About us
Thirty Years of Wildfire Research
Over the past 30 years, the Scion rural fire research team has played a crucial role in advancing fire management in New Zealand. Initially, rural fire management was more reliant on practical experience than scientific research. The disbandment of the New Zealand Forest Service in the late 1980s led to the establishment of the National Rural Fire Authority (NRFA) in 1990, which emphasized the need for scientific research in fire management. With support from the Forest Owners’ Association and funding from various sources, a research program was launched at the Forest Research Institute, spearheaded by Canadian fire scientist Dr. Marty Alexander and New Zealand's first full-time fire research scientist, Grant Pearce.
The early research efforts included adopting and adapting the Canadian Fire Danger Rating System to New Zealand conditions. This required extensive experimentation and data collection to develop a model suited to local fuel types. A network of remote weather stations was also established to monitor rural weather conditions, aiding in fire management decisions.
Over the years, the research programme expanded to include social sciences, focusing on community resilience and firefighter safety. Significant collaborations with international researchers and organizations, such as the Australian Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) have enhanced the program's capabilities. The development of tools like the "Fire Behaviour Toolkit" and smartphone applications has modernised fire management practices in New Zealand.
In the last decade, Scion’s team has continued to grow further and now includes a wide range of researchers and experts in fire science, including Kaupapa Māori researchers. National and international collaborations have been fostered, and the team is now referred to as FAST (Fire and Atmospheric Sciences Team) to emphasize the broader scope of their research. The team has continued to deliver in the field of fire science, with the support of two recent MBIE funded Endeavor projects helping to support the research - Preparing New Zealand for Extreme Fire (2016-2021) and Extreme Wildfire: Our new reality - are we ready? (2021-2026). Current research unites international and local experts to study extreme wildfire behavior in New Zealand's unique ecological and social environment.
Team and skills
The Scion Fire and Atmospheric Sciences Team has strong capabilities in fire behaviour modelling that includes knowledge and experience across a range of vegetation types and landscapes. Team members comprises a diverse mix of skills, including:
Tara Strand (General Manager Forests and Landscapes): smoke dispersion modeller, smoke emissions, turbulence, fire-atmosphere links, extreme fire behaviour
Samuel Aguilar (Scientist): invertebrate ecology, animal behaviour, sensory ecology, statistics
Veronica Clifford (Fire Scientist): fuels and fire behaviour, fire as a land management tool, technology development for transfer of knowledge
Shana Gross (Science Leader): fire ecology, disturbance ecology, post-fire landscapes, landscape ecology, climate science, ecological restoration, landscape assessments and planning, decision support tool development
Jamie (Fire Technician): fuels and fire behaviour, fire suppression, fire fighting, field operational set up
Lisa Langer (Social Scientist): community wildfire risk perception and preparedness, community engagement and effective communication
Richard Parker (Human Factors Scientist): firefighter health and productivity, suppression tools and technology development for use on the fire-ground
Ilze Pretorius (Atmospheric Scientist): smoke plume modelling, real-time fire information tool development, fire weather
Laura Kiely (Fire and Atmospheric Scientist): fire and smoke modelling, fire information tool development
Hugh Wallace (Fire Scientist): fuels and fire behaviour, fire suppression
Alison Wilson (Project Delivery Manager): monitoring and managing project plan tracking and accomplishment reporting, and team coordination
Jiawei Zhang (Atmospheric Scientist): micrometeorology, atmospheric-fire interaction, air pollution and cloud microphysics
Contact us
Shana Gross, Science Lead
Hugh Wallace, Team Lead
Scion Fire and Atmospheric Sciences Team
PO Box 29-237
Riccarton
Christchurch 8440