Bushfire

Assessment of disaster resilience using an index is often a key element of natural hazard management and planning. Many assessments have been undertaken worldwide. Emerging from these are a set of seven common properties that should be considered in the design of any disaster resilience assessment: assessment purpose, top-down or bottom-up assessment, assessment scale, conceptual framework, structural design, indicator selection, data analysis and index computation and reporting and interpretation. We introduce the design of an Australian Natural Disaster Resilience Index (ANDRI) according to the common properties of resilience assessment. The ANDRI takes a top-down approach using indicators derived from secondary data with national coverage. The ANDRI is a hierarchical design based on coping
and adaptive capacities representing the potential for disaster resilience. Coping capacity is the means by which people or organizations use available resources, skills and opportunities
to face adverse consequences that could lead to a disaster. Adaptive capacity is the arrangements and processes that enable adjustment through learning, adaptation and transformation. Coping capacity is divided into themes of social character, economic capital,
infrastructure and planning, emergency services, community capital and information and engagement. Adaptive capacity is divided into themes of governance, policy and leadership and social and community engagement. Indicators are collected to determine the status of each theme. As assessments of disaster resilience develop worldwide, reporting of their design as standard practice will track knowledge generation in the field and enhance the relationship between applied disaster resilience assessment and foundational principles of disaster resilience.

This paper aims to raise awareness of vicarious trauma amongst disaster researchers, and suggests ways to prevent vicarious traumatisation from happening and/or reaching incapacitating levels. The paper examines the potential of mindfulness practice, grounded in Buddhist meditation, as a set of contemplation tools through which optimal level of functionality can be maintained or restored. The relevance of the emphasis in mindfulness on understanding suffering, non-attachment, non-judgement, and full participation in the present moment are related to the context of disaster research. The paper demonstrates the potential for increased researcher resilience through acknowledgement and understanding of impermanence, as well as skilful observation of external and internal phenomena in trauma without forming attachment to the pain and suffering.

Social networks are significant in helping communities and individuals cope in disasters. Studies of communities hit by a catastrophe such as landslides or heatwaves demonstrate that people with well-connected social networks are more likely to recover than others where their networks are obliterated or non-existent. The value of social networks is also evident in bushfire. There is mounting evidence that information is passed between persons, such as family, friends and neighbours. Brenkert-Smith argues that social interactions are important in
creating opportunities for residents to exchange information on shared risks and can lead them to take collective actions to address this risk.

This paper presents on-going research on social networks of residents living in fire-prone areas in Australia to investigate how knowledge related to bushfire might flow, either in preparation for, or during a hypothetical emergency. A closer examination of social relations and characteristics within networks is critical in
contextualizing this knowledge flow. This understanding will contribute to collected evidence that social networks play a particularly important role in collective action in building adaptive capacity.

In the analysis, the paper uses three commonly accepted frameworks of social capital; bonding, bridging and linking, as a starting point and visually represents perceptible examples of how they are created within a very specific locality in Australia. The types of networks studied reflects how people’s emergent roles and their interrelatedness with one another helps to build adaptive capacity and greater awareness of the risks they face from fire. In doing so, it also questions fixed roles such as ‘leaders’ and their individualised attributes that disaster literature can over-emphasise, and notions of what ‘vulnerability’ means in a social network context. This research demonstrates that these are not predetermined conditions, but generated through emergent, contextual, processual factors.

This research describes the preparedness and the actual, or anticipated, evacuation behaviours of a sample of 352 pet owners in Australian who experienced a range of natural disasters or emergencies. Three quarters experienced a bushfire or flood (42 per cent and 33 per cent respectively) and around a third (34 per cent) evacuated their homes.

Bushfires have been a key concern for countries such as Australia for a long time. These
must be mitigated to eradicate the associated harmful effects on the climate and to have a sustainable
and healthy environment for wildlife. The current study investigates the 2019–2020 bushfires in New
SouthWales (NSW) Australia. The bush fires are mapped using Geographical Information Systems
(GIS) and remote sensing, the hotpots are monitored, and damage is assessed. Further, an Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-based bushfire mitigation framework is presented where the bushfires can be
mapped and monitored instantly using UAV swarms. For the GIS and remote sensing, datasets of
the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and VIIRS fire data products are used, whereas the paths of
UAVs are optimized using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The mapping results
of 2019–2020 NSW bushfires show that 50% of the national parks of NSW were impacted by the
fires, resulting in damage to 2.5 million hectares of land. The fires are highly clustered towards the
north and southeastern cities of NSW and its border region with Victoria. The hotspots are in the
Deua, Kosciu Sako,Wollemi, and Yengo National Parks. The current study is the first step towards
addressing a key issue of bushfire disasters, in the Australian context, that can be adopted by its Rural
Fire Service (RFS), before the next fire season, to instantly map, assess, and subsequently mitigate the
bushfire disasters. This will help move towards a smart and sustainable environment.

