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Animals on a grand scale are victims of climate change and of natural disaster. With no voice within human cultures, their plight can be silenced and forgotten once an extreme weather event is over and when media coverage of the devastation has ceased. The creative arts have an important role to play in raising public awareness of and empathy for animals impacted by natural disaster. This paper presents a critical discourse analysis of the Australian play Fire by Scott Alderdice (2017), framed by Animal Studies perspectives. The voices of the animals in Fire, as expressed through language -- dialogue and narration -- are the focus of the analysis to determine how the play engages in the concepts of considering other-than-human interests; imagining and representing animals and their significance; personifying species' presence using human speech to offset facelessness; and inspiring humans to take responsibility in this time of climate crisis and natural disaster. Fire provides an exemplar for theatrical expression giving voice to animals in times of crisis. An examination of the narration and dialogue of the animal characters reveals a respectful representation of native Australian animals, who are shown to be sentient and social beings intimately entwined with the environment in which they live. The language use by the animals throughout elicits recognition and empathy and subsequently feelings of grief and of guilt. The play inspires humans to take responsibility by considering animals' perspectives and interests; understanding their significance in the world; and performing our role to protect the natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Bushfires are a global climate change challenge and a critical disaster issue for Australia. Adaptive governance has emerged as a model to address socio-ecological issues such as disasters. This paper discusses four principles of adaptive governance: polycentric institutions, collaboration, social learning, and reflexivity and examines how these are reflected in the policy and practice of bushfire management in the South West of Australia. Findings demonstrate that current disaster policy discourse, which influences bushfire management, increasingly advocates for principles associated with adaptive governance. However, a case study on the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River found that the extent to which these principles translate into bushfire management practice is largely influenced by interpretive worldview policy frames. The paper suggests that governance for bushfire management could become more adaptive in its approach by incorporating more collaborative management activities, deliberative policy processes and reflexive practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The repeated occurrence of natural disasters is impacting communities globally and these effects are expected to worsen as the global temperatures continue to rise. In Australia, communities on the East Coast are now bracing for another dry hot summer along with the accompanying threat of bushfire. In this context, many governments have promoted the idea of building resilient communities in order to try to mitigate the danger and threat to communities. The idea of enhancing resilience is both appealing and problematic: appealing, because it signifies the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity: problematic, because such a term can easily be exploited to support ideological beliefs about independence and self-sufficiency. This paper explores the notion of enhancing resilience in smaller rural communities, specifically in the context of recovery from the fires in 2019/2020. By adopting a case study approach, we argue first, that whilst the idea of resilience has value, it needs to be equalised by a robust understanding of the contextual factors that may increase vulnerability (Solangaarachchi Griffin & Doherty, 2012); with this in mind, we suggest that developing adaptive capacity is more fitting because of the way it draws our attention to the changes that are necessary for responding to the changes in climate. Second, we argue that if communities are to be assisted to adapt in order to survive the effects of climate change, this work will require an increased focus on community development in the medium and long-term stages of recovery, so that communities are assisted, supported and empowered to engage preparedness projects in the event of disasters occurring in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural disasters can significantly impact children's health, development, and wellbeing, as well as their access to education and support services (including speech-language pathology). Children's needs are often overlooked in the urgent aftermath of natural disasters. This is especially true for children with communication difficulties. This commentary explores the impacts of bushfire on Australian children, to propose a sustainable, community-based approach to supporting children's health, wellbeing, and communication. The Royal Far West Bushfire Recovery Program, a multidisciplinary allied health program, supported children's recovery, resilience, and development in the aftermath of Australia's Black Summer bushfires in 2019–2020. Children learnt coping strategies and were more able to communicate with adults and peers about their feelings and experiences, but residual impacts of bushfires remained for some children. Allied health telepractice services, including speech-language pathology, enhanced access for vulnerable children, highlighting the potential for technology to provide high-quality services to support recovery, particularly in remote areas. Climate change increases the frequency and severity of bushfires and other natural disasters with significant consequences for vulnerable and at-risk communities. Children with communication needs are particularly vulnerable during and following these disasters. High quality, evidence-based interventions are needed to support the health, wellbeing, and communication needs of children, with opportunities for involvement of speech-language pathologists. This commentary paper focusses on SDG 1, SDG 3, SDG 4, SDG 9, SDG 10, SDG 11, SDG 13, and SDG 15. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Media wildfire coverage can shape public knowledge on fire-related issues, and potentially influence management decisions, so understanding the content of its coverage is important. Previous research examining media wildfire coverage has primarily focused on either a single fire or issue, and provides little insight about the range of wildfire-related topics discussed in the media. Aims: We aimed to assess wildfire topics covered in print media between 1986 and 2016 across the USA, Canada and Australia. Methods: Machine learning-based automated content analyses were conducted to identify primary topics within news articles and to map relationships between topics. Key results: News articles related to wildfire were clustered into four topic areas: Fire Response, Management, Environmental Conditions and Property Preparedness. Notable between-country differences emerge: the US media coverage focuses most on firefighting; Canadian coverage, climate change; and Australian coverage, preparedness. Conclusions: Our results reveal that: (1) wildfire media coverage has increased over the past 30 years; (2) coverage is more varied than the common perspective, i.e. media continues to portray fires in a negative light; and (3) topic coverage varies significantly between countries. Implications: These findings can help identify gaps in media coverage, and provide insights into critical topics, or relationships between topics, that may need additional emphasis in conversations about how to better learn to live with fire. This paper presents the results of a large-scale analysis of news media coverage of wildfires across 30 years and three countries: the USA, Canada and Australia. It describes the wildfire-relevant