Risk Management In Australian Bushfires

Abstract

Bushfires in Australia is a common phenomenon that happens repeatedly mostly in summers, this year bushfire led to the loss of uncountable lives of animals. The Focus of this report is to give a brief review of the bushfires and their risk and then creating a risk management strategy for the future.

Keywords: Bushfires, Australia, risk management, risk mitigation

Introduction

“Bushfires in Australia have historically had significant impacts on communities in terms of human life loss, injury, property damage and other socio-economic consequences (Stephenson, Handmer & Betts 2013). These impacts have been particularly serious in regions that have a combination of seasonal extreme fire weather, extensive areas of heavy vegetation, hilly terrain and proximity to human settlements. The frequency and severity of bushfires appear to be increasing over time due to longer fire seasons and associated extended periods of extreme fire weather.” (Gonzalez-Mathiesen, Constanza; March, Alan; Leonard, Justin; Holland, Mark, and Blanchi, Raphaele 2019)

‘An average fire season here in New South Wales is typically at around 300,000 hectares,’

Inspector Shepherd said. (Werner & Lyonas 2020). A Catastrophic event is always measured by the scale of the damage, how much damage that event has done and what will be the cost of the repair. Australia is geographically located in an area where the sun has a direct impact on the wildlife of Australia. During the summer season, this is a common phenomenon of the bushfire that happens every year, however, in July 2019 the bushfire took great leaps and created a lot of trouble for people. ( Gonzalez-Mathieson, Constanza; March, Alan; Leonard, Justin; Holland, Mark, and Blanche, Raphaelle. 2019)

“From the beginning of September 2019 to February 23, 2020, the Australian bushfires emitted 434 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This equated to over three-quarters of the 532 million tonnes Australian industry emitted in 2018-19. That number has been calculated by senior scientist Mark Parrington from Copernicus From the beginning of September 2019 to February 23, 2020. ”(.( Werner & Lyonas 2020)).

Risk Management

Before understanding what risk, management is, we need to understand what Is the concept of risk is? risk is the unexpected occurring of any event. Risk management helps any organization, or a country mitigates these events and helping them save money. This technique gives the organization or country to feel more protected and more confident about their business decisions.

Mitigating The Risk For Future Bushfire

Local and national level organizations are both responsible for mitigating the risk of future bushfires, and this process must be done all year round. From decision making to implementation, local organizations should be equally responsible as national level organizations to mitigate future bushfires risks

Implementation should be done on a hectare basis; every area should be divided into 3 zones and 2 classifications. Three-zone should be ‘low-risk area”, “medium risk area ‘, ‘High-risk area ‘. the classification should be the basis on private and public properties. if an area is private property and lie in a high-risk area, the owner of the private property should be informed 3 months before high predictive time and he should be provided with enough support in form of resources by the local government officials. Similarly, public property in high-risk areas should be regularly supervised by the government and in case of hazardous areas people around the property should be informed before the desired time.

To do this classification community should be set up to develop strategic management planning that will

• Identify the areas and the species of flora and fauna to be protected from bushfire
• Labelling these areas to manage the properties
• Setting up local bodies to take care of even a small fire is in a high-risk zone

References

1. Werner. J, Lyons. Suzannah (2020, March 05). The size of Australia’s bushfire crisis is captured in five big numbers. https://www.abc.net.au/, Retrieved March, 12th, 2020 from(https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-03-05/bushfire-crisis-five-big-numbers/12007716).
2. Gonzalez-Mathiesen, Constanza; March, Alan; Leonard, Justin; Holland, Mark, and Blanchi, Raphaele. Urban planning: Historical changes in integrating bushfire risk management in Victoria [online]. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, The, Vol. 34, No. 3, Jul 2019: 60-66. Availability:  ISSN: 1324-1540. [cited 12 Mar 20].
3. Catherine Stephenson, John Handmer & Robyn Betts (2013) Estimating the economic, social and environmental impacts of wildfires in Australia, Environmental Hazards, 12:2, 93-111, DOI: 10.1080/17477891.2012.703490