HIGHFIRE RISK PROJECT

The HighFire Risk Project


Project team:
Adj, Prof. Rick McRae, University of New South Wales, Canberra (previously with the ACT Emergency Services Agency)
Prof. Jason Sharples, University of New South Wales, Canberra;

Updated June 2026.

NEWS

Quantitative FFDR. This material showing how the all of the concepts in forest fire management can be viewed as a whole. Quantitative FFDR. This report presents tools for predicting aspects of dynamic fire behaviour. A synthesis of fire regimes of SE Australia. MODIS data allows detailed descriptions of how fire occurs across a wide spread of land-uses. URGENTLY REVISITING PAST BUSHFIRE LESSONS. After damaging fires, enquiries make recommendation far faster than the science is done. Many key past fires must now be reviewed for critical new lessons. IMPORTANT RESEARCH REPORTS. Reports presenting a range of new perspectives on Australian wildfires and the impact on them of climate change. See VLS in action: best ever view! 9 Sept 2024: a VLS event passes close by the high-resolution time-lapse cameras on HPWREN’s Santiago Peak site, just west of Santa Ana in Los Angeles, CA. REGISTER OF THE CAUSES OF DEEP FLAMING. There is an on-going effort to learn all of the causes of deep flaming, and thus of Blow-Up Fire Events. A CLASSIFICATION OF VIOLENT PYRO-CONVECTION: If we are to learn the correct lessons from fires, we must use the correct names for what we are trying to learn about.

KEY RESOURCES

Some of these are in need of updating - be patient!

FREQUENT UPDATES

The Hierarchical Predictive Framework: A new predictive framework for extreme wildfires in south-east Australia, using regional annual temperature anomalies, hydrology and the Blow-Up Fire Outlook tool. Australian PyroCb Register: The current register of all pyroCb events recorded in Australia. LONG-TERM RECOVERY AFTER A WILDFIRE ON THE URBAN EDGE: A long-term time series of photographs after a hot wildfire on Black Mountain in the centre of Canberra, 14th February, 1991. The results may surprise you!

RECENT RESEARCH

Australian Fire Hotspots Seasonality: A reformatting and collation of the results of decades of analyses of MODIS wildfire hotspots from the perspective of zones of uniform occurence seasonality (not hotspot frequency). The annual reviews have been used for fire industry bushfire outlooks. Black Summer Data: Summary data graphic for Black Summer, covering weather and satellite imagery.

CORE CONTENT

Videos on how to manage an extreme wildfire. A workhop at the AFAC21 National Conference. Terrain Analysis Maps: A series of maps of the parts of southern Australia, showing terrain patterns that contribute to some of the critical processes that have been identified by our research. This now includes all capital cities south of Brisbane. This is a set of tools for FBANs to use to assess the potential for blow-up fires.NOTE that the Drainage maps are a broad-overview of flood-prone lands.

LONG-STANDING CONTENT

Science of the 2003 Canberra Wildfires: The most scientifically important fires ever? This neither alignsd with nor agrees with comments from Natural Hazards Research Australia. 2011 FIRE WEATHER & RISK WORKSHOP: The web content for this workshop, an interesting snapshot of thinking in 2011. Himawari-8 Satellite Data: This gives you easy access to near real-time Himawari-8 geostationary satellite imagery, as well as a useful event archive. Images provided by Space Science Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin at Madison. 2008 HIGHFIRE RISK RESEARCH REPORT: An end-user oriented report on our initial research findings. RESEARCH DISSEMINATION: A series of resources to aid in the dissemination of the research. (Not endorsed.) TRAINING & AWARENESS TOOLS: A series of training and awareness products developed (or being developed) to aid in the operational use of the research. APPLICATION TOOLS: A series of resources to aid in the application of the research. Resources for 2024 Fire Conferences