topics that are most common and the interrelationships between them in each of these three contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scale and intensity of bushfire activity in Australia is likely to increase as a result of climate change. Effective bushfire management policy measures are therefore essential to minimise the interrelated social, environmental and economic impacts of fire in the landscape. This paper presents a historical review of bushfire management in the South West of Australia (SW): a bushfire prone and biodiverse region. Using a worldview framework to analyse key policy documents and literature, the paper demonstrates that the evolution of complex policy sectors such as bushfire management, is influenced not only by scientific and technical developments but also as a result of changing worldviews. Adapting the Integrative Worldview Framework (IWF), seven worldview categories that dominated particular periods of history in Australia are presented. These worldview categories are then used to examine the evolution of bushfire management practice, policy and institutional arrangements relevant to the SW. The argument presented herein is that a better understanding of worldviews and how they influence complex and contentious policy fields such as bushfire management, is useful for policy analysis, reflexive practice and research. The paper suggests an integrative worldview approach, which enables opportunities for exchanges and constructive conflict between stakeholders and agencies with diverse worldviews, could contribute to creating more sustainable bushfire management. Finally, it is argued that opportunities for Indigenous and Western worldview exchanges in the bushfire management sector, through collaborative knowledge partnerships could assist the sector in both management practice and policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home and contents insurance is integral to household and community resilience against disasters. Yet many households are underinsured. While causes for underinsurance have been widely researched, changes to Australian building regulations in the last decade has established a new source of insurance miscalculations. Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) ratings can inflate rebuilding costs by 20% or more, yet BAL ratings remain obfuscated to homeowners and are notoriously confusing to navigate. After the October 2013 bushfires in New South Wales, the Blue Mountains Local Recovery Steering Group found that 'information on the BAL process, the guidelines, the expected costs, the consulting experts and a property's bushfire-prone status is literally all over the place'. This paper aims to provide clarity on the subject, tracing the precise socio-technical means through which disaster risk is perceived and assessed. The paper conceptualises insurance and risk ratings as calculative devices that provide both a technical solution to reduce financial losses and a philosophical tool for risk rationalisation. It then builds on interviews conducted with residents in the Blue Mountains affected by the 2013 bushfires, to ascertain how such calculative devices practically affect communities at risk. The paper concludes by outlining potential solutions to a confusing and costly problem in Australia, highlighting critical public awareness issues surround BAL ratings, which have profound insurance and wellbeing implications for people rebuilding and recovering from bushfire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From September 2019 to February 2020 fires destroyed dwellings, towns and killed farm animals and wildlife in much of eastern Australia. While the threat and experiences of fire differed, smoke became a quotidian experience for millions of people not in direct danger from flames. The disjuncture between the Australian bushfire summer existing within much longer histories of air, respiration and smoke in cities and the experiences of smoke being new to many people highlights important issues relating to nomenclature, boundaries and urban imaginaries. Developing a more-than-urban political ecology of smoke, this paper concludes that understanding smoke as part of atmospheres within which humans live and breathe is necessary to support the integrated management of land, water, air and the living entities in and beyond a particular area or country. A more-than-urban political ecology of smoke will assist people to view themselves and their welfare as being connected with what happens on spaces that are physically distant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses that for city-dwelling Australians, COVID-19 sent the population into a toilet paper stockpiling hysteria, and bushfires were already a dwindling memory. It mentions that people living in rural communities are more likely than their city-dwelling cousins to experience multiple physical and mental health problems; and also mentions that self-management interventions are highly effective at preventing readmission to crisis care.

This paper raises questions of media coverage of "compounded crises" related to extreme weather disaster, in the context of urgent calls to address the implications of a changing climate. Through media analysis, it examines the ways debate over bushfire protection policy was framed and made culturally meaningful, thereby politically consequential, in the wake of the worst bushfires in modern Australian history, Black Saturday (2009). The fires, in which 173 people died, led to a Royal Commission and fierce debate over the use of prescribed burning to reduce bushfire hazard. Longitudinal analysis of local, state and national mainstream media coverage (2009-2016) reveals blame games that targeted environmentalists and the government, which near-silenced meaningful discussion of the complexity of fire science, impacts of climate change on weather conditions, and calls for adaptation. By exploring the media's constitutive role in crisis response, the paper highlights the legacy and potency of ideological conflict that shapes the media-policy nexus in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans are ‘fire creatures’ that have used fire for millennia to shape local environments to diverse purposes. Our capacity for combustion has also forced global climatic changes and rendered the planet increasingly flammable, creating the conditions for progressively higher impact bushfires now and into the future. Meanwhile, governments in fire-prone countries such as Australia have continued to allow settlements to be established (and re-established) in wildland-urban interfaces. Like other ‘natural hazards’, bushfire is thereby a social phenomenon bound up with human values, practices and decisions. But, while studies of the social dimensions of ‘natural hazards’ are steadily rising, this scholarship has rarely addressed natural hazard management practitioners directly, precisely those authorised and entrusted to intervene in the distribution of hazard probabilities and consequences. This paper seeks to help remediate this research gap, illustrating how cultural, ecological, economic and political factors thoroughly condition hazard management and modes of intervention. Drawing on a case study in the Northern Territory’s Greater Darwin region, this paper suggests not only that examining such sociocultural realities provides new insights into hazards and their distribution, but also that attention to such issues is crucial to understanding our flammable future in the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vast, and unprecedented, bushfires swept across the Australian continent in 2019/2020 signalling a traumatic transition into the Anthropocene. As global heating and other dimensions of this new epoch transform our physical and emotional environments, how might museums empower people to face, accept and respond to the great emotional, cultural and technical challenges of our times? Framed within the museum's broader thinking about the Anthropocene and imminent redevelopment of its