Interface (urban-rural fringe) bushfire community safety

The aim of this book is to present an accessible collection of bushfire research dedicated to community safety, being undertaken within the Australian Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre (CRC). The work is mostly undertaken by researchers from the social sciences and humanities, including economics and law. As far as we know, this is the first collection of research work on bushfire from these disciplines. The volume complements the very extensive published material on bushfires from ecology, fire behaviour, information management and related areas. It is an interim report on our research to date. Our approach is to present the work in a way that is accessible to those responsible for bushfire risk management. This has guided our approach in obtaining feedback on each chapter from practitioners and in how the material is presented- as set out in the Acknowledgments. The research and review of the material for publication has been undertaken entirely in Australia. However, much of the material is generic in that it is likely to be relevant and useful to those dealing with bushfire community safety in other parts of the world. We follow Australian practice in using the term 'bushfire', regarding it as synonymous with 'wildfire', 'forest fire' and so on as far as community safety is concerned.