CANBERRA, Australia — Amid raging wildfires across Europe, Australian researchers and emergency services say a combination of Indigenous land management practices and modern technology is helping the country get better prepared for and respond to worsening bushfires.
Professor Marta Yebra, director of Australia’s Bushfire Research Centre of Excellence, has been working for years to develop tools that bring together satellite imagery, drones and artificial intelligence with the practical knowledge of firefighters and Indigenous communities.
The centre was created in the wake of Australia’s devastating 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires, which burnt an area roughly the size of the UK and prompted renewed efforts to improve bushfire resilience.
Yebra is developing a project that uses satellite observations and Indigenous ecological knowledge to identify landscapes that are more likely to burn.
Satellite data measures fuel moisture levels across vegetation, helping researchers identify where dry leaves, grasses, shrubs and other combustible materials have built up. But Yebra says satellite imagery alone can’t provide a complete picture of conditions on the ground.
That gap is plugged by working with Indigenous land managers, such as Adrian Webster, who grew up on the south coast of New South Wales and learnt to read the landscape from community elders.
Webster uses environmental indicators such as plant colour, scent, tree cover and soil conditions to verify satellite data and to pinpoint areas that are vulnerable to fire.
Yebra said the results of the satellite comparison with Webster’s field assessments have been “pretty good” with strong agreement overall and a clear example of the value of combining Indigenous knowledge and scientific data.
The research team is looking to expand the project through securing more funding and partnering with Indigenous communities to co-design long-term land and fire management strategies.
Cultural Burning and Fire Management
For thousands of years, Indigenous communities in Australia have used fire as a land management tool, known as cultural burning. This involves the use of carefully managed, low-intensity fires that reduce the build-up of vegetation while also supporting the health of the ecosystem.
These controlled “cool burns” create a mosaic of burnt and unburned areas, limiting the build-up of fuel that can feed larger wildfires.
Yebra said this entrenched cultural approach differs from land management traditions in much of Europe, where wildfire scientists have cited decades of fuel accumulation as one of the reasons for increasingly destructive fires.
“Australia’s experience has contributed to a broader change in bushfire management, from reacting to fires when they are burning to identifying risks earlier through monitoring and prevention,” she argues.
“The sooner we can detect a risk or an ignition, the more options firefighters have,” she said.
Webster said routine fuel reduction had long been a key part of Indigenous fire management. "The longer you leave it, the more fuel there is to burn, so the fire is naturally going to be bigger and harder to put out," he said.
Modern Operations Meets Traditional Practices
In addition to cultural burning, Australian fire agencies undertake prescribed burning (locally called hazard reduction burning) to lower fuel loads in the run-up to peak fire season.
As our suburbs expand and more people live in bushfire-prone areas, operations are becoming increasingly important, Fire and Rescue NSW's Andrew Shurety said.
But changing weather patterns, including longer fire seasons and wetter conditions during cooler months, have reduced opportunities for safe prescribed burns, he said.
Backburning, a method of setting deliberate, controlled fires ahead of a wildfire to remove fuel and slow its advance, is also commonly used by firefighters in Australia.
Queensland firefighter Damian Hatfield said he saw increasing international interest in the technique while helping with wildfire operations in Alberta, Canada, where backburning became more widely integrated into firefighting strategies following earlier fire seasons.
Technology is also changing front-line operations.
“Drones now mean that crews can rapidly assess fire behaviour before larger aircraft arrive,” said Trent Curtin of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service. They are also used to carry equipment, start backburns in some operations and assess damage after fires.
Getting ready for upcoming fire seasons
Researchers and emergency services are closely monitoring conditions ahead of Australia’s next bushfire season.
Yebra said the forecasts of a strong El Niño pattern could increase the likelihood of extreme heat, drought and severe bushfires in parts of Australia.
Agencies are preparing for another potentially difficult season, with Australian fire seasons starting earlier and lasting longer than in previous decades, said Jason Heffernan, chief officer with Victoria’s Country Fire Authority.
He also emphasised the importance of international cooperation, saying wildfire agencies are increasingly relying on trusted international partnerships as large fires become more common in different parts of the world.
Australia regularly sends specialist firefighters to countries such as the United States and Canada. More recently, France looked to Australia for help as it battled severe wildfires during a summer heatwave.
That kind of collaboration, Heffernan said, is becoming increasingly important as wildfire threats move into places that have seen fewer big fires in the past.
“Forests and climates are different all over the world,” he said, “but we are seeing bushfires in places that have historically had very little wildfire activity.
