Title: Research to Implementation of Satellite Derived Grassland Curing

Principle Topic: How emergency management is responding to future challenges

Presenter: Simon Heemstra, Manager Community Planning

The accuracy of the curing data is a fundamental input into the calculation of the Grassland Fire Danger Index (GFDI). In New South Wales, GFDI is used for community messaging, statutory obligations (such as Total Fire Bans) and operational preparedness including predictions of fire behaviour. Previously in NSW, grassland curing assessments were determined using ground based visual observations by operational personnel. Visual assessments have been reported as being both inaccurate and spatially inadequate across the landscape.

In 2010, the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) in conjunction with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) set about developing a process to incorporate satellite derived curing data into operational systems. The NSW RFS has developed a new tool that incorporates a number of spatial processing steps to derive a grassland curing map to be incorporated into NSW RFS Systems and the calculation of the GFDI by the BoM.