El gobierno del primer ministro australiano ha sido criticado ampliamente como “ausente” en medio de una catástrofe que, de acuerdo a figuras oficiales, fue responsable de la muerte de 34 personas, mil millones de animales y la quema de más de 18 millones de hectáreas, una superficie equivalente al territorio de Siria.
Los autores analizan las acciones y posturas del gobierno ante los incendios forestales que abatieron en la temporada 2019-2020.

This paper examines landscape preferences of residents in amenity-rich bushfire-prone landscapes in New South Wales, Australia. Insights are provided into vegetation preferences in areas where properties neighbor large areas of native vegetation, such as national parks, or exist within a matrix of cleared and vegetated private and public land. In such areas, managing fuel loads in the proximity of houses is likely to reduce the risk of house loss and damage. Preferences for vegetation appearance and structure were related to varying fuel loads, particularly the density of understorey vegetation and larger trees. The study adopted a qualitative visual research approach, which used ranking and photo-elicitation as part of a broader interview. A visual approach aids in focusing on outcomes of fuel management interventions, for example, by using the same photo scenes to firstly derive residents’ perceptions of amenity and secondly, residents’ perceptions of bushfire risk. The results are consistent with existing research on landscape preferences; residents tend to prefer relatively open woodland or forest landscapes with good visual and physical access but with elements that provoke their interest. Overall, residents’ landscape preferences were found to be consistent with vegetation management that reduces bushfire risk to houses. The terms in which preferences were expressed provide scope for agency engagement with residents in order to facilitate management that meets amenity and hazard reduction goals on private land.

Models for the thermal degradation (or pyrolysis) of solid fuel are fundamental to the physics-based simulation of grassfires. The pyrolysis process affects the combustion process and therefore the simulated flame, which defines the fire front. There are two competing models: a simple linear parameterisation and a non-linear Arrhenius model. The present work appraises these two models for Lucerne hay (a cured herbaceous fuel) to test their suitability for bushfire simulation. Thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry of Lucerne hay is conducted to measure the parameters required for the simulation. Simulations of pyrolysis are carried out using both the linear and single effective Arrhenius models, and compared with the experimental results. For this fuel, the linear model provides better agreement with the experimental data than the Arrhenius model. Hence, the linear model would be more suitable for large-scale wildfire simulation.

Animal ownership has been shown to be a risk factor for the survival of humans during emergencies and natural disasters largely due to evacuation failures. For livestock producers, it is often impossible to evacuate their animals given the need to ensure the safety of all persons, property (e.g. dwellings, equipment, paddocks), pets, and the welfare of their stock. To determine their use of information and warnings, and their planning and preparedness behaviour, 41 livestock producers from three field sites around rural South Australia that were threatened or impacted by significant bushfires in January 2014 were interviewed. The majority had a low level of concern for bushfire threat, with almost all opting to 'stay and defend' their property. Few had formally written 'bushfire risk management plans', adequate insurance for livestock, a contingency plan, or used information resources. However, they reported multiple other routine and ordinary practices contributing to their bushfire preparedness. Such activities used a more 'common sense' approach, conducted as part of everyday property management practices and farming culture. It is clear that livestock producers have different needs before and during bushfires, and have a different perception of risk than other animal owners or rural dwellers in general.

The research saw the Big Stories, Small Towns transmedia documentary project take place Strathewen as part of bushfire recovery committee activities. Strathewen is a town in Victoria, Australia that was devastated by the Black Saturday fires of 2009. 27 of Strathewen’s 200 residents were killed and most of the houses in the area were destroyed, as was the school, the fire station and community hall. Everyone in the town experienced loss and trauma of some form.
The town formed a community led renewal association and sought to capture learnings of their journey to recovery through a multi-modal, multi-voiced storytelling process. This process reflects the multi-faceted stages of the recovery and renewal journey. In addition the community sought to have the stories emerging from the research archived in a single site for future reference and dissemination.
This program delivered participatory media workshops for Strathewen community members and produced a series of online documentary story threads with filmmaker and Strathewen resident Celeste Geer working with Martin Potter for the Big Stories project. Stories were created with community collaboration and premiered in Strathewen on completion, held in archive by Strathewen council, and lodged in permanent archive at the National Film and Sound Archive. Stories are owned by the community and licensed to the Big Stories project and are publically accessible online at http://bigstories.com.au/towns/strathewen