- Title:
-
A Review of the Relationship Between Fireline Intensity, the Ecological and Economic Effects of Fire, and Methods Currently Used to Collect Fire Data
- Date:
- October 2004
- Organisations
- DSE
- Authors:
- Karen Chatto and Kevin G. Tolhurst
- Location:
- Victoria, VIC, Australia
Overview
For each wildfire attended by the Department of Sustainability and Environment or reported on public land, Section 2.4.9 of the Code of Practice for Fire Management on Public Land (CNR 1995) requires the Department to maintain records which include the origin and size of the fire, vegetation types burned, an estimate of the damage caused on public land and a map of the area of public land burned – including indicators of fire intensity. Other records to be maintained include estimates of annual fire damage and other economic or ecological consequences (Section 2.2.6 of the Code). With an average of 235 000 ha of forest burned by about 500 wildfires and 1000 prescribed fires each year in Victoria (1984–1992), this is a large task. Current methods of collecting the relevant information include ground surveys and aerial photography. These methods do not provide comprehensive or uniform records and the formats in which they are collected are not easily incorporated into Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
For each wildfire attended by the Department of Sustainability and Environment or reported on public land, Section 2.4.9 of the Code of Practice for Fire Management on Public Land (CNR 1995) requires the Department to maintain records which include:
- the origin and size of the fire
- vegetation types burned
- an estimate of the damage caused on public land
- a map of the area of public land burned – including indicators of fire intensity.
Other records to be maintained include estimates of annual fire damage and other economic or ecological consequences (Section 2.2.6 of the Code). With an average of 235 000 ha of forest burned by about 500 wildfires and 1000 prescribed fires each year in Victoria (1984–1992), this is a large task. Current methods of collecting the relevant information include ground surveys and aerial photography. These methods do not provide comprehensive or uniform records and the formats in which they are collected are not easily incorporated into Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
