July 2014

Developing a risk assessment approach for forest fire: potential of the Wildfire Threat Analysis framework

This joint project, now completed, between the University of Manchester, Forestry Commission England and Forest Research tested the applicability of the New Zealand WTA system for assessing wildfire risk at a pilot scale in south-east England. Andy Moffat supported Forest Research colleagues in this project and helped to connect the study with the one he conducted in 2012 with Grant Pearce of Scion, New Zealand (see HERE). The new project was very successful in demonstrating the potential applicability of WTA to help evaluate wildfire risk, employing datasets available in the UK. It also used the Ecosystem Services Framework as a means of quantifying the consequences of wildfire. The project was valuable in bringing land managers and civil contingency professionals together to understand each other’s perspectives of wildfire risk. A presentation of the project can be found HERE and a summary HERE.