Research
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.
Research Capabilities & Interest Areas
Our team offers comprehensive wildfire management solutions, including:
Tool Development: We design and develop innovative tools tailored to address the evolving challenges of wildfire management.
Decision Support: We provide decision-makers with actionable insights and analysis to facilitate informed decision-making during wildfire incidents.
Firefighter Support: Our solutions empower firefighters with real-time information and spatial analysis to enhance operational efficiency and safety.
Fire Behaviour Analysis: Through advanced modelling and experimental burns, we assess fire behaviour, fuel models, flammability, and heat transfer dynamics.
Risk Reduction Strategies: We assist in wildfire risk reduction through preparedness measures, vulnerability mapping, and community engagement initiatives.
Ecological Impact Assessment: We evaluate the ecological effects of wildfires and contribute to post-fire recovery and ecosystem restoration efforts.
Smoke Management: We conduct evaluations and validations related to smoke dispersion and its environmental and public health impacts.
Climate Analysis: We analyse the relationship between fire behaviour and climate change, providing insights for adaptive management strategies.
Partnership and Collaboration: We engage with partners to address inquiries, provide annual wildfire summaries, and conduct case studies to inform future strategies.
Training and Capacity Building: We offer specialized training programs on fire behaviour, current tools and management techniques to enhance preparedness and response capabilities.
Real World Impact
Our team is proud to contribute to wildfire research and management through various innovative tools, case studies, and research initiatives. The following examples highlight just some of the impactful work our team has delivered.
Tool Development - Powered Back Pump
Scion researchers improved the traditional manual backpack pump by developing a battery-powered water blaster, which showed superior water spraying accuracy and efficiency in trials. For more information, see here: Powered Back Pump.
Tool Development - UAV Hotspot Detection
Scion, with the University of Canterbury and Tait Communications Ltd, developed a UAV equipped with IR cameras and GPS to accurately detect hot spots post-fire, addressing the limitations of manual and helicopter-based methods. For more information, see here: UAV Hotspot Detection.
Risk Preparedness
Scion's research highlights the need to integrate wildfire preparedness into community planning and design, as traditional awareness campaigns prove insufficient in high-risk areas. For more information, see here: Risk Preparedness and Risk Perception and Preparedness.
Research Burns
Scion's collaboration with various stakeholders enabled groundbreaking research on fire whirls through controlled burns near Twizel, providing valuable insights into their triggers and dynamics. For more information, see here: Research Burns.
Operational Support
Devlopment of technical and field guides to aid in selecting fuel models and fire behavior predications, enhancing accuracy with clear descriptions and visual aids. See NZ fire behaviour prediction manual and Guide to NZ Fuels
Case Studies
Scion’s case study on the Pigeon Valley fire, part of the 'Preparing NZ for Extreme Fire' programme, provided crucial insights and smoke forecasts that informed health, air traffic, and evacuation decisions. For more information, see here: Pigeon Valley Fire Case Study.
Research Programmes
Our team continues to lead several significant, multi-year research programmes dedicated to understanding and managing extreme wildfires, alongside a range of other ongoing projects. These collaborative efforts address various aspects of wildfire behavior, planning, and resilience in New Zealand’s unique context.
Are we ready for extreme wildfire? (Current)
Our current MBIE Endeavour Research Programme began in October 2021 and brings together international and local experts to help better understand how extreme wildfires spread and behave in New Zealand’s unique ecological and social environment.
The research programme has 5 workstreams:
- Experimental burns to understand extreme fires and convective spread
- Using field data and models to understand how fire moves between urban fuels (such as houses and vegetation)
- Assessing national and local level fire planning
- Utilising personal experience, including Mātauranga Māori and laboratory experiments to better understand how native forests burn
- Developing a roadmap for smart firefighting.
This programme is supported by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. In addition to direct funding, we receive considerable “in-kind” support for research activities from rural fire authorities throughout the country.
Preparing New Zealand for extreme fire (2016-2021)
An MBIE and industry-funded Extreme Fire research program was conducted, bringing together an international team of fire experts to undertake highly innovative research. The program achieved significant advancements in understanding fire behavior and enabling New Zealand to identify, mitigate, and adapt to the threat of extreme fires. It successfully developed a new fire spread model by testing new heat transfer theories using experimental burns. The program created innovative decision support tools that improved real-time fire response by automating and linking systems for fire detection, growth prediction, and smoke modeling. It investigated and developed new methods for preventing and suppressing extreme fires, including smart thermal sensor networks and enhanced firefighting tools. Additionally, the program developed effective strategies to protect important ecosystems, assets, and communities from extreme fires. It also analyzed the use of fire as a land management tool and created a 'Prescribed Burn' training resource.
Partners/collaborators - US Forest Service, Missoula Fire Science Laboratory, University of New South Wales, San Jose State University, US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Laboratory, University of Canterbury, Lincoln University, The Nature Conservancy
RNC-NSC resilience to wildfires (2016-2019)
Funded by the "Resilience to Nature’s Challenges" National Science Challenge (RNC-NSC), this project achieved several key milestones in enhancing wildfire resilience. Key deliverables include the analysis of community resilience and future planning in the RNC-Rural Kaikoura district, the design of processes to integrate traditional and informal volunteers into wildfire management, and the review and co-design of community planning with a Maori community in Northland, incorporating indigenous knowledge. The project also developed wildfire hazard indices by modeling fire spread and creating static risk indices for comparison with other hazards, integrating these with infrastructure vulnerability assessments. Additionally, the RNC-NSC served as a vital channel for applying research to bolster community resilience to extreme fire events, connecting with the MBIE Extreme Fire programme and other related research initiatives.