Tim Gazzard

September 25th, 2024

Tim has been a Bushfire Risk Team Leader within the Barwon South West Area of Victoria for Forest Fire Management Victoria since 2018. His team is responsible for the development of long-term forest and fire management strategies at a landscape level. Tim is actively involved in bushfire suppression activities with over 20 years of operational experience in Australia and North America.

Innovation Title:
Using AI to support bushfire tactical response in a changing climate.
Abstract:
Damaging bushfire days have been increasing in many parts of Australia over the last several decades. This pattern is forecast to rise under a changing climate. These changing patterns of bushfire weather, necessitate the continual evolution of fire agency systems, data collection methodologies, spatial and temporal datasets and modelling approaches.
This presentation will provide a summary of four current projects that aim to assist Victorian fire agencies in making more informed decisions either leading up to, or on bad fire days. Specifically, we will cover the application of machine learning to a range of domains including:
  • The prediction of dead fuel moisture content (a critical parameter associated with fuel availability and bushfire fire spread)
  • The identification of locations where lightning strikes have a higher probability of fire ignition and
  • The identification of smoke sightings using remote sensing technologies.