WOBO would like to thank Andrés Valencia Correa for the link to his article.
New Zealand has had a number of wildfires this season. It is clear that wildfire is becoming an increasing issue requiring a systematic research effort. In this context, WOBO would like to direct you to a recent article by Andrés Valencia Correa et. al. about wildfire research in New Zealand:
Figure 1. Modelling of fire-atmospheric interactions: a) Numerical simulation of wind turbulence associated using PALM and b) Simulation of wildfire behaviour using FDS.
Wildland-Urban Interface Fires in New Zealand: Current Situation and Forthcoming Research Projects
By: Andres Valencia-Correa, Lecturer at University of Canterbury, Marwan Katurji, Senior Lecturer at University of Canterbury, Jiawei Zhang, Postdoctoral associate at University of Canterbury
Introduction
During the last decade, more countries have become considerably affected by wildfire. In Europe for example, northern countries such as Sweden, Norway and Scotland realized that they are not immune to this phenomenon. In Australasia, recent exposure of New Zealand’s urban communities to destructive wildfires has prompted local researchers to design new multidisciplinary research projects, ultimately aiming to prepare New Zealand society to face more sever Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fires. This article briefly discusses the state of the problem and describe some of the current and upcoming local research projects around this topic.
The year 2020 was particularly devastating in terms human lives and property lost around the world. In Australia alone, 3000 houses were destroyed and 33 people killed during the catastrophic 2019/2020 fire season [1]. While in neighbouring New Zealand the level of destruction was not at the same scale, recent fire events set off the alarms and raised questions about how devastating future fire seasons will be, and how well prepared the country is to face it [2, 3]. 2016/2017 New Zealand WUI wildfire events, including Port Hills fire, resulted in the most destructive fire season in a century [4]. Very recently, Lake Ohau fire [5] showed a comparable destructive power. Those events alone might not be sufficient to define a significant trend, but considering the vulnerability of New Zealand to climate change [6, 7] and expansion of wildland-urban mixed environment [8], they constitute a clear sign of a new growing risk that needs to be addressed. Increasing of climate severity (e.g. hotter and dryer seasons) in New Zealand will potentially result in more intense and frequent fires, due to factors such as dryer fuel vegetation and greater wind speeds. Likewise, expansion of urban presence in wildland environments will considerably increase the potential damage of fires and is expected to raise the likelihood of vegetation ignition.