain. Frameworks demonstrate impact through attribution, measurement and quantification of academic, social, and economic impacts in the short, medium and long term. While there is no specific framework in the hazard domain, adaptation of the “pathways to research impact” tool created by Cruz Rivera et al. (2017) provides a well-considered basis for assessing disaster research impact

National Inquiry on Bushfire Mitigation and Management

Bushfires are an inherent part of the Australian environment. We cannot prevent them, but we can minimise the risks they pose to life, property and infrastructure, production systems, and the environment. Australia has a large and very capable force of volunteer and career firefighters, advanced firefighting technologies, and significant firefighting resources. But the geographical scale of our country, the large and expanding rural–urban interface, and the potential for rapid bushfire development and spread under adverse weather conditions mean that individual Australians cannot rely solely on fire agencies to protect their lives and property from bushfires. Bushfires have a fundamental and irreplaceable role in sustaining many of Australia’s natural ecosystems and ecological processes and are a valuable tool for achieving land management objectives. However, if they are too frequent or too infrequent, too severe or too mild, or mistimed, they can erode ecosystem health and biodiversity and compromise other land management goals. We have been learning to live with fire since the first Australians arrived on our continent. We need to continue, and enrich, that learning process in contemporary circumstances and be able to adapt our planning and responses to change. This report seeks to help all Australians meet these challenges

e-Sanctuary: open multi-physics framework for modelling wildfire urban evacuation

The number of evacuees worldwide during wildfire keep rising, year after year. Fire evacuations at the wildland-urban interfaces (WUI) pose a serious challenge to fire and emergency services and are a global issue affecting thousands of communities around the world. But to date, there is a lack of comprehensive tools able to inform, train or aid the evacuation response and the decision making in case of wildfire. The present work describes a novel framework for modelling wildfire urban evacuations. The framework is based on multi-physics simulations that can quantify the evacuation performance. The work argues that an integrated approached requires considering and integrating all three important components of WUI evacuation, namely: fire spread, pedestrian movement, and traffic movement. The report includes a systematic review of each model component, and the key features needed for the integration into a comprehensive toolkit

Environmental Technology Applications in the Retrofitting of Residential Buildings

The impact of buildings on the environment is nothing short of devastating. In recent years, much attention has been given to creating an environmentally friendly built environment. Nonetheless, it has been levied on new buildings. Residential buildings make up at least 80% of the built environment, most of which were built before any energy efficiency guidelines or regulations were introduced. Retrofitting existing residential buildings is a key yet neglected priority in effecting the transition to an environmentally friendly, sustainable built environment. It is pivotal to reducing a building’s energy consumption while simultaneously improving indoor environmental quality and minimizing harmful emissions. This Special Issue showcases studies investigating applications of environmental technology that is tailored to enhance the sustainable performance of existing residential buildings. It helps to better understand the innovations that have been taking place in retrofitting residential buildings, as well as highlighting many opportunities for future research in this field

Climate change, vulnerability and adaptation for south-west Western Australia: Phase one of action 5.5, Western Australian Greenhouse Strategy

This report outlines preliminary findings about the impacts of climate changes that occurred during 1975 to 2005 on the South West’s people, its economy and natural ecosystems. The report focuses on vulnerability and adaptation, identifying useful pointers for future work, particularly in relation to how well the community, stakeholders and decision-makers understand climate change as an issue and a threat.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1040/thumbnail.jp

Engineering and built environment project conference 2016: book of abstracts - Toowoomba, Australia, 19-23 September 2016

Book of Abstracts of the USQ Engineering and Built Environment Conference 2016, held Toowoomba, Australia, 19-23 September 2016. These proceedings include extended abstracts of the verbal presentations that are delivered at the project conference. The work reported at the conference is the research undertaken by students in meeting the requirements of courses ENG4111/ENG4112 Research Project for undergraduate or ENG8411/ENG8412 Research Project and Dissertation for postgraduate students