JASMIN: A prototype high resolution soil moisture analysis system for Australia

Dharssi, Imtiaz; Kumar, Vinod

doi:10.22499/4.0026

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(47 reference statements)

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“…A CRC 8 project is building an improved predictive model and framework for the planning of prescribed burns and for benefit-cost modelling to assess the economic value of prescribed burning Florec & Pannell 2017). Other research 9 is using satellites to detect soil dryness and flammability and developing an online mapping tool to help fire managers decide where and when to conduct prescribed burning (Dharssi & Kumar 2017;Yebra et al 2018).…”

Section: Technological Advances 2000-2018mentioning

confidence: 99%

Prescribed burning in south-eastern Australia: history and future directions

Morgan

Tolhurst

Poynter³

et al. 2020

Australian Forestry

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Fire has been part of the natural environment of southeastern Australia for tens of millions of years. Aboriginal people used fire selectively, with skill, for many reasons. The removal of Aboriginal people from most of the region after European settlement changed fire regimes and the composition and structure of vegetation. This study explores the history of fire in southeastern Australia, describes the development of prescribed burning as a forest management tool, and discusses the factors that have influenced changes in fire regimes. It draws on published and unpublished literature and data held by the Forest Fire Management Committee of the Institute of Foresters of Australia. The study finds that the use of prescribed burning in southeastern Australia in the past 100 years has been driven primarily by political and legal factors. Since 1939, more than 50 public inquiries, reviews and royal commissions have been held into matters concerning the management of fire in landscapes, including prescribed burning. Prescribed burning has been used for wildfire mitigation, agricultural practices (such as stubble reduction and grazing land management), property protection, the maintenance of ecological processes and biodiversity conservation. Prescribed burning in the region has only ever been practised on a small percentage of forest and land each year. The study finds that a substantial body of fire and ecosystem science has been generated in the past 50 years, with rapid technological developments to support prescribed burning and fire management. Research has provided tools and methods for broadscale prescribed burning, but negative public perceptions of fire have prevented the deployment of comprehensive fire management programs in the region. Although much has been achieved, considerable changes are still required in fire management for it to be sustainable and optimal in protecting economic, social and environmental values. The risks to human lives, property, biodiversity and the environment associated with wildfire are increasing in southeastern Australia due to climate change, and the wider use of prescribed burning is essential for managing these. The increasing extent and occurrence of wildfire disasters in the region indicates that current fire management will not sustain the full range of ecosystem processes and biodiversity, nor reduce to an acceptable level the impact of wildfires on human lives and property. There is compelling evidence for the greater use of prescribed burning to reduce wildfire risks and impacts, rather than committing increasing resources to wildfire suppression. The potential negative impacts of prescribed burning can be managed effectively using existing knowledge and tools. Clear communication of the benefits of prescribed burning can influence political and public opinion in its favour. More investment in training, human capacity and supporting resources is required to safely and effectively deploy prescribed burning more widely to reduce future wildfire risks.

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Section: Technological Advances 2000-2018mentioning

confidence: 99%

Prescribed burning in south-eastern Australia: history and future directions

Morgan

Tolhurst

Poynter³

et al. 2020

Australian Forestry

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“…Tables were generated summarising daily maximum FDR per Fire Weather District and displaying the red flag warnings for wind change, instability and spotting. Additional weather demonstration products (weather products not yet fully operational, but with potential for future incorporation into the AFDRS) were presented, including a link to JASMIN (Dharssi and Vinodkumar 2017) soil moisture data and images of pyrocumulonimbus and dry lightning potential (produced by the Bureau Extreme Weather Desk).…”

Section: Website Outputsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Australian Fire Danger Rating System: implementing fire behaviour calculations to forecast fire danger in a research prototype†

Kenny,

Matthews,

Sauvage

et al. 2024

Int. J. Wildland Fire

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Background The Australian Fire Danger Rating System (AFDRS) was implemented operationally throughout Australia in September 2022, providing calculation of fire danger forecasts based on peer-reviewed fire behaviour models. The system is modular and allows for ongoing incorporation of new scientific research and improved datasets. Aims Prior to operational implementation of the AFDRS, a Research Prototype (AFDRSRP), described here, was built to test the input data and systems and evaluate the performance and potential outputs. Methods Fire spread models were selected and aligned with fuel types in a process that captured bioregional variation in fuel characteristics. National spatial datasets were created to identify fuel types and fire history in alignment with existing spatial weather forecast layers. Key results The AFDRSRP demonstrated improvements over the McArthur Forest and Grass Fire Danger systems due to its use of improved fire behaviour models, as well as more accurately reflecting the variation in fuels. Conclusions The system design was robust and allowed for the incorporation of updates to the models and datasets prior to implementation of the AFDRS.

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“…The most significant weakness of the system now is the lack of suitable fuel availability models for fuel types other than grass and buttongrass. There is lots of promising work being done to retrieve live fuel moisture content modelling and remote sensing [120,319,320] but it is not yet clear how this information can be applied to fire behavior or fire danger modelling given live fuel moisture is not a direct input in fire spread models.…”

Section: Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards an Integrated Approach to Wildfire Risk Assessment: When, Where, What and How May the Landscapes Burn

Chuvieco

Yebra

Martino

et al. 2023

Fire

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This paper presents a review of concepts related to wildfire risk assessment, including the determination of fire ignition and propagation (fire danger), the extent to which fire may spatially overlap with valued assets (exposure), and the potential losses and resilience to those losses (vulnerability). This is followed by a brief discussion of how these concepts can be integrated and connected to mitigation and adaptation efforts. We then review operational fire risk systems in place in various parts of the world. Finally, we propose an integrated fire risk system being developed under the FirEUrisk European project, as an example of how the different risk components (including danger, exposure and vulnerability) can be generated and combined into synthetic risk indices to provide a more comprehensive wildfire risk assessment, but also to consider where and on what variables reduction efforts should be stressed and to envisage policies to be better adapted to future fire regimes. Climate and socio-economic changes entail that wildfires are becoming even more a critical environmental hazard; extreme fires are observed in many areas of the world that regularly experience fire, yet fire activity is also increasing in areas where wildfires were previously rare. To mitigate the negative impacts of fire, those responsible for managing risk must leverage the information available through the risk assessment process, along with an improved understanding on how the various components of risk can be targeted to improve and optimize the many strategies for mitigation and adaptation to an increasing fire risk.

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JASMIN: A prototype high resolution soil moisture analysis system for Australia

Cited by 6 publications

References 35 publications

Prescribed burning in south-eastern Australia: history and future directions

Prescribed burning in south-eastern Australia: history and future directions

Australian Fire Danger Rating System: implementing fire behaviour calculations to forecast fire danger in a research prototype†

Towards an Integrated Approach to Wildfire Risk Assessment: When, Where, What and How May the Landscapes Burn

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