Att 2 - BAL Report

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                                                                                    www.bushfireassessmentqld.com.au
                                                                                                 Phone: 0418 799 818


2.3. Field Verification

A site assessment was conducted by Darshana Soundararajah of Bushfire Assessment Queensland on the
26th of April 2023. The site inspection was conducted to make a visual assessment of the subject site, and
surrounds and quantitatively assess the bushfire hazard, slope, aspect, vegetation, and associated risk. The
field assessment and report have been reviewed by Danielle Steele of Bushfire Assessment Queensland
(BPAD Accredited Practitioner No. 38525).




     3. BUSHFIRE ATTACK LEVEL ASSESSMENT RESULTS

The following sections describe in detail the results of the site-specific bushfire attack level assessment and
inputs used for the BAL calculations.

3.1. Assessment of fire Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI)

Fire Danger Index (FDI) is a measure of many variables that originate from weather that are known to
influence fire behaviour such as recent rainfall, current wind speed and direction, relative humidity, and
temperature. Due to the complexity of these variables, they are commonly combined to provide a single
weather index that can be used to estimate potential fire behaviour. The McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index
(FFDI) is a commonly used fire weather index adopted by fire authorities in Australia and used in regulatory
instruments (e.g. AS 3959-2018).

AS 3959-2018 prescribes an FDI of 40 for the state of Queensland. However, this index does not account
for weather variations across Queensland, it also does not account for climate change projections. Climate
change projections indicate that the impacts from bushfire will increase. Climate change projections for an
A1F1 climate scenario (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) were integrated into SPP mapping of
bushfire prone areas to reflect the expected climate in 2050, incorporating a 5% annual exceedance
probability (EAP) fire weather event FFDI, and giving a Fire Weather Severity (FWS) per Bushfire Resilient
Communities. As such, location specific FWS values were obtained via QSpatial and determined to be a
value of 47 for the subject site.

3.2. Assessment of Slope

Maximum Landscape Slope is an important variable in determining a fire’s rate of spread, rate of fuel
consumption, and thus potential fire-line intensity. Slopes were verified via site assessment using a Nikon
Forestry Pro Laser Rangefinder. SPP mapping values were used in areas where vegetation was inaccessible
for an accurate slope measurement to be taken. The slopes observed onsite were generally consistent with
the SPP’s BPA Inputs Maximum Landscape Slope data obtained via the Queensland Spatial Catalogue, refer
Figure 3 and Table 2.




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