Case studies explore the impact of fire regimes on vegetation structure and fuel risk in Southeast Queensland, Australia. High intensity wildfires and asset protection burns can promote excessive shrub and sapling densities, increasing elevated fuel loads. We recommend burns are done under moist, mild conditions to maintain an open forest structure and minimise fire hazard.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire and Climate.

Wildfire likelihood is quantified in a computationally efficient manner using a multi-scale ‘neighbourhood index’. This is achieved by aggregating fire behaviour properties across multiple neighbourhood scales. The index is much more computationally efficient than alternative approaches and considers contagious and directionally specific fire behaviour properties across multiple spatial ‘neighbourhood’ scales.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire & Climate.

We describe an online mapping tool, SoCal EcoServe (https://manzanita.forestry.oregonstate.edu/EcoServeHome/) to estimate wildfire impacts on ecosystem services in shrub-dominated southern California. We describe the methodology and results using the Alisal Fire. The tool is designed to support post-fire damage assessments and restoration decision-making by resource managers.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire and Climate.

This paper explores the relationships between the major forces influencing Australian weather and climate, and the chance of severe fire seasons. The findings could be valuable in decision making and preparation for upcoming fire seasons to avoid more seasons with devastating outcomes such as the 2019–2020 Black Summer.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire and Climate.

McArthur’s Drought Factor and the Keetch–Byram Drought Index are higher than normal on days with fires in Victoria, Australia. These metrics provide a more reliable indication of fire potential in high-rainfall areas than in lower-rainfall areas.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire and Climate.

Rothermel’s model continues to underpin many operational fire models. However, a possible oversensitivity to fuel depth has previously been observed. An existing dataset of flame spread experiments in pine needle beds is used to evaluate the effect of fuel structure on predictions of spread rate and reaction intensity.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire and Climate.

Australia and the United States have experienced repeated, catastrophic fires in recent years, triggering state-level law and policy reforms to promote prescribed burning, including on private land. We highlight important themes in recent legislation and recommend that both countries learn from reform efforts elsewhere as fire regimes continue to change.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire and Climate.