Bushfire Data Challenges

The Challenge

The unprecedented 2019/2020 Australian bushfires showed in full force the devastating impact bushfires can have on the natural landscape, the built environment and human health.

To protect our environment and communities, respond effectively to bushfires, and recover from them in the future, the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements (2020) recommended supporting better decision making through the sharing of data.

The Approach

In partnership with the bushfire community, the ARDC has invested in developing innovative digital infrastructure solutions with the aim of improving Australia’s bushfire resilience, response and recovery.

We took a participatory design approach to developing projects within the Bushfire Data Challenges program. This facilitated collaborative partnerships between government agencies, industry, research institutes and other relevant stakeholders.

The Bushfire Data Challenges program was established as part of the ARDC’s Translational Research Data Challenges initiative to provide innovative and high-impact digital infrastructure solutions to real-world problems.

Collaboration

Over 14 months, we conducted targeted consultations including a series of facilitation meetings and participatory design workshops with 151 stakeholders. This process captured priority areas for national digital research infrastructure to address data challenges around Australia’s resilience and response to bushfires, and aid our recovery.

The ARDC convened key national stakeholders from the research and public sectors to design a national data capability that spans research, development and operational planning, response and recovery.

Our systematic consultation process identified areas for national digital research infrastructure, including:

• fuel data
• health data
• data governance
• a bushfire data commons. 

Projects were rolled out in these areas to benefit people involved in bushfire research, development, planning and response and, ultimately, all Australian citizens.

The Outcomes

Thirteen projects were undertaken to build comprehensive national data assets and create a shared bushfire modelling environment to support research, development, planning and response in the identified areas. These projects have now been completed, having:

• established new or improved existing data collections
• adopted platform solutions (or elements thereof) that enable researchers to collect or generate data, analyse data and produce FAIR output data
• used underpinning infrastructure to store, access and analyse data
• created legal, governance, policy, technology, collaboration and participation frameworks to enable success.

Learn more about these projects and access their outputs:

Aggregated and Harmonised Burnt Extent Fire History Data on a National Scale

Exploreabout Aggregated and Harmonised Burnt Extent Fire History Data on a National Scale

Aggregating and Harmonising Fuel Data on a National Scale

Exploreabout Aggregating and Harmonising Fuel Data on a National Scale

Improving Remote Sensing of Fuel Data on a National Scale

Exploreabout Improving Remote Sensing of Fuel Data on a National Scale

A Fire Behaviour Modelling Platform

Exploreabout A Fire Behaviour Modelling Platform

Framework for Sharing Bushfire Data and Tools Between Jurisdictional Agencies

Exploreabout Framework for Sharing Bushfire Data and Tools Between Jurisdictional Agencies

Aggregated and Harmonised Fuel Data on a National Scale

Exploreabout Aggregated and Harmonised Fuel Data on a National Scale

Bushfire Research Data Management Plans

Exploreabout Bushfire Research Data Management Plans

Assessing the Impact of Bushfire Smoke on Health

Exploreabout Assessing the Impact of Bushfire Smoke on Health

Aggregating and Integrating Data on Health Outcomes Associated with Bushfires at a National Scale

Exploreabout Aggregating and Integrating Data on Health Outcomes Associated with Bushfires at a National Scale

Curated Biodiversity Data for Rapid Assessment of Bushfire Impacts

Exploreabout Curated Biodiversity Data for Rapid Assessment of Bushfire Impacts

Establishing an Australian Reference Genome Atlas and Leadership Application in Bushfire Data

Exploreabout Establishing an Australian Reference Genome Atlas and Leadership Application in Bushfire Data

Development of a Traits Database and Vulnerability Framework to Assess Fire Susceptibility of Australian Invertebrate Species

Exploreabout Development of a Traits Database and Vulnerability Framework to Assess Fire Susceptibility of Australian Invertebrate Species

Bushfire Data Access and Impact Modelling Platform

Exploreabout Bushfire Data Access and Impact Modelling Platform