@article {bnh-7240, title = {Effects of the January 2020 bushfires on estuarine systems of Kangaroo Island: post event field data collection}, number = {603}, year = {2020}, month = {08/2020}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The 2020 summer bushfires on Kangaroo Island were the largest in the Island{\textquoteright}s recorded history, with over 200,000 hectares and more than 40 \% of the island burnt (DEW, 2020). The impacts of these bushfires will not be confined to the terrestrial landscape and are likely to have substantial detrimental impacts on the island{\textquoteright}s aquatic systems, particularly after rainfall.

Post-fire exposed soils are highly erodible, and therefore intense precipitation events or seasonal rainfall can result in the runoff of nutrients and ash enriched sediments, debris and other products of combustion into waterways. These runoff events, allied to heavy sedimentation, can lead to deteriorating water quality, potentially triggering eutrophication, low oxygen events, and compromise aquatic fauna. In addition, contaminants, including trace elements and products of combustion such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can also enter waterways (Olivella et al 2006, Shakesby and Doerr, 2006, Smith et al 2011, Sequeira et al 2020).

One area of concern in Kangaroo Island are the estuarine systems downstream or adjacent to burnt areas. Despite the ecological importance of estuarine environments and the multiple ecosystem functions they provide (including nursery grounds for juvenile fish), the impacts of bushfires in estuaries are yet to be investigated. Furthermore, because estuarine systems in Kangaroo island are not permanently open to the sea, the impacts of accumulated soot, ash and sediment channelled into estuaries could be exacerbated, and have the potential to disrupt complex ecological and biogeochemical cycles, increase contaminant loadings and result in pervasive effects for local fish communities. Ultimately, there are substantial knowledge gaps in our understanding of water quality impacts and mobilisation of heavy metals and isotopes in the aftermath of bushfires in estuaries, and these add to the lack of understanding of the ecology and geochemistry of estuaries in South Australia.

In this context, the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, via the their quick response funding, provided financial support for travel-related expenses to undertake surveys on Kangaroo Island in estuaries within areas directly affected by this unprecedented bushfire season, and control sites outside these areas. These sampling events are part of broader research where in the long term, we aim to evaluate the impacts of bushfires on estuarine water quality and on estuarine fish, as well as trace the mobilisation and fluxes of contaminants released by bushfires into estuarine systems.

}, keywords = {Bushfire, data collection, estuarine system, kangaroo island}, issn = {603}, author = {Patrick Reis-Santos and Bronwyn Gillanders} } @conference {bnh-6527, title = {Fuels3D: barking up the wrong tree and beyond}, booktitle = {AFAC19 powered by INTERSCHUTZ - Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC Research Forum}, year = {2019}, month = {12/2019}, publisher = {Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience}, organization = {Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Improvement of the understanding of how fuel characteristics correlate with fire behaviour and severity is critical to the ongoing handling of risk and recovery in fire-prone environments. Current standards and protocols for describing fuel hazard (for example, {\textquoteleft}Overall Fuel Hazard Assessment Guide{\textquoteright}, Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment) and post-burn severity (for example, {\textquoteleft}Fire Severity Assessment Guide{\textquoteright}, Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment) were written for collection of information in the field. The data collected are largely subjective descriptions of the landscape. The ability of information from these assessment techniques to be adapted to modern risk assessment tools such as fire behavior models, or for the calibration and validation of datasets, is limited. Quantitative data-rich methods of measuring and assessing fuel load and structure are the missing link between the knowledge of land management personnel in the field, and the model drivers and decision makers at organizational level.

Handheld devices with high quality sensors, in the form of offthe-shelf cameras, are increasingly ubiquitous, as is the availability of 3D point cloud data collected from active sensing instruments on terrestrial and aerial platforms. Rapid and comprehensive capture of information by these devices, coupled with the use of computer vision techniques, allows for the 3D description of the surrounding environment to be exploited to provide robust measurement of metrics that can be built into existing fuel hazard assessment frameworks. Providing key metrics as data products rather than a single product enables flexibility across jurisdictions and ecosystem types, and capacity to adapt as end-user requirements change.

The Fuels3D project has created a suite of tools and methods for image capture in the field during fuel hazard assessments. 3D point clouds are generated using computer vision and photogrammetry techniques. From these 3D point clouds, scale is added, and decision rules are programmed to calculate quantifiable surface / near-surface metrics that replicate those
used in current fuel hazard visual assessment guides. Case studies are highlighted here.

Download the full non-peer reviewed research proceedings\ from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC Research Forumhere.

}, keywords = {data collection, Fire behaviour, fuel hazard, risk management, technology}, url = {https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/australian-journal-of-emergency-management-monograph-series/}, author = {Karin Reinke and Luke Wallace and Samuel Hillman and Bryan Hally and Simon Jones} } @article {bnh-5394, title = {Crowdsourcing Methods for Data Collection in Geophysics: State of the Art, Issues, and Future Directions}, journal = {Reviews of Geophysics}, volume = {56}, year = {2018}, month = {12/2018}, chapter = {698}, abstract = {

Data are essential in all areas of geophysics. They are used to better understand and manage systems, either directly or via models. Given the complexity and spatiotemporal variability of geophysical systems (e.g., precipitation), a lack of sufficient data is a perennial problem, which is exacerbated by various drivers, such as climate change and urbanization. In recent years, crowdsourcing has become increasingly prominent as a means of supplementing data obtained from more traditional sources, particularly due to its relatively low implementation cost and ability to increase the spatial and/or temporal resolution of data significantly. Given the proliferation of different crowdsourcing methods in geophysics and the promise they have shown, it is timely to assess the state of the art in this field, to identify potential issues and map out a way forward. In this paper, crowdsourcing-based data acquisition methods that have been used in seven domains of geophysics, including weather, precipitation, air pollution, geography, ecology, surface water, and natural hazard management, are discussed based on a review of 162 papers. In addition, a novel framework for categorizing these methods is introduced and applied to the methods used in the seven domains of geophysics considered in this review. This paper also features a review of 93 papers dealing with issues that are common to data acquisition methods in different domains of geophysics, including the management of crowdsourcing projects, data quality, data processing, and data privacy. In each of these areas, the current status is discussed and challenges and future directions are outlined.

}, keywords = {big data, categorisation, crowdsourcing, data collection, geophysics}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2018RG000616}, url = {https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018RG000616}, author = {Feifei Zheng and Ruoling Tao and Holger Maier and Linda See and Dragan Savic and Tuqiao Zhang and Qiuwen Chang and Thaine H. Assump{\c c}{\~a}o and Pan Yang and Bardia Heidari and J{\"o}rg Rieckermann and Barbara Minsker and Weiwei Bi and Ximing Cai and Dimitri Solomatine and Ioana Popescu} }