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What is the Wildfire Project about?

The wildfire project was funded as a result of recommendations arising from the Report of the Inquiry into the 2002-2003 Victorian Bushfires. The project enabled the consequences of wildfire on assets to be mapped in a uniform way across the state of Victoria. The project was focussed on meeting the needs of a range of stakeholders and end-users responsible for fire management.

The products developed by the project are to be used as planning tools and service the prevention and preparedness components of primarily wildfire management. The products also provide useful strategic information for response and recovery phases of wildfire management and should be sufficiently flexible to be applicable for hazards other than wildfire.

A methodology was developed to identify, describe, classify, quantify and map the consequence of wildfire on a range of environmental, physical, social, cultural and economic assets. A significant aspect of determining the consequence or impact of wildfire on assets was to define their significance and the value that is ascribed to them. The project delivered spatial products that support integrated wildfire planning and decision making across the entire state of Victoria.

The Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner (OESC) engaged Spatial Vision and its team (Beca, RMIT Centre for Risk & Community Safety and Ecology Australia) to undertake this project.

What’s happened so far?

In October and November 2006 the Project Management Team and Project Board respectively approved the proposed Wildfire Project Spatial Projects and accompanying report. The report presents the findings of applying the methodology for the Wildfire Project outlined in the Project Methodology Report, and describes the Spatial Products produced through this initial application of the methodology.

What's next?

A 12 month trial period will be implemented, where stakeholders will be asked to share their experiences in using the outputs of the project over this period. The project method and format of the outputs delivered will be reviewed on the basis of feedback received at the conclusion of the trial, and key refinements will be implemented prior to the final project outputs being made available to stakeholders. Key areas for review include determining the usefulness of the products in terms of:

• Asset classification;
• General methodology, including role of disruption elements;
• Output product format and structure; and
• Output product delivery methods. It is envisaged that the 12 month trial will commence in early 2007, and will involve a nominated group of participants from project stakeholder agencies.

Other Related Projects

There are a number of projects which may have relevance to the Wildfire Project. These related projects include:

Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Project – Bushfire Risk Management Model. The potential for two-way interaction between deliverables of each project will be explored. See: http://www.bushfirecrc.com/research/a41/a41.html
IMFMP Project – This project is bringing together all agencies and organisations responsible for fire management planning in Victoria and is aimed at improving the management of fire events at a local level through improved planning and inter-agency cooperation. Deliverables from the Wildfire Project will provide practical tools to support the IMFMP process.

Key Stakeholders

Further Information

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