3 OCT 2018 - 07:59 CET

Prof. Cristina Montiel began her sabbatical leave visiting the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne (Australia) under the sponsorship of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (Sub-programme for International Mobility, within the National Programme to Promote talent and its employability). As a Visiting Academic, she will carry-out a research project entitled "New governance mechanisms for fire risk management: community preparedness and landscape resilience", in cooperation with Prof. Beilin and her research group. The research will focus on the theoretical perspectives of fire management in social sciences, and on the socio-ecological dimmension of wildfires from a systemic and multi-scale approach.

The field work was launched in the Eastern metropolitan area of Melbourne (Gembrook and surrondings), conducted by Roger Strickland (Senior Instructor, Planned Burn Co-ordinator at Country Fire Authority of the State of Victoria) and Jim McLennan (Bushfire Safety Researcher and Adjunct Professor in the School of Psychology and Public Health of La Trobe University). The eastern metropolitan area of Melbourne is a high residential land-use and public recreational use area -particularly in Kurth Kiln Regional Park- which was stricken by a large wildfire in 1997 and also the 2009 Australian "Black Saturday". Here, prescribed burning is used for fuel control and for vulnerability mitigation of most sensitive assets to fire risk, like schools and other human settlements. From a social-spatial approach, this is a typical fire scenario of periurban area, fire-prone to second and fourth wildfire generations.

More information: University of Melbourne

EcoEzine Newsletter, October2018