ARDC Bushfire Data Challenges
Spark Research: A fire behaviour modelling platform
The Spark Research: A fire behaviour modelling platform project is part of the Bushfire Data Challenges program, supported by the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), which is developing innovative digital infrastructure solutions with the aim of improving Australia’s bushfire resilience, response and recovery.
The challenge
The ability to understand and predict bushfire behaviour is an ongoing challenge. Even more so when there is no common testing platform that provides researchers the opportunity to bridge the gap from data acquisition, processing and modelling to operation and risk analysis.
The response
Engaging with multi-disciplinary project groups within the Bushfire Data Challenges program and built-in collaboration with a range of disciplines, including computation scientists for effective implementation of propagation models, fire scientist for fire behaviour knowledge, statisticians for effective analysis and software engineers to optimize efficiency of the system – CSIRO with support from ARDC and Minderoo has developed Spark Research: A fire behaviour modelling platform.
The results
Hosted on ARDC’s Nectar Research Cloud, Spark Research can be accessed by AAF affiliate institutions and provides researchers a collaborative and open environment whereby new types of experimental data, analytics and model data can be tested, evaluated and adopted for operational use.
Research outputs could inform:
- Land management and fuel reduction burning
- Reconstruction of historical fire events
- Ecological impacts and fire regime studies
- Suppression strategy analysis.
Resources
- Website: Spark Research: A fire behaviour modelling platform
- For researchers without AAF access, please contact the Spark Team.
- User Guide: 2023_SparkWeb_UserGuide.pdf
- ARDC BDC Forum Presentations