environmental history gallery, this paper reflects on challenges and opportunities in the process of connecting with Australian communities to document the 2019/2020 bushfire season. It includes discussions of the acquisition of the Bungendore Firies' Fridge and the community engagement work that surrounds the acquisition of a payphone – the only public payphone in the town of Cobargo in regional New South Wales – that was charred by the deadly fires. Museums, we argue, can and often do provide important spaces to collectively acknowledge and honour the material, ecological and social connectivities that hold our communities together and thereby empower people to respond with dedication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is a cornerstone of Australia's economy. As highly publicised bushfires rage throughout the country, it is essential to consider the effects of this crisis on Australia's tourism industry. This practical paper explores Chinese outbound tourists' responses to the catastrophe. Three themes (climate change and bushfires, coping strategies when travelling in bushfire areas, and concerns about news coverage of government's actions regarding bushfires) reveal how the disaster has influenced tourists' travel-related perceptions of Australia as an overseas destination. Findings offer new insights for tourism stakeholders in destinations experiencing disastrous events. Future research directions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has resulted in a worldwide increase in intensity and frequency of extreme weather events including bushfires. Previous research has shown that communities often do not engage in disaster preparedness, even when sufficient education and resources are provided. With the projected increase in natural disasters, preparedness is paramount, and more research is needed to gain an understanding into what impacts community preparedness in the face of climate change. This study investigated one rural Australian community's preparedness for the 2019–2020 bushfires. Thirteen Australian adults who resided within a small rural community in New South Wales during the 2019–2020 bushfires participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Participants reported being unprepared for the 2019–2020 bushfires and that the community has started to prepare for future bushfires. However, they also described a belief in 'climate cycles' rather than climate change, limiting engagement in preparedness for future hazards. Participants also reported that they did not talk about the 2019–2020 bushfires, although described experiencing residual anxiety. Recommendations included support needed for rural communities to help with future preparedness efforts and mental health symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bushfires are one of the most frequent natural hazards experienced in Australia. Fires play an important role in shaping the landscape and its ecological dynamics, but may also have devastating effects that cause human injuries and fatalities, as well as broad-scale environmental damage. While there has been considerable effort to quantify changes in the occurrence of bushfire in Australia, a comprehensive assessment of the most extreme bushfire cases, which exact the greatest economic and environmental impacts, is lacking. In this paper we reflect upon recently developed understanding of bushfire dynamics to consider (i) historical changes in the occurrence of extreme bushfires, and (ii) the potential for increasing frequency in the future under climate change projections. The science of extreme bushfires is still a developing area, thus our conclusions about emerging patterns in their occurrence should be considered tentative. Nonetheless, historical information on noteworthy bushfire events suggests an increased occurrence in recent decades. Based on our best current understanding of how extreme bushfires develop, there is strong potential for them to increase in frequency in the future. As such there is a pressing need for a greater understanding of these powerful and often destructive phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropocentric climate change presents an existential threat through impacts such as rising sea levels, effects on agricultural crops and extreme weather events. However, governments, businesses and communities struggle to wean off fossil fuel dependency. In this article, we argue that this is due to the grip of fossil fuel hegemony. To explain this grip, we draw on the theoretical perspectives of new materialism to examine how fossil fuels and politics interact in upholding Australia's fossil fuel regime. Our analysis, based on 70 qualitative interviews conducted with politicians and political advisors, fossil fuel executives and experts and environmental activists, shows three processes – establishment, entrenchment and encroachment – through which political-material entanglements lock in a fossil fuel-based future. These processes are both discursive, with politicians and industry downplaying, if not outright denying, the climate emergency and material, with investment in new mines and infrastructure even while the negative ecological impacts of fossil fuel use gather pace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The 2019–2020 Black Summer bushfires had a devastating impact on Australian biodiversity. Many affected human communities felt compelled to intervene by organizing and providing food, water, and/or shelter to affected wildlife in situ ('wildlife provisioning'). While well intentioned, due to the unprecedented scale and intensity of the fires, a lack of institutional support for wildlife provisioning, and what was revealed to be a lack of scientific evidence, this response was largely uncoordinated and a substantial amount of research is required to determine the beneficial and/or negative outcomes of such practices as a response to habitat destruction by bushfires. We propose a 'One Welfare' approach that recognizes the interconnection of human, animal, and environmental welfare and examines the existing literature; local legislation; views of stakeholders; emerging data; and modelling from fire events. There is strong evidence indicating that future bushfire seasons will become longer and more intense in Australia and elsewhere, putting the welfare and survival of millions of wild animals at risk every year. If this approach were implemented, we anticipate that best practice recommendations for stakeholders in different contexts would emerge to determine if, when, and how wildlife provisioning best be conducted, now and into the future. Australia's 2019–2020 bushfires had a devastating impact on animals, humans, and ecosystems. They also demonstrated the lack of evidence or guidance for wildlife provisioning in response to severe fire events when volunteers and wildlife organisations rose to respond. In addition, the unprecedented scale and intensity of the fires and an absence of institutional support for wildlife provisioning meant that well-intentioned interventions were largely uncoordinated and lacked clear short-term, mid-term, and long-term objectives. Fundamentally, a lack of consensus was revealed on whether any such interventions are advisable. Given the strong evidence indicating that future bushfire seasons will become longer and more intense in Australia and elsewhere, the welfare and survival of millions of wild animals are at risk every year. Understanding the impacts of supplementary resource interventions and contributing to the development of best practice information is crucial to inform the response to the next major fire event. Here, we contextualize the arguments for and against provisioning within a 'One Welfare' framework that recognizes that animal welfare, biodiversity, and the environment are intertwined with human welfare and community resilience. We propose that the One Welfare approach can facilitate appropriate consideration of the extant scientific and lay literature; local legislation; views of stakeholders; emerging