Making better use of research

The latest bushfire science is becoming better understood and used by the emergency sector through tailored training programs by Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC researchers.

By Bethany Patch from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. This article was first published in Issue Two 2021 of Fire Australia.

A key aim of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC has been to ensure that high-quality research outcomes are easy to access, use and understand. To achieve this, researchers have been running a range of targeted tutorials and training workshops that enhance and support the capabilities of those working in emergency management (EM), industry and government. In these sessions, practitioners are guided through the process of applying new research in different contexts through online or local workshops. Over the coming months, more training will be made available to CRC partners, including a collection of training and research materials on fire science that will help people understand the current research into different fire behaviours. Following are a few examples of current training programs.  

The use of economics in natural hazard management

The CRC recently hosted a training course called How to use economics in natural hazards management, inpartnership with the University of Western Australia (UWA). Informed by the CRC’s Economics of natural hazards project at UWA, the course was designed to upskill and build capacity within the EM sector to give natural hazard managers and practitioners more confidence in the commissioning and use of economic information to aid their decision-making. Hosted by Dr Veronique Florec and Dr Abbie Rogers at UWA, small groups were guided through the basics of economics and how they apply to natural hazards, learning how to conduct and interpret benefit–cost analyses of mitigation options. Dr Florec also presented two new economic tools that have been made available through the CRC—the Economic Assessment Screening Tool and the Value Tool for Natural Hazards— which help practitioners to become familiar with economic evaluation methods, understand data requirements, learn how to integrate non-market values into economic analyses, and use and interpret the information derived.

You can find more information about this training at www.bnhcrc.com.au/events/2021-economics-natural-hazards. 

Hazard management in northern communities

The CRC’s Northern Australian bushfire and natural hazard training project has spent the last five years working closely with communities in northern Australia, an area that comprises 360,000 people, with remote areas mostly populated by Indigenous Australians. The research highlighted the need for training materials that provide practical and respectful support and reinforcement to remote Indigenous communities. These communities face unique stressors and opportunities when meeting the evolving and challenging requirements of bushfire and natural hazard management in a changing climate, requiring enhanced EM capabilities. Working closely with communities and their leaders, researchers from Charles Darwin University, led by Steve Sutton, developed a suite of ten fire and natural hazard emergency management training units that bring together the essential elements of Indigenous and non-Indigenous emergency management training in a vocationalstyle program. The units reflect a key aim of the project: to respect and observe flexible cultural arrangements, such as training on Country, following local structures for decision-making and including family and Indigenous practices. These training units are now being used in a number of locations in northern Australia, and skills and knowledge are being shared with and between communities. By working with communities, researchers have helped support a cohort of vulnerable people with skills and knowledge to control fire and manage a fire regime that suits their landscape. This reduces the risk of bushfire and increases community safety.

You can read more about the training and this research at www.bnhcrc.com.au/research/hazardtraining.

Future hazard scenarios

Associate Professor Benjamin Brooks and Dr Steven Curnin from the University of Tasmania facilitated a number of workshops in October 2019 and March 2020, with participants from local governments and emergency management in WA, including the WA Local Government Association and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES). The Stretch Thinking for Crisis and Emergency Management workshops were based on a new technique for scenario planning called ‘stretchthinking loops’, a technique developed by A/Prof Brooks and Dr Curnin to support innovation in strategic planning. In crisis management, scenario planners need to be able to imagine future environments, even in the most uncertain conditions. Stretchthinking loops provide an opportunity for decision-makers to dynamically consider the scale of potential scenarios and correlating EM strategies. Stretchthinking loops combine research on creativity, divergent thinking and creative constraints into one method. The workshops used this new technique, inviting participants to apply convergent and divergent thinking to a scenario exercise that encompassed social, environmental, infrastructural and economic considerations. These sessions, constructed around the extensive research conducted by the research team, empowered participants to improve their understanding and skills in effective decision-making during a crisis. The workshops formed part of the CRC’s Improving decision-making in complex multi-team environments project. Dr Curnin, who has previously run regular masterclasses for the critical infrastructure sector, was awarded a research grant under the Discovery Early Career Research Award for 2021, to continue his longstanding history of effective collaboration with emergency management agencies.

You can read more about this research and the workshops at www.bnhcrc.com.au/research/multiteamenvironments.

Recognising disaster resilience in communities

CRC research at the University of New England, led by Dr Melissa Parsons, developed the Australian Disaster Resilience Index, an industry-first assessment of the state of disaster resilience across the country. The Index draws on a suite of comprehensive materials and existing data to make it easier to understand the contributors to, and variability in, disaster resilience. Presented as an interactive map of resilience across Australia, the Index provides a clear pathway for businesses, governments and community organisations to improve their decision-making about planning, development, policy, engagement and risk assessment, so that they can take informed and practical steps to improve the disaster resilience of their local communities. From the outset of the research, a critical aim was that the Index would be widely shared and actively used by businesses, governments and organisations. At the CRC-hosted online launch of the Index in July 2020, Dr Parsons led a large participant group through the research that underpinned the Index, providing a guided tour of the website itself and ensuring that audience members were able to clearly understand how to begin applying the Index in different contexts. Dr Parsons has also been working one-on-one with various government departments and organisations to help them adopt the Index as part of their usual resiliencebuilding initiatives.

