Quantifying bushfire penetration into urban areas in Australia.
Open accessAbstract
The extent and trajectory of bushfire penetration at the bushland‐urban interface are quantified using data from major historical fires in Australia. We find that the maximum distance at which homes are destroyed is typically less than 700 m. The probability of home destruction emerges as a simple linear and decreasing function of distance from the bushland‐urban boundary but with a variable slope that presumably depends upon fire regime and human intervention. The collective data suggest that the probability of home destruction at the forest edge is around 60%. Spatial patterns of destroyed homes display significant neighbourhood clustering. Our results provide revealing spatial evidence for estimating fire risk to properties and suggest an ember‐attack model.
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Fuel management close to houses was more effective than fuel management further from houses can be explained by the behaviour of embers and radiant heat-the principal causes of house loss during wildfires.
“Our finding that fuel management close to houses was more effective than fuel management further from houses can be explained by the behaviour of embers and radiant heat—the principal causes of house loss during wildfires [20], [22], [27].”
From Land Management Practices Associated with House Loss in Wildfires (2012) · cites this paper as [27]
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- Authors
- Chen, K., & McAneney, J.
- Affiliations
- Macquarie University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Keping
- ORCID
- McAneney, John
- Venue
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2004-06
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 12
- ISSN
- 0094-8276 (ISSN-L)
- 1944-8007
- OpenAlex
- W2087295820
- Cited by
- 67
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Geophysical Research Letters (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Disaster Management and Resilience
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality › Fire dynamics and safety research
- Keywords
- bushfires, urban fire spread, home destruction, fire regimes, Australia
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