data; and modelling from historic fire events. As a further step, we see merit in engaging with wildlife provisioners and the broader conservation community to build an evidence base for future wildlife provisioning activities. From an informed position, we can encourage beneficial interventions and reduce the risk of negative outcomes. Finally, we propose controlled experiments (e.g., using hazard reduction burns), ongoing data collection using emergent technology, and longitudinal analysis to address shifting research priorities as the climate changes. We conclude that the ordered collection of the necessary evidence relevant to each of the three stakeholder groups in the One Welfare framework has the greatest potential to support an informed policy platform on wildlife provisioning across Australia that is feasible, legal, and sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exacerbation of wildfires, attributed to the effects of climate change, presents substantial risks to ecological systems, infrastructure, and human well-being. In the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to climate action, prioritizing the assessment and management of the occurrence and intensity of extensive wildfires is of utmost importance. In recent times, there has been a significant increase in the frequency and severity of widespread wildfires worldwide, affecting several locations, including Australia, Italy, and the United States of America. The presence of complex phenomena marked by limited predictability leads to significant negative impacts on biodiversity and human lives. The utilization of satellite-derived data with neural networks, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), is a potentially advantageous approach for augmenting the monitoring capabilities of wildfires. This research examines the generalization capability of four neural network models, namely the fully connected (FC), one-dimensional (1D) CNN, two-dimensional (2D) CNN, and three-dimensional (3D) CNN model. Each model's performance, as measured by accuracy, recall, and F1 scores, is assessed through K-fold cross-validation. Subsequently, T-statistics and p-values are computed based on these metrics to conduct a statistical comparison among the different models, allowing us to quantify the degree of similarity or dissimilarity between them. By using training data from Australia and Sicily, the performances of the trained model are evaluated on the test dataset from Oregon. The results are promising, with cross-validation on the training dataset producing mean precision, recall, and F1 scores ranging between approximately 0.97 and 0.98. Especially, the fully connected model has superior generalization capabilities, whilst the 3D CNN offers more refined and less distorted classifications. However, certain issues, such as false fire detection and confusion between smoke and shadows, persist. The aforementioned methodologies offer significant perspectives on the capabilities of neural network technologies in supporting the detection and management of wildfires. These approaches address the crucial matter of domain transferability and the associated dependability of predictions in new regions. This study makes a valuable contribution to the ongoing efforts in climate change by assisting in monitoring and managing wildfires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire behaviour is changing as new modes of fire spread dominate in south-eastern Australia, making extreme bushfires significant risk drivers during bad fire seasons. This is linked to changes in climate and landscape hydrology. A Hierarchical Predictive Framework has been developed specifically to predict the risk of extreme bushfires in south-east Australia. It uses temperature anomalies and the accumulation of river drying events to predict seasonal risk. If that risk is raised, a Blow-Up Fire Outlook model looks at fire weather forecasts and fireground context for specific risk prediction. This guides operational intelligence gathering to support decisionmaking by incident management teams. The Hierarchical Predictive Framework is based on over 20 years of archival data on extreme bushfires and their context. It is intended to work alongside, but not replace, existing operational systems. Tools like the framework can help keep fire crews safe in the face of risks like branched troughs and the rapid rise in prominence of foehn-driven fires in Australia, as well as the rapidly growing threat from fires that spawn pyrocumulonimbus clouds (pyroCbs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global health burden from wildfire smoke is expected to worsen under climate change, yet we lack quantitative estimates of the economic costs of increased mortality and hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. Using a quantitative wildfire risk assessment framework and a 12-member climate model ensemble, we find a median increase in wildfire smoke health costs of 1–16% by 2070 across diverse landscapes in south-eastern Australia. Ensemble maximum cost increases (5–38%) often exceed abatements from fuel treatment, while costs decline moderately (0–7%) for the ensemble minimum. Unmitigated climate change will increase the health burden of wildfire smoke and undermine prescribed burning effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the difference in media coverage of the Australian bushfires and the pandemic, using an Australian and a Hungarian news site. After a frame analysis of text and imagery, a narration analysis was conducted. Our results provided evidence that crises were covered in different ways. For a distant news portal, it was an obvious option to use the bushfires in order to visualize climate change. In contrast, the bushfire–climate link has been a politicized subject in Australia for decades; hence, the exceptional bushfire season was also unable to get the issue on the agenda. Although the Australian news media in our sample strived to portray a crisis under control, when compared to the pandemic, it was not so effective. Therefore, localization is a major challenge for effective climate communication, where lessons from the pandemic, using more economic and social frames, could be helpful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional burning regimes have long been employed to enhance biodiversity and mitigate high-intensity wildfires. The link between changes in the distribution, success, and timing of breeding in seabirds and climatic and oceanographic variation in the marine environment has been established, with migratory seabirds less able to respond to climate variability than resident species. While climate-driven changes can also occur on seabird breeding islands, few data are available regarding potential impacts. Here we investigate the frequency and severity of bushfires on seabird breeding islands in Western Australia, regarding the 2020 fire on Figure of Eight Island in the Recherche Archipelago. A lack of quantitative, historical surveys limited our ability to quantify the number of shearwaters lost in this event. However, a review of available data suggests thousands of birds die due to burning every one or two years across the Archipelago. On Figure of Eight, shearwater burrow occupancy and density were low 12 months post-burn (0.25 and 0.02 ± 0.03, respectively), with minimal evidence of recovery (very few burrows detected) 23 months post-burn. We discuss opportunities to develop an adaptive, community-based program for reinstating collaborative, cultural methods of fire management and monitoring regimes on seabird breeding islands in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Wildfires are becoming more severe and frequent and their effects increasingly expose water resources to stress. • Climate, wildfire, streamflow records (1975 to 2018), topography, and landcover data from 92 catchments were combined to quantify the contribution of wildfire to streamflow variability across Australian temperate forests. • On average wildfire regimes relatively