Bushfire Research Update: Selected Papers 2025 – Part 2

The Interagency Bushfire Operations Committee (IBOC) Bushfire Research Subcommittee continually reviews new bushfire research and publishes plain‑language summaries to ensure the latest findings are accessible to fire managers, partner organisations, decision‑makers and the broader community.

Published between August and December 2025, eight peer-reviewed papers were selected for their relevance to fire management in Western Australia.

The selection process was guided by the Western Australia Bushfire Research Priorities, and aligns with the following research priority themes:

• Theme 1: Managing bushfire risk and supporting planned burning
• Theme 2: Fire impacts on biodiversity
• Theme 4: Building community resilience
• Theme 5: Improving operational effectiveness

Key themes explored in these papers include:

• Predictive factors that influence peat ignition
• Practitioner perspectives on fuel-break design and management
• Investment approaches for bushfire mitigation
• Long-term declining trends in groundwater levels and stream flow in southern forest catchments
• A global review of community resilience to bushfire
• New satellite technology capable of providing near real time fire behaviour metrics such as rate of spread and burnt area progression

The Selected Papers of Interest are available under Bushfire Research on the Bushfire Centre of Excellence webpage.

For more information, contact bcoeresearch@dfes.wa.gov.au.

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