Client
Shire of Esperance
Location
Esperance, Western Australia
Key Services
Fire Management Planning
Outcome
This project aimed to document a coordinated and efficient approach towards the identification, assessment, and treatment of the priority assets exposed to bushfire risk within the Shire of Esperance. Our role in the project included the following:
- Undertaking a critical review of the Shire’s existing bushfire risk management plan
- Identifying priority human settlement, economic, and environmental assets
- Allocating a risk score and priority against each asset to help the Shire with prioritising the development of tenure-blind asset-specific bushfire treatment strategies in consultation with relevant stakeholders
We developed and implemented a risk assessment methodology for priority assets that included the following:
- Vulnerability of assets
- Ignition risk, including consideration of bushfire frequency and cause of ignition data
- Fuel hazard for major vegetation types surrounding assets
- Predicted fire behaviour based on identification of 95th percentile weather conditions, fuel types, age, and topography
- Bushfire response capacity considering location of suppression resources, water supplies, and vehicle access
- Value of assets that would be damaged or lost