results in 8.8% increases in streamflow across Australian temperate forests. • Wildfire effects on regional streamflow varied spatially depending on hydroclimate factors, particularly precipitation. As wildfires become more frequent and severe, there are concerns regarding their impacts on water yield from forested catchments. While there are many studies in Australia about the effects of individual wildfires on streamflow at fine scales (<1 km2) in specific geographic settings, the effects of wildfire regimes on streamflow at broad spatial scales across temperate forests in Australia are not well understood. In this paper, we combined climate, wildfire, streamflow records (1975 to 2018), topographic, and landcover data from 92 catchments (74 – 4740 km2) in the Australian temperate zone to quantify the contribution of wildfire regimes over time to streamflow variability in different hydroclimatic settings (humid, dry sub-humid, and semi-arid) and geographic regions (Southeast Australia (SEA), Southwest Western Australia (SWWA), and Tasmania (TAS)). Wildfire regimes were represented by two metrics: the burnt area to drainage area (BDA) ratio for wildfire events in each year and a spatially averaged metric of Time Since Fire (TSF), which is a spatial average of time since the last wildfire in the catchment. By comparing prefire and postfire runoff ratios our study found that on average there was a short-term increase in runoff ratio (∼3% in year 1 and ∼6% in year 2 post-fire) after wildfires with BDA > 25%. No influence of fire was found in the long-term (15–20 years after the wildfire) runoff ratio. We found that wildfire regime, measured by TSF, explained ∼8.8% of the variation in annual streamflow across the Australian temperate zone, and that with decreasing TSF (i.e., increased wildfire impact), the average streamflow increased. Streamflow variation explained by wildfire regimes varied with hydroclimate. The explained variance of streamflow by wildfire regimes in semi-arid catchments (23%) and dry sub-humid catchments (13%) were higher than humid catchments (5%). Our results provide a broad-scale understanding of how wildfire regimes influence streamflow variability at broad temporal and spatial scales, and provided important context and baseline information for determining the implications of changes in climate and fire regimes for regional water availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's summer bushfires of 2020–2021 were catastrophic, negatively impacting people, and the natural environment. This climate change-related event exacerbated the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health. Young people are a priority population whose health and livelihoods are significantly impacted by these events. At the same time, young people are active agents for climate action. This exploratory mixed-method study draws on descriptive analyses of survey data (n = 46) and thematic analyses of interview data (n = 6) which demonstrated that some young people, whilst concerned about existential and real impacts of climate change, use contact with nature to cope and as motivation for taking climate actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Mediterranean ecosystems prescribed burning is commonly employed to reduce the risk or intensity of wildfires. As a consequence, a major challenge for conservation land managers is the development of fire regimes that reduce damaging wildfires and are optimal for biodiversity. The aim of this paper was to develop guidelines for ecological fire regimes using the Banksia woodland on the Gnangara Groundwater System in Western Australia as a case study. Development of the guidelines involved the determination of maximum and minimum fire intervals of key fire response species, analyses of fire history records and estimation of ideal age class distributions at the landscape level. Recommendations included a) adoption of a minimum fire interval of 8-16 years, b) implementation of a burning regime to redress the current skewed distribution (60%: 1-7 years since last fire), c) retention of long-unburnt habitats that are significant for species such as the critically endangered Calyptorhynchus latirostris (Carnaby's black-cockatoo), and Tarsipes rostratus (honey possum), and d) protection for wetlands that can serve as fire 'refugia' for associated species, such as Isoodon obesulus fusciventer (southern brown bandicoot or quenda). The guidelines developed provide a model for the development of ecological burning regimes in other similar ecosystems. The implementation of ecological guidelines normally involves incorporation into fire management planning by fire agencies and often entails complex solutions to conflicting aims. The guidelines are thus valuable for ecologists and land managers, especially in light of an expected significant increase in global fire activity as a consequence of predicted climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of climate justice retain a persistent tension between transcorporeal entanglement and coherent individuality. The ontology of bodily separation required for accountability for polluters and reparation for the vulnerable enacts a worldview potentially inconsistent with the more-than-human relationality of climate change. Yet theories of material agency and posthuman becoming are criticised for offering limited guidance for political practice. Engaging with the bushfire smoke that blanketed eastern Australia throughout 2019/2020, I seek to revitalise climate justice by engaging with theories of more-than-human transcorporeality. To do so, I articulate an aspirational climate justice, where aspiration is understood as a yearning arising from inhibited breath. Aspirational climate justice considers the relationally composed human and non-human bodies that breathe, as well as the relationship – respiration – itself, as subjects, and offers a politics through which we might keep breathing together towards a more liveable world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: As climate change intensifies and wildfire frequency and scale increase, it is critical we develop a robust understanding of how species recover from these major disturbances. Here, we aim to determine whether source populations for recovery following large‐scale intense wildfires are derived from either in situ survival, or immigration from surrounding unburnt areas (ex situ). Secondly, we sought to determine whether habitat elements (e.g., logs) within the landscape facilitate in situ survival of small mammals during fires. Location: Grampians National Park, south‐eastern Australia. Methods: We used long‐term post‐fire small mammal monitoring to investigate sources of recovery for small mammals, and camera trapping and habitat surveys immediately following large intense wildfires to assess evidence for and drivers of post‐fire survival. Results: We found no relationship between distance to unburnt vegetation and the occurrence of any native species, suggesting that in situ survival is the probable mechanism for recovery of post‐fire mammal populations, compared with immigration from external unburnt areas. We also show that key habitat elements such as rocks and large trees were associated with the occurrence of several species immediately post‐fire, suggesting a role for these features in facilitating the survival of species during and following fire. Main conclusions: We present evidence for post‐fire recovery being driven by in situ survival. In situ survival is facilitated by small unburnt patches and habitat elements in burnt areas. These surviving individuals become the founders for subsequent post‐fire population recovery. Given that globally we are seeing increasingly frequent large‐scale wildfires driven by climate change, the capacity for in situ survival will help mitigate some of the fire‐related impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on mitigating climate change. Topics include rural Australia requiring a policy framework focusing on the whole population, new ways of working, embracing technology, prevention and rural autonomy; and communities in terms of loss of human life, damage to property, destruction of crops, loss of livestock, and environmental and infrastructural damage.

