Project Vesta--Fire in Dry Eucalypt Forest: fuel structure, dynamics and fire behaviour

Project Vesta – Fire in Dry Eucalypt Forest: fuel structure, fuel dynamics and fire behaviour

A comprehensive report outlining the aims, findings and outcomes of Australia’s most recent and significant study of forest fire behaviour.

• 15 September 2008 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Report outline

Project Vesta, Australia’s most comprehensive study of forest fire behaviour, investigated the behaviour and spread of high-intensity bushfires in dry eucalypt forests with different fuel ages and understorey vegetation structures.

The project was designed to quantify age-related changes in fuel attributes and fire behaviour in dry eucalypt forests typical of southern Australia.

Report outline

This 218–page report describes the aims of the project and the experiments undertaken during the research.

It then presents the key findings related to:

• fuels
• wind
• fire behaviour
• effectiveness of prescribed burning.

Finally, the report examines the outcomes of the research, including development of:

• a fire hazard assessment guide that provides a quantitative description of fuel hazard and its effect on fire
• the fire spread component for a national fire spread prediction system for dry eucalypt forests
• the framework for a model to predict spotting distance in stringybark forest using rate of spread, bark hazard score and wind speed
• important fire safety information for firefighters, which has been made available in training guidelines and videos (see Saving fire-fighters from the Deadman Zone and DVD - Fire Behaviour in Dry Eucalypt Forest Fuels.)

You may also be interested in Field Guide: Fuel Assessment and Fire Behaviour Prediction in Dry Eucalypt Forest, a field guide for fire authorities based on the findings of Project Vesta.

Learn more about CSIRO’s Bushfires research.