New Zealand Rural Fire Workshop 2010 "Promoting Research Adoption"

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  Promoting research adoption, workshop proceedings

  PROCEEDINGS: contains short abstracts for each presentation with a hyperlink to a PDF of the presentation slides.

  Published Online - 12/2010. [920.7 KB] (pdf).
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  Scion update : NZ Rural Fire Research Workshop

  Brian Richardson, Scion
  

  Scion and the CRI reforms • Fire research at Scion • Programme Performance • Priorities for 2011

  [433.7 KB] (pdf).
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  Disaster research for mitigation and preparation - The 2009 Victorian bushfires

  Jim McLennan, La Trobe University/ Bushfire CRC
  

  Jim’s presentation began with an overview of the disastrous 7 February 2009 Victorian bushfires. A summary of the ‘big picture’ findings by the Bushfires Research Task Force for the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and supplementary findings concerning survival under extreme bushfire conditions followed.

  [231.9 KB] (pdf).
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  Community resilience at Mt Somers

  E.R. (Lisa) Langer and Pam Jakes
  

  Lisa discussed the findings from a study made of the rural community of Mt. Somers that experienced a wildfire on 5 January 2004. The study found that the interactions and relationships community residents had experienced prior to the fire helped the community deal with the wildfire.

  [510.8 KB] (pdf).
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  Rural community recovery from natural hazards

  Tom Wilson, Willie Smith, David Johnston
  

  Rural and isolated communities face unique challenges when compared with urban communities for managing catastrophic natural events. Using examples from large snow storms, drought, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes from New Zealand and overseas we will highlight issues and challenges faced by rural communities when preparing for, responding, and recovering from natural disasters.

  [8.7 MB] (pdf).
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  Rural fire danger communications

  Sophie Hide • David Tappin • Lisa Langer • Stuart Anderson
  

  Sophie presented findings from a research project that determined the understanding of rural fire danger messages in New Zealand. The enquiry was undertaken to establish awareness, understanding of, and expected responses to warnings and messages, and knowledge and perception of publicity initiatives. Recommendations of the findings will help improve future rural fire danger communication methods.

  [284.7 KB] (pdf).
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  Mitigation of human-caused wildfires

  Mary Hart
  

  Mary described the results from a study investigating methods for mitigating human caused wildfires for adoption by both national agencies and individuals. Methods presently used internationally and in New Zealand are highlighted for arson, maliciously lit fires, and accidental fires including escapes from fires lit for recreational purposes, fires originating in the rural-urban interface, and escaped land management fires.

  [3.7 MB] (pdf).
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  Less wildfires in Northland

  Sioux Campbell
  

  The Department of Conservation is leading a community relations and social change programme in Northland to help reduce the number of wildfires and build greater community ownership. Social research is a key component of this challenging and evolving campaign.

  [206.2 KB] (pdf).
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  Fire behaviour tools

  Veronica Clifford
  

  Veronica presented the latest in fire behaviour tools developed by the rural fire research team. These include: the Manual for Predicting Fire Behaviour, the Fire Behaviour Toolkit, the Guide to New Zealand Fuels, grassland curing assessment using satellite imagery and the fire growth simulation software Prometheus.

  [4.8 MB] (pdf).
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  Use of fire behaviour tools in planning

  Dave Hunt
  

  The Department of Conservation is responsible for the management of over 30% of NZ land. It has a number of statutory and sound business practices it must follow. These include mitigation of environmental degradation, loss of habitat and biodiversity. It is required to provide soundly-based outcome measures using accurate and efficient data collection. Three processes have been identified, Wildfire Threat Analysis, Fire Behaviour Simulation Modelling, and Fire Management Planning to support DOC’s fire management activities.

  [1.0 MB] (pdf).
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  Strategic Tactical Fire Management Planning (STFMP) – Multi-Agency Approach

  Heather Wakelin
  

  The new standard for Assessing Fire Hazards, set by the NRFA, requires all Rural Fire Authorities to meet a set of requirements and document them in their fire plan. The Department of Conservation is leading an approach to meeting this standard, involving multiple Rural Fire Authorities in Canterbury. This Strategic Tactical Fire Management Planning approach is in draft form, and once finalised, will include a Guideline and Template for fire planning use.

  [2.4 MB] (pdf).
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  Ignition thresholds for grass and gorse

  Heather Wakelin & Stuart Anderson
  

  Two recently completed studies have investigated the relationships between fuel moisture and fire ignition and spread in grass and gorse fuels. Heather described these studies, and potential uses of the guidelines produced from them to support fire management decision-making.

  [4.0 MB] (pdf).
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  User Guide to the NZFDRS

  Grant Pearce & Heather Wakelin
  

  A project is currently underway to develop a User Guide to the New Zealand Fire Danger Rating System (NZFDRS). This User Guide aims to provide an overview of the background and status of NZ’s adoption and modification of the Canadian fire danger rating system, as well as worked examples on the use of the fire danger rating outputs to develop “trigger points” and other decision-support aids for fire management.

  [984.1 KB] (pdf).
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  The Behaviour of the Haines Index for the 2009/10 New Zealand Fire Season

  Colin Simpson
  

  The Haines Index was originally developed to give fire management agencies in the US a tool for predicting the potential for development of large wildland fires. Through the use of a mesoscale atmospheric model, WRF, the behaviour of the Haines Index during the 2009/10 New Zealand fire season has been investigated. From this investigation, the potential for operational utility of the Haines Index for New Zealand was discussed.

  [2.5 MB] (pdf).
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  Rural firefighter workload and productivity

  Richard Parker
  

  Richard presented the results of data collected at real fires to measure the workload and fire suppression productivity of rural firefighters. Developments in sensor technology and data handling methods were also discussed. Carbon monoxide exposure of rural firefighters was measured in the last fire season and the results presented and the implications examined.

  [2.6 MB] (pdf).
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  Bushfire CRC aerial suppression research

  Matt Plucinski
  

  This presentation discussed the research undertaken in the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre’s project A3.1 “Evaluation of aerial suppression techniques and guidelines”. The project had three major research components: a strategic level operations study; wildfire suppression case studies; and field experiments. Outputs from the project including initial attack success models, a deployment decision tool and a drop assessment guide were presented, along with the recent evaluation of a large air tanker.

  [1.1 MB] (pdf).
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  New Zealand resource productivity/effectiveness -use and needs

  Kevin Ihaka
  

  Kevin discussed the current status and needs for information on resource productivity and effectiveness of NZ fire suppression resources. This included highlighting what research has been done previously, particularly relating to aerial suppression productivity and effectiveness, and what additional data and research is required.

  [314.1 KB] (pdf).
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  Research adoption discussion - Fire workshop Grant Pearce 2010

  Grant Pearce
  

  Four groups will be rotated through 4 topics addressing research adoption in NZ.

  [639.7 KB] (pdf).
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  Rural Fire Workshop discussion December 2010

  End user group discussion session

  [379.8 KB] (pdf).