New insights into rural fire risk

University of Canterbury (UC) students George Hamilton and Renee Martin were part of a team that examined the effects of factors such as fuel load, vegetation type, and proximity, on fire risk.

The research focused on identifying and mapping hedgerows and shelterbelts in rural Canterbury, analysing their characteristics, and understanding how these features influence fire behaviour.

Hamilton says the research is personal to him.

“My childhood neighbour’s house burnt down due to a hedgerow fire that spread for two kilometres,” he says. “That experience stayed with me and motivated my interest in this topic.”

Supervised by Associate Professor Marwan Katurji from UC’s School of Earth and Environment, the students began by mapping West Melton hedgerows and shelterbelts to understand their geospatial relationship with infrastructure.

Katurji says the project is contributing to understanding of the risk of wildfire in household environments, using fuel distribution and potential fire behaviour to inform safe living.

“The pilot research aligns well with Fire and Emergency's ongoing national wildfire threat analysis programme. Identifying new fuel types in our rural-urban landscape will help in fire behaviour prediction and firefighting resource allocation.”

Meanwhile, Hamilton says Canterbury has a significant number of hedgerows and shelterbelts near rural infrastructure but, despite this, there is limited research on their role in fire risk.

Part of the research project was to create mitigation strategies based on their findings, Martin explains. 

“We discovered that native plantings, creating breaks in shelterbelts and planting hedgerows and shelterbelts further from buildings are key to reducing fire risk,” she says.  

In addition to this the team created a risk index to help identify high-risk areas.

“By understanding the patterns and characteristics of hedgerows, communities can reduce fire impact before it starts and respond quicker when fires start,” Hamilton concludes.