bushfires

A new, low-cost bushfire detection and monitoring system is being developed by University of Adelaide researchers using mobile communications technology. The same technology used to send SMS messages on mobile phones could be used to develop an efficient and cost-effective early warning message to authorities and people living in fire-risk areas, according to researchers from the University of Adelaide’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

The charred remains of a multi-million dollar mansion crumbled under Randall Griffin’s work boots. “The entire neighbourhood was burned to ashes,” he says. “There was literally one home left.” Now, less than two years after Griffin surveyed the aftermath of the wildfires that destroyed more than 3,000 homes in Southern California, USA, his group at the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate is testing a tent that could shield homes from the most ferocious fires.

Throughout February, a series of uncontrollable wildfires across Victoria killed more than 200 people and left communities in ruins. As local authorities determine how such a tragedy can be avoided in future, they are burdened with the truth that fires have been a natural part of the Australian ecosystem long before Western colonisation.

Scientists believe more bushfires generated by rising temperatures and lower rainfall will lead to lower air quality over a greater number of days in Australia, particularly in the south-east.

In a presentation to the GREENHOUSE 2009 conference in Perth today, CSIRO’s Dr Mick Meyer said measurements taken at the Bayside Air Quality Station in Melbourne’s south-east during the 2003 and 2006 bushfires provided a guide to what could be experienced as the climate changes.

Conserving Australia's most endangered snake might mean lighting more bushfires, ecologists have proposed. The last remaining populations of broad-headed snakes are being threatened by encroaching woodland that is destroying their habitat, a study by scientists from the University of Sydney and Stanford University (USA) has shown.