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CFA is investing in research, innovation and technology to help fire agencies keep pace with increasingly complex emergency management challenges.
These challenges include climate change and growing community expectations and with rapid technological change occurring across the sector, it is important to understand what the landscape of fire risk will look like across Victoria into the future.
Head of Research, Innovation & Predictive Capability at CFA, Sarah Harris, presented at this year's AFAC conference all about these changes and how research and innovation can help protect both the landscapes of Victoria and the people that live here.
Sarah said research and development play a critical role in fire services.
“Developing research is helping agencies anticipate emerging risks, improve decision-making and develop innovative approaches across prevention, preparedness, response and recovery,” she said.
The challenges are mounting on several fronts and Sarah said things would only continue to become more complex as time goes on.
“Climate change is altering fire behaviour and extending risk periods,” Sarah said.
“Communities expect more from emergency services than ever before and multi-agency coordination requirements are growing.
“The pace of technological advancement means agencies must continually adapt.”
CFA’s response combines externally funded research partnerships with internally developed scientific capability, aimed squarely at producing practical, operationally relevant outcomes rather than research for its own sake.
Some examples of successful research to operations initiatives at CFA include turning data into statewide curing maps, using data from experimental burns to improve fire behaviour models, understanding how communities receive and act on our messaging to improve engagement, and reconstructing significant fire events to identify lessons and strengthen future operational decision-making and performance.
“By investing in research and innovation, CFA is strengthening its ability to anticipate future challenges, optimise operational performance and build safer, more resilient communities,” Sarah said.