Results to date indicate that agencies may need to address issues such as stigma or mental health literacy. The former would require a significant shift in culture and attitudes and the latter requires an easier fix that is training programs aimed at increasing mental health literacy and improving understanding of how early intervention and seeking of support can ameliorate development or worsening of mental health conditions/symptoms.

Known in South Australia as Coastal Mallee Heath, this specific fuel type dominates the recently devastated Kangaroo Island and is also found in other southern coastal areas of South Australia and Western Australia. The fuel structure may be similar to other high fuel load heathlands around Australia and possibly other countries, however this will need to be determined by the research outcomes.

This research is being supported by the Department of Environment and Water (DEW) and South Australia Country Fire Service. Simeon is an employee of DEW and is supported to coordinate experimental burns as well as collect fire observations and fuel samples at prescribed burns and bushfires.

Drivers continue to enter flooded road crossings in Australia, often with tragic outcomes. Given the expected increase in flooding predicted with climate change, designing better risk mitigation and community safety strategies requires understanding of the psychology behind a drivers’ decision to enter floodwater.

Key research questions of this project include:

1. What are the motivations (i.e. variables that affect behaviour) for decisions to drive into floodwater?
2. What protective factors are associated with decisions not to drive into floodwater?
3. Does a driver’s perception of risk influence decisions to drive into floodwater?
4. Can interventions be tailored to different motivations, protective factors and risk perceptions?

Globally, the link between the built environment and disaster risk is increasingly become a focus of attention particularly in the dynamic context of continuing urbanisation and climate change. Australia’s urban areas, being vulnerable to range of disaster risks, present a relevant case to study. Along with other disaster events, flash flooding from intense bursts of rainfall are becoming more frequent and severe in Australia. Climate change and population growth add a further critical dimension to this already challenging situation. In response, the Victorian Government has prepared a revised draft ‘Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy’ in 2015 focusing on flood mitigation approaches in addition to flood response and recovery efforts. The overarching challenge is how urban planning can inform flood resilience in the context of infill and dynamic urban change. 

The research, therefore, aims to understand urban-water-resilience nexus holistically as intersecting fields of urban planning, water management and disaster risk management while emphasising the urban-water transformation over time and the cross-scale implication (trade-offs) with particular reference to floods. The research follows the system approach (multi-scalar analysis) to empirically investigate the research questions in the context of urban catchment of Elster Creek, Melbourne. At the macro scale, the study addresses the temporal dimension of risk by tracing the long-term impacts of past urban growth and water management policies and practices and how they have influenced the present flood risk in the catchment. At the meso or morphological scale, the focus is on the location and spatial heterogeneity and their influence on the spatial risk distribution. At the micro or building parcel scale, the study examines the trade-offs between urban form’s transformation and flood risk mitigation at the catchment. Finally, the study critics the existing planning policies and schemes in order to assess degree of preparedness and dynamic change management.

This project aims at incorporating a simplified but faithful firebrand model in Spark toolkit (taking as a representative operational model). Spotting can be classified into three categories based upon the distance travelled by the firebrands: (a) short-range spotting (up to 500-750 m), (b) medium-range spotting (1000-1500 m), and (c) long-range spotting (>5000 m). Short-range spotting is being studied extensively at Victoria University. This kind of spotting is mostly the result of firebrands blown directly ahead of the fire with little to no lofting. An experimental rig has been designed and constructed to measure firebrand landing distance and distribution which are blown with no lofting. A physics-based model, Wildland Urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator, WFDS, is being improved upon and validated against those sets of experiments. The experiments and modelling include both non-burning and burning firebrands.

WFDS computational simulations at laboratory scale (less than 100m) are an economical and feasible approach compared to experiments, without any of the risk and hazards associated with large-scale experimental studies. The results obtained from WFDS can be used to obtain firebrand landing, scattering and distribution for an order of magnitude to a larger scale (~1000m).  In this study, a series of WFDS simulations of large-scale scenarios of short-range ember (burning) transport will be conducted.  Required parameters for simplified firebrand dynamics for use within an operational model will be obtained via statistical analysis of firebrand behaviour and landing distributions.  This parameterisation will be applied in Spark toolkit.

This research project aims to characterise the resilience and sensitivity of temperate rainforest communities to historic disturbance, climate variability and bushfire using a combination of long-term stand dynamic observations, dendrochronology and landscape spatial analysis. The project will examine the consequences of recent unprecedented landscape scale bushfires in northern NSW on a world heritage listed ecosystem renowned for its diversity of ancient plant lineages which exhibit few obvious adaptations to increasing fire activity.

Heather's PhD  will provide empirical measures and modelling of resources that are used for suppression of campaign fires. Research will commence with an examination of historical data by evaluating recent campaign fires in Australia. Operational data will be used to generate models of current suppression resourcing and tactics. These models will be used to evaluate various resource scenarios in simulation studies. For a given set of fire weather, fuel and topographical conditions, the research questions are:

• What is the appropriate level of resources required for successful containment of campaign fires in Australia?
• Should suppression resources be engaged in offensive or defensive strategies?
• What offensive strategies should suppression resources use?
• What should be expected for a containment timeframe?
• Is there a sufficient level of resources to hold a fire to a specific threshold of fire size?

This research will determine the different options which exist for providing a compliance/enforcement program to address this significant gap in bushfire protection. Importantly, the research will discover whether there are certain ways to design developments and bushfire protection measures which advantageously play to the strengths of human behaviour, therefore removing the need for thought in undertaking bushfire protection. Thus, bushfire protection becomes a day-to-day habit, rather than a significant exercise. In doing this, the study will determine whether design can top regulation in the long term maintenance of bushfire protection measures.