What is bushfire risk?

Bushfire risk is the likelihood of a fire starting, spreading and impacting on people, property and the environment – the things we care about most.

Victoria is particularly susceptible to large, intense bushfires which can spread up to 30 km or more across landscapes. This is due to Victoria's terrain, naturally flammable vegetation and frequent exposure to hot, dry, windy weather.

Factors which affect bushfire risk include the type and condition of fuels, weather, topography, the location of people and assets, as well as our ability to prevent fires from igniting and suppress them once they have started. Reducing the impacts of bushfires is challenging because we don't know exactly when and where they will occur.

However, we can model how bushfires start and spread in the landscape with simulation software, Phoenix RapidFire, developed specifically for Victoria. Phoenix RapidFire uses information about weather, topography, vegetation and fire history, to simulate and predict the spread and impact of bushfires and help us understand bushfire behaviour – including flame height, ember density, spotting distance, convection column strength and intensity.

Using these simulations we can understand how bushfires are likely to behave, and how assets and values might be impacted by bushfires.

Image of firefighters at sunset by Paul Hitch

© Paul Hitch

Our changing risk

Victoria's bushfire risk profile tells a story of how bushfire risk changes over time, based on bushfire history and our fuel management activities.

The figure below shows Victoria's bushfire risk profile from 1980 to 2021 and its forecast risk to 2024. We use this information to predict how our future planned burning will change risk and to compare the effectiveness of different bushfire management strategies.

The figure shows Victoria’s bushfire risk has decreased from last year. The decrease is due to fuel reduction from the combination of planned burning and the bushfire season offsetting the regrowth in fuels since last year. Due to minimal bushfire activity in 2020–21, the majority of risk reduction during this period was attributable to planned burning.

Victoria's bushfire risk profile, 1980–2024

How we measure estimated risk

Using Phoenix RapidFire we simulate over 9,000 bushfires across Victoria under conditions of highest fuel in the landscape.

We estimate the average impacts on life and property based on these simulations.

We then simulate a second set of bushfires, under conditions which include planned burning and earlier bushfires in the landscape, and estimate the