Abstract: Disturbance of forested catchments by fire, logging, or other natural or human induced events that alter the evapotranspiration regime may be a substantial threat to domestic, environmental and industrial water supplies. This paper describes the physically-based modelling of the long term changes in water yield from two wildfire affected catchments in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, and of fire and climate change scenarios in Melbourne''s principal water supply catchment. The effect of scale, data availability and quality, and of forest species parameterisation are explored. The modelling demonstrates the importance of precipitation inputs, with Nash and Sutcliffe Coefficients of Efficiency of predicted versus observed monthly flows increasing from 0.5 to 0.8 with a higher density of rainfall stations, and where forest types are well parameterised. Total predicted flow volumes for the calibrations were within 1% of the observed for the Mitta Mitta River catchment and <4% for the Thomson River, but almost −10% for the less well parameterised Tambo River. Despite the issues of data availability simulations demonstrated the potential for significant impacts to water supply in SE Australia from wildfire and climate change. For example, for the catchments modelled the moderate climate change impact on water yield was more pronounced than the worst fire scenario. Both modelled cases resulted in long term water yield declines exceeding 20%, with the climate change impact nearing 30%. A simulation using observed data for the first four post-fire years at the Mitta Mitta River catchment showed Macaque was able to accurately predict total flow. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The summer season of 2019-2020 has been named Australia's Black Summer because of the large forest fires that burnt for months in southeast Australia, affecting millions of Australia's citizens and hundreds of millions of animals and capturing global media attention. This extensive fire season has been attributed to the global climate crisis, a long drought season and extreme fire weather conditions. Our aim in this study was to examine the factors that have led some of the wildfires to burn over larger areas for a longer duration and to cause more damage to vegetation. To this end, we studied all large forest and non-forest fires (>100 km²) that burnt in Australia between September 2019 and mid-February 2020 (Australia's Black Summer fires), focusing on the forest fires in southeast Australia. We used a segmentation algorithm to define individual polygons of large fires based on the burn date from NASA's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) active fires product and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) burnt area product (MCD64A1). For each of the wildfires, we calculated the following 10 response variables, which served as proxies for the fires' extent in space and time, spread and intensity: fire area, fire duration (days), the average spread of fire (area/days), fire radiative power (FRP; as detected by NASA's MODIS Collection 6 active fires product (MCD14ML)), two burn severity products, and changes in vegetation as a result of the fire (as calculated using the vegetation health index (VHI) derived from AVHRR and VIIRS as well as live fuel moisture content (LFMC), photosynthetic vegetation (PV) and combined photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic vegetation (PV+NPV) derived from MODIS). We also computed more than 30 climatic, vegetation and anthropogenic variables based on remotely sensed derived variables, climatic time series and land cover datasets, which served as the explanatory variables. Altogether, 391 large fires were identified for Australia's Black Summer. These included 205 forest fires with an average area of 584 km² and 186 non-forest fires with an average area of 445 km²; 63 of the forest fires took place in southeast (SE) Australia (the area between Fraser Island, Queensland, and Kangaroo Island, South Australia), with an average area of 1097 km². Australia's Black Summer forest fires burnt for more days compared with non-forest fires. Overall, the stepwise regression models were most successful at explaining the response variables for the forest fires in SE Australia (n = 63; median-adjusted R² of 64.3%), followed by all forest fires (n = 205; median-adjusted R² of 55.8%) and all non-forest fires (n = 186; median-adjusted R² of 48.2%). The two response variables that were best explained by the explanatory variables used as proxies for fires' extent, spread and intensity across all models for the Black Summer forest and non-forest fires were the change in PV due to fire (median-adjusted R² of 69.1%) and the change in VHI due to fire (median-adjusted R² of 66.3%). Amongst the variables we examined, vegetation and fuel-related variables (such as previous frequency of fires and the conditions of the vegetation before the fire) were found to be more prevalent in the multivariate models for explaining the response variables in comparison with climatic and anthropogenic variables. This result suggests that better management of wildland-urban interfaces and natural vegetation using cultural and prescribed burning as well as planning landscapes with less flammable and more fire-tolerant ground cover plants may reduce fire risk to communities living near forests, but this is challenging given the sheer size and diversity of ecosystems in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's 2019-20 fire season has been described as the 'Black Summer'. Vast swathes of the continent burned, including areas that have not been fire-prone in the past, such as wet rainforest and alpine wetlands. This article considers the implications of more frequent and intense wildfires for wetland ecosystems and the extremely valuable ecosystem services that they provide. The article investigates what Australia's laws have to say about restoring ecosystem services after extreme events such as fire. In particular, the article considers the extent to which existing laws anticipate the possibility of ecosystem transformation, asking: what do our laws require if restoration is not possible? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Commentary considers the causal chain responsible for bushfires, prompted by the severe episode in SE Australia in 2019–2020. While not denying the role of climate and climate change, it focuses on ignition and fuel supply as areas where intervention might occur in order to mitigate future fire risk. Climate change plays a role in the increased intensification and frequency of bushfire seasons, although it promotes hot and dry conditions rather than directly causing fires. Prompted by the severe fire season in late 2019 and early 2020 in southeast Australia, this Commentary notes the complexity of the causal chain leading to such events, and focuses on the importance of ignition sources and fuel supply. Understanding these causal elements requires different research methods and data from the time‐series analyses that underpin identification of climatic influences. Interventions that can mitigate future fire risk and impact may need to focus more on ignition and fuel rather than on climate change; but they are likely to be politically, practically and financially difficult to implement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fires change ecosystem composition and influence species extinction risk, yet information on the impact of fire on biodiversity is scant. The bushfires in southeastern Australia during the summer of 2019/20 were unprecedented in their extent and intensity, and postfire management decisions have been hindered by a lack of knowledge of the impact of fires on biodiversity. We examine the short‐term persistence of frog species across