Att3 - Bushfire Report

Bushfire Hazard Assessment & Management Plan v1                                                                   NCES REF: J001061
Lot 7 on RP216403, Lot 394 on M371117, and Lot 650 on M37380 – 48-59 Kabi Road, Cootharaba



3          HAZARD ASSESSMENT

3.1        Hazard Assessment Methodology
The Noosa Planning Scheme requires that a site-specific bushfire hazard assessment be prepared
to assess the degree of bushfire hazard on a site captured within a mapped Designated Bushfire
Hazard Area. The SPP Bushfire Prone Area mapping prevails over the Noosa Bushfire Hazard Area
mapping with respect to the currency of the methodology adopted to prepare the mapping.
Accordingly, the site-specific hazard mapping required is to be prepared consistent with the
methodology adopted to prepare the SPP mapping.
The methodology used to prepare the SPP mapping is described in:
       •     Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning’s Natural Hazards, Risk and
             Resilience –– Bushfire (December 2019) State Planning Policy – state interest guidance
             material; and
       •     Queensland Fire and Emergency Services - (2019) Planning for Bushfire Resilient
             Communities.
Site-specific hazard maps are referred to as Local Hazard Area Maps in the SPP documents. The
preparation of Local Hazard Area Maps has been undertaken for the site in accordance with the
methodology described in the above referenced documents.

3.1.1        Local Hazard Area Map
A Local Hazard Area Map was prepared by adopting the following methodology:
       •     Categorizing the vegetation within the site in accordance with the vegetation hazard classes
             derived from QFES (2019);
       •     Using the patch and corridor filtering process to remove narrow corridors and small patches
             of VHC’s1;
       •     Subdividing the identified vegetation hazard classes into bushfire hazard sub-units based on
             slope differences and vegetation hazard classes. All upslope and across slope vegetation
             units are allocated an underlying slope of 1 degree as per methodology prescribed within
             Queensland Fire and Emergency Services - (2019) Planning for Bushfire Resilient
             Communities. The maximal slope recorded within 25m x 25m grids within the VHC’s is
             adopted as the effective slope underlying the VHC. A conservative approach is adopted
             where multiple slopes persist within VHC’s;
       •     Assigning SPP Potential Bushfire Intensity classes to the sub-units;
       •     Application of 100m Potential Impact Buffers to the amended sub-units to derive an overall
             Local Hazard Area Map.




1
  The patch and corridor filtering process to remove or downgrade hazard levels of small patches and narrow corridors involves the
following three stages:
       •     Merging small patches of a single Vegetation Hazard Class less than 0.5 ha;
       •     Merging small Vegetation Hazard Class patches between 0.5 and 1 ha with higher or moderate fuel loads (greater than 8
             tonnes/ha); and
       •     Removing narrow corridors of vegetation less than 50m wide through a process of patch erosion and dilation. These small
             patches are merged with surrounding vegetation by allocating a patch to the Vegetation Hazard Class that is most common to
             the patch boundary (Leonard et al., 2017).




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