You can watch a recording of the launch and training session at www.bnhcrc.com.au/events/2020-adri or learn more about the research behind the Index at www.bnhcrc.com.au/research/resilienceindex.

Predicting fire storms

CRC research conducted with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and led by Dr Kevin Tory has developed and implemented a new tool that helps to understand, forecast and predict the formation of fire-generated thunderstorms (also known as pyrocumulonimbus or pyroCb). Covered in the first 2021 issue of Fire Australia, the Pyrocumulonimbus Firepower Threshold (PFT) is backed by research from the CRC’s Improved predictions of severe weather to reduce community impact project. It is a diagnostic tool that can determine when the atmosphere is conducive to both deep plume development and large, hot fires, which is helping fire agencies and BOM weather forecasters to predict when these dangerous storms might occur, and to provide accurate and timely warnings to communities and firefighters. In November 2019, Dr Tory conducted a CRC training session to introduce the PFT, explaining how it works, providing examples of it in action and working with participants to ensure those who would use it had a clear understanding of the tool’s foundations, strengths and weaknesses. The PFT is now used by fire behaviour analysts within fire agencies and state government departments across Australia to analyse fires, identify fire-generated thunderstorm risk, assess pyro-convection and fire-atmosphere interactions, and provide accurate guidance on potential storm developments. BOM forecasters also regularly use the PFT, working closely with fire agencies to advise on severe weather. Dr Tory was recognised with an Insight and Innovation Award in 2020 from the BOM for his research conducted for this project, with state fire agencies applauding the value of the PFT during the 2019–20 bushfires, when it was used to inform advanced warnings of nearly 30 fire-generated thunderstorms.

You can watch the recording of Dr Tory’s training session at www.bnhcrc.com.au/resources/PFT-training or find out more about this research and the tool at www.bnhcrc.com.au/research/predictingsevereweather.

Risk modelling

Sophisticated modelling software— called the Unified Natural Hazards Risk Mitigation Exploratory Decision (UNHaRMED) support system—is being used across Australia to explore current and future coastal flood risk. The software was developed by the CRC’s Improved decision support for natural hazard risk reduction project, led by Professor Holger Maier and his team at the University of Adelaide. UNHaRMED is a modelling platform that integrates various natural hazard models that calculate disaster risk using demographic, infrastructure and environmental data to show how this risk might change in the future. Researchers have trialled UNHaRMED through a mitigation and planning exercise with South Australian agencies, who explored mitigation options for the changing coastal risk at Port Adelaide Enfield. The exercise brought together a diverse multiagency team—including state and local government—to explore the likelihood and consequences of future coastal inundation in the area. Through a series of workshops with similar multi-agency groups in WA, Tasmania and Victoria, users in these states have also been trained to use the software. UNHaRMED is now being deployed in a variety of ways to support understanding and decisionmaking about disaster risk reduction, address vulnerability as an aid for future planning, and to focus attention on the key policy issues to be addressed and resolved to mitigate future risk.

You can read more about this research and UNHaRMED by visiting the CRC project page www.bnhcrc.com.au/research/naturalhazardriskreduction.

Supporting volunteer leadership

In partnership with Curtin University, UWA and DFES, the CRC conducted an online showcase in October 2020 to present the new Recruitment and Retention Toolkit for Emergency Volunteer Leaders—the main product from the CRC’s Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project. The Toolkit is grounded in organisational psychology research and uses firsthand experiences of WA State Emergency Services volunteers and leaders to provide highly relevant, evidence-based resources that support all stages of volunteer management. The research team, led by Associate Professor Patrick Dunlop (Curtin University), worked very closely with DFES to develop the Toolkit, consulting directly with volunteer leaders across all services, DFES district officers, and partner associations and their leaders. The showcase trained volunteer leaders on the resources in the Toolkit and how to apply them to their volunteer management processes. Additionally, DFES has been using the Toolkit to support volunteer leaders as part of its Volunteer Hub, which ensures this research is widely available to 26,000 DFES volunteers across 800 brigades, groups and units, and operating between five volunteer emergency services. The Toolkit is being further developed to be more relevant to emergency service agencies across Australia, and to support and enhance the way that volunteer leaders recruit, retain and manage Australia’s volunteer workforce.

You can watch the recorded Toolkit training showcase at www.bnhcrc.com.au/events/2020-recruitment-and-retention-toolkit and learn more about the research at www.bnhcrc.com.au/research/sustainablevolunteering.