Research Programme

The research programme comprises four major themes aligned to the ‘4 Rs’ of fire risk management:

  • Reduction – fire mitigation and prevention, wildfire threat analysis, risk assessment and planning, and fuels management
  • Readiness – setting fire suppression preparedness levels, adequate resourcing of Rural Fire Authorities, and managing fire season status and activities
  • Response – responding to fires with adequate resources, safe and effective fire suppression, accurate predictions of fire behaviour, and decisions around evacuation or asset protection
  • Recovery – understanding events and learning from them to reduce the impacts or prevent these events reoccurring in the future, and increasing community resilience.
Our programme is aimed at increasing knowledge of fuels and fire behaviour, with a strong focus on the development and improvement of the New Zealand Fire Danger Rating System. This system assists rural fire mangers in assessing risk, predicting the spread of fires, and managing the safety of firefighters and the public.  It also allows for the safe and effective use of fire as a land management tool for applications such as crop burning and land clearing.

Other research areas include improving firefighter productivity and the social aspects of fire management, such as community recovery, and communication and education mechanisms.

Key capabilities

Our objectives are to provide land and fire management agencies with greater capacity to:
Enhance firefighter safety
Understand vegetation fire behaviour and risk
Enhance community safety and protection
Provide better prescriptions to implement controlled burning programmes
Deploy effective suppression resources
Manage fire in different vegetation types

Programme stakeholders

Scion works closely with the National Rural Fire Authority, the NZ Fire Service Commission, NZ Forest Owners’ Association, Department of Conservation, NZ Defence Force, territorial authorities, and Federated Farmers of New Zealand. Our programme is supported by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology and in addition to direct funding, receives considerable “in-kind” support for research activities from rural fire authorities throughout the country.