Bushfire & Climate

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2011:

Intensive teaching, Creswick and Burnley and field trips.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

The course covers the fundamentals of forest fire behaviour and the factors affecting it including fuels, weather, topography, fire scale and climatic conditions. This knowledge will be the underlying understanding required for the planning and execution of prescribed burning for land management and to understand the fundamentals of wildfire suppression strategies and tactics.

By the end of the subject students should:

• Have an understanding of the importance of fuel characteristics including composition and structure on forest fire behaviour. In particular, an understanding of the importance of fuel moisture, fuel availability, fine fuels, live fuels, coarse fuels, fuel accumulation and decomposition processes and assessment and mapping of fuels.

• Have an understanding of the fundamentals of fire behaviour, in particular, the processes of pyrolysis, combustion, and heat transfer. At a broader level, the effects of fuel, weather, topography, fire scale, and spotting on fire behaviour, how to use fire behaviour prediction models, computer based models and the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to make fire behaviour predictions.

• Have an understanding of the effects of climate and weather patterns on fire occurrence and behaviour. Learn how to use weather observations and forecasts to predict fire behaviour.

• Have a knowledge of the science of prescribed burning including the importance of lighting patterns, fuel moisture, ignition technologies, and fire impacts.

• Have an understanding of fire suppression strategies, fire suppression tactics, suppression tools and incident control structures.

Several small daily “quizzes” – 20%, Literature review assignment (2000 words) – 30%, Major assignment (3500 words) – 50%

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.