southeastern Australia after these fires using records of calling frogs from the national citizen science project FrogID. We demonstrate widespread short‐term persistence of frog species. Sixty‐six frog species were detected in the firegrounds before the fire, and within 125 days postfire, 45 of these were detected. All 33 frog species with more than five records that were detected in the months of December–March prefire were detected postfire. While the short‐term postfire persistence of so many frog species is a positive result, the population‐level and longer‐term consequences of the fires remain unknown, as does the ability of frogs to persist with the changing fire regimes predicted as a consequence of global climate change. We illustrate the value of citizen science in collecting large‐scale and rapid observations in response to increasing anthropogenically‐driven ecological events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term variations in fire weather conditions are examined throughout Australia from gridded daily data from 1950 to 2016. The McArthur forest fire danger index is used to represent fire weather conditions throughout this 67-yr period, calculated on the basis of a gridded analysis of observations over this time period. This is a complementary approach to previous studies (e.g., those based primarily on model output, reanalysis, or individual station locations), providing a spatially continuous and long-term observations-based dataset to expand on previous research and produce climatological guidance information for planning agencies. Long-term changes in fire weather conditions are apparent in many regions. In particular, there is a clear trend toward more dangerous conditions during spring and summer in southern Australia, including increased frequency and magnitude of extremes, as well as indicating an earlier start to the fire season. Changes in fire weather conditions are attributable at least in part to anthropogenic climate change, including in relation to increasing temperatures. The influence of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on fire weather conditions is found to be broadly consistent with previous studies (indicating more severe fire weather in general for El Niño conditions than for La Niña conditions), but it is demonstrated that this relationship is highly variable (depending on season and region) and that there is considerable potential in almost all regions of Australia for long-range prediction of fire weather (e.g., multiweek and seasonal forecasting). It is intended that improved understanding of the climatological variability of fire weather conditions will help lead to better preparedness for risks associated with dangerous wildfires in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In temperate Australia, wildfires are predicted to be more frequent and severe under climate change. This could lead to marked changes in tree mortality and regeneration in the region's predominant eucalypt forests, which have been burned repeatedly by extensive wildfires in the period 2003-14. Recent studies have applied alternative stable state models to select 'fire sensitive' forest types, but comparable models have not been rigorously examined in relation to the more extensive 'fire tolerant' forests in the region. We review the effects of increasing wildfire frequency on tree mortality and regeneration in temperate forests of Victoria, south-eastern Australia, based on the functional traits of the dominant eucalypts: those that are typically killed by wildfire to regenerate from seed ('obligate seeders') and those that mostly survive to resprout ('resprouters'). In Victoria, over 4.3 million ha of eucalypt forest has been burned by wildfire in the last decade (2003-14), roughly equivalent to the cumulative area burned in the previous 50 years (1952-2002; 4.4 million ha). This increased wildfire activity has occurred regardless of several advancements in fire management, and has resulted in over 350 000 ha of eucalypt forest being burned twice or more by wildfire at short (#11 year) intervals. Historical and recent evidence indicates that recurrent wildfires threaten the persistence of the 'fire sensitive' obligate seeder eucalypt forests, which can facilitate a shift to non-forest states if successive fires occur within the trees' primary juvenile period (1-20 years). Our review also highlights potential for structural and state changes in the 'fire tolerant' resprouter forests, particularly if recurrent severe wildfires kill seedlings and increase tree mortality. We present conceptual models of state changes in temperate eucalypt forests with increasing wildfire frequency, and highlight knowledge gaps relating to the development and persistence of alternative states driven by changes in fire regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildfires can have devastating effects on life, property and the environment. Official inquiries following major damaging fires often recommend management actions to reduce the risk of future losses from wildfires. Understanding where wildfires are most likely to occur in the landscape is essential to determining where wildfires pose the greatest risk to people and property. We investigated the spatial patterns of wildfire ignitions at a bioregional scale in New South Wales and Victoria using generalised linear models. We used a combination of social and biophysical variables and examined whether different categories of ignitions respond to different explanatory variables. Human-caused ignitions are the dominant source of ignitions for wildfires in south-eastern Australia and our results showed that for such ignitions, population density was the most important variable for the spatial pattern of ignitions. In future years, more ignitions are predicted in the coastal and hinterland areas due to population increases and climate change effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has been exposed to a vast array of extreme weather regimes over the past few years, and the frequency and intensity of these events are expected to increase as a result of anthropogenic climate change. However, the predictability of extreme droughts, heat waves (HWs), bushfires and floods, is still hampered by our inability to fully understand how these weather systems interact with each other and with the climate system. This study brings new insight into the regional and large scale dynamics of some extreme events in Australia, by describing and comparing the climate signature of summer HWs and extreme rainfall events which have occurred in the states of Victoria and Queensland respectively, during 1979-2013. Our analyses highlight the importance of mid-latitude dynamics operating during HWs, in contrast with more tropical interactions at play during extreme rainfall events. A 'common' blocking high pressure system is observed over the Tasman Sea during the two types of extreme events, and may explain why some southeastern HWs (only about 25 %) occur in close succession with floods in Queensland. However, our results suggest that there is no dynamical link between these two types of events, since the HW-related anticyclone evolves as part of a baroclinic wave train, whereas in the case of rainfall events, this structure emerges as an equivalent barotropic response to tropical convection. Sub-regional surface temperatures and air-sea fluxes also suggest that distinct processes may be operating in the lead up to these two events. Indeed, HWs tend to occur when the wave train propagates from the south Indian to the Pacific Ocean, inducing a quasi-stationary blocking high system over the Tasman Sea. This anticyclonic anomaly can then advect hot dry air towards the southern Victorian coast, where it produces HW conditions. On the other hand, extreme rainfall events mostly occur when the background conditions correspond to a La Niña state. The convection induced in the western Pacific can trigger a tropical-extratropical teleconnection over Queensland. This may generate an anticyclonic anomaly