Understanding how fires behave - particularly the fires that ravage bushland in the height of summer - is the subject of Project Vesta, a major six-year study about to get underway in Western Australia.
Building on existing knowledge of fire behaviour, Project Vesta will develop a standard system for land managers around Australia to use to predict the spread and intensity of wildfires. The project involves Western Australia's Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) and the CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products Division, and has the backing of the Australasian Fire Authorities Council.
Knowledge gained will help determine the hazards in different types of fuel and enable more accurate mapping of the threat of wildfires to towns and the environment.
CALM Executive Director Dr Syd Shea said CALM's Forest Fire Behaviour Tables, developed from more than 30 years of research, had proven invaluable in predicting fire behaviour during low to moderate intensity fires. The tables apply to both prescribed burning and wildfire suppression situations.
"These tables - known as CALM's Red Book - are internationally recognised as a leader in predicting fire behavour," Dr Shea said. "However, we need to update our research data to meet the more exacting needs of contemporary fire management. Project Vesta will significantly increase our understanding of how fuel characteristics affect fire behaviour.
"Understanding fire behaviour is critical to the safe and efficient control of wildfires as well as in planning fire prevention strategies, particularly for rural communities and those in areas such as the hills to the east of Perth."
CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products' Chief Dr Glen Kile said that during the devastating NSW bushfires in 1994, fires spread much faster than predicted by the McArthur Forest Fire Danger meter, which was widely used in south-eastern Australia to predict fire behaviour.
"The more accurately wildfire behaviour can be predicted, the more effective fire control measures will be," he said.
Fire behaviour is determined by fuel, topography, and the weather, particularly wind strength.
During Project Vesta, scientists from CSIRO and CALM as well as those from Canada, NSW, South Australia and Victoria, will light a series of 4 hectare fires and measure how the fires' rate of spread is influenced by the amount and type of fuel and wind speed.
Two sites in the jarrah forest have been selected - one inland from Harvey and the other west of Nannup.
Some of the experimental plots have not been burned for 19 years resulting in a big build-up of leaves and twigs that dry out in summer and become flash fuels for wildfires. The sites have a range of understorey age classes so the contribution of live shrubs to wildfire behaviour will also be studied.
Detailed measurements of the structure, arrangement and distribution of the various fuel components have been recorded and analysed by a team of scientists over the past 18 months. These analyses indicate that a practical system of identifying fuel structures can be developed for dry eucalypt forests and woodlands throughout Australia.
"The study will have benefits for fire managers across Australia, and will also have international application," he said. "There is already significant interest from scientists overseas."
Dr Shea said Project Vesta was being carried out in Western Australia as the State had had extensive experience in prescribed burning since the Dwellingup conflagrations in the summer of 1961.
"A buffer 5 km wide around the research sites has been burned to minimise the risk of the experimental fires escaping," he said. "CALM and volunteer fire crews will be on the scene during the trials."
An additional benefit from the project is the opportunity to study the use of remote sensing techniques, such as satellite imagery, for monitoring the effects of fire on forests.
Media contacts: Rick Sneeuwjagt (08) 9334 0375
John Coleman (02) 6281 8232
Visit the Project Vesta web site at:
http://www.ffp.csiro.au/vesta/index.html