Satellites to help show when the bush is ready to burn

Fire and land managers are benefiting from a new vegetation condition and flammability online mapping tool – the first of its kind to be introduced in Australia.

Effectively providing a clearer picture of immediate fire risks, the Australian Flammability Monitoring System uses satellite data to collect information on live moisture content in trees, shrubs and grass. It then displays this information on an interactive map, which helps fire managers in their prescribed burning efforts and prepositioning of firefighting resources.

Dr Marta Yebra at the Australian National University leads the Mapping bushfire hazards and impacts project, which has developed the Australian Flammability Monitoring System. As bushfires erupted along the east coast of Australia in November 2019, Marta was in the State Operations Centre at the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, working closely alongside fire behaviour analysts.

“Our research is being used here by the RFS to make informed decisions about where a fire may spread, and what areas should be prioritised when sending resources and equipment,” Marta said.

NSW Rural Fire Service senior fire behavioural analyst Laurence McCoy said Dr Yebra had been important in validating their predictions. "From our perspective, statewide there has been recent patchy rainfall and it is sites like Marta's that help us to actually detect the risk, or give us more detailed analysis in terms of the effect of that rainfall," Mr McCoy said. He said satellite technology was important for their situational awareness and understanding of fire escalation. "In our unit in particular, we've got a significant appetite for the use of new technology and new research."

Different filters and settings on the system give emergency services and land management agencies a new way to help evaluate the risk of a bushfire occurring in certain parts of the country, based on the dryness of soil and fuels and the flammability of vegetation. The system uses satellite data to provide a clear picture of the landscape where there are high levels of vegetation and soil dryness, which are the perfect conditions for a severe bushfire.

The cutting-edge technology was recognised with the Outstanding Achievement in Research Utilisation Award from the CRC in 2019, while it was a finalist in the national category of the 2021 Resilient Australia Awards. 

The algorithm to calculate satellite-derived fuel moisture content has also been implemented in the emissions assessment and smoke-dispersion module of the European Commission’s Forest Fire Information System, which provides the European Commission and the European Parliament with updated and reliable information about wildland fires on the continent. The product has also been evaluated and used in South Africa, Argentina, Italy, the United States, and China.

The data available through the system is invaluable to fire and land management agencies, explains Dr Adam Leavesley, the Bushfire Research Utilisation Manager at ACT Parks and Conservation Service.

“Fire managers across Australia need to understand when our landscape is in a position that is either not going to burn, burn in a way that will allow us to control a fire, or when conditions are so dry that if a fire starts it will be very dangerous and difficult to control,” Dr Leavesley says. 

“The Australian Flammability Monitoring System gives us a really good guide across the whole country to how we expect fire to behave on any particular day. This helps agencies position resources during a bushfire, keeping our people safe, and also with prescribed burn planning, particularly in mountainous locations where flammability changes depending on which side of a mountain you are on.

“It has been an amazing partnership with the research team. It is great quality science from a team that is driven by wanting to see their work make an impact – that has been the key to getting us to this stage.”

Access the Australian Flammability Monitoring System at http://anuwald.science/afms