over the Tasman Sea, able to divert air parcels over a warm and humid area where conditions are, this time, favorable for more extreme rainfall along the Queensland coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon stock change due to forest management and disturbance must be accounted for in UNFCCC national inventory reports and for signatories to the Kyoto Protocol. Impacts of disturbance on greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories are important for many countries with large forest estates prone to wildfires. Our objective was to measure changes in carbon stocks due to short-term combustion and to simulate longer-term carbon stock dynamics resulting from redistribution among biomass components following wildfire. We studied the impacts of a wildfire in 2009 that burnt temperate forest of tall, wet eucalypts in south-eastern Australia. Biomass combusted ranged from 40 to 58 tC ha−1, which represented 6–7% and 9–14% in low- and high-severity fire, respectively, of the pre-fire total biomass carbon stock. Pre-fire total stock ranged from 400 to 1040 tC ha−1 depending on forest age and disturbance history. An estimated 3.9 TgC was emitted from the 2009 fire within the forest region, representing 8.5% of total biomass carbon stock across the landscape. Carbon losses from combustion were large over hours to days during the wildfire, but from an ecosystem dynamics perspective, the proportion of total carbon stock combusted was relatively small. Furthermore, more than half the stock losses from combustion were derived from biomass components with short lifetimes. Most biomass remained on-site, although redistributed from living to dead components. Decomposition of these components and new regeneration constituted the greatest changes in carbon stocks over ensuing decades. A critical issue for carbon accounting policy arises because the timeframes of ecological processes of carbon stock change are longer than the periods for reporting GHG inventories for national emissions reductions targets. Carbon accounts should be comprehensive of all stock changes, but reporting against targets should be based on human-induced changes in carbon stocks to incentivise mitigation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unplanned fire is a major control on the nature of terrestrial ecosystems and causes substantial losses of life and property. Given the substantial influence of climatic conditions on fire incidence, climate change is expected to substantially change fire regimes in many parts of the world. We wished to determine whether it was possible to develop a deep neural network process for accurately estimating continental fire incidence from publicly available climate data. We show that deep recurrent Elman neural network was the best performed out of ten artificial neural networks (ANN) based cognitive imaging systems for determining the relationship between fire incidence and climate. In a decennium data experiment using this ANN we show that it is possible to develop highly accurate estimations of fire incidence from monthly climatic data surfaces. Our estimations for the continent of Australia had over 90% global accuracy and a very low level of false negatives. The technique is thus appropriate for use in estimating the spatial consequences of climate scenarios on the monthly incidence of wildfire at the landscape scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A data set of observed fire weather in Australia from 1973-2010 is analysed for trends using the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI). Annual cumulative FFDI, which integrates daily fire weather across the year, increased significantly at 16 of 38 stations. Annual 90th percentile FFDI increased significantly at 24 stations over the same period. None of the stations examined recorded a significant decrease in FFDI. There is an overall bias in the number of significant increases towards the southeast of the continent, while the largest trends occur in the interior of the continent and the smallest occur near the coast. The largest increases in seasonal FFDI occurred during spring and autumn, although with different spatial patterns, while summer recorded the fewest significant trends. These trends suggest increased fire weather conditions at many locations across Australia, due to both increased magnitude of FFDI and a lengthened fire season. Although these trends are consistent with projected impacts of climate change on FFDI, this study cannot separate the influence of climate change, if any, with that of natural variability. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across diverse ecosystems, greater climatic variability tends to increase wildfire size, particularly in Australia, where alternating wet-dry cycles increase vegetation growth, only to leave a dry overgrown landscape highly susceptible to fire spread. Aboriginal Australian hunting fires have been hypothesized to buffer such variability, mitigating mortality on small-mammal populations, which have suffered declines and extinctions in the arid zone coincident with Aboriginal depopulation. We test the hypothesis that the relationship between climate and fire size is buffered through the maintenance of an anthropogenic, fine-grained fire regime by comparing the effect of climatic variability on landscapes dominated by Martu Aboriginal hunting fires with those dominated by lightning fires. We show that Aboriginal fires are smaller, more tightly clustered, and remain small even when climate variation causes huge fires in the lightning region. As these effects likely benefit threatened small-mammal species. Aboriginal hunters should be considered trophic facilitators, and policies aimed at reducing the risk of large fires should promote land-management strategies consistent with Aboriginal burning regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the challenges faced by Rural Australian communities and the impact of climate change. Topic include emergency declared in New South Wales and Queensland; exposed to frequent and severe bushfires, floods and coastal cyclones, resulting in injuries, deaths, bereavements and post-traumatic stress disorders.

Smoke taint has become a prominent issue for the global wine industry as climate change continues to impact the length and extremity of fire seasons around the world. Although the issue has prompted a surge in research on the subject in recent years, no singular solution has yet been identified that is capable of maintaining the quality of wine made from smoke-affected grapes. In this review, we summarize the main research on smoke taint, the key discoveries, as well as the prevailing uncertainties. We also examine methods for mitigating smoke taint in the vineyard, in the winery, and post production. We assess the effectiveness of remediation methods (proposed and actual) based on available research. Our findings are in agreement with previous studies, suggesting that the most viable remedies for smoke taint are still the commercially available activated carbon fining and reverse osmosis treatments, but that the quality of the final treated wines is fundamentally dependent on the initial severity of the taint. In this review, suggestions for future studies are introduced for improving our understanding of methods that have thus far only been preliminarily investigated. We select regions that have already been subjected to severe wildfires, and therefore subjected to smoke taint (particularly Australia and California) as a case study to inform other wine-producing countries that will likely be impacted in the future and suggest specific data collection and policy implementation actions that should be taken, even in countries that have not yet been impacted by smoke taint. Ultimately, we streamline the available information on the topic of smoke taint, apply it to a global perspective that considers the various stakeholders involved, and provide a launching point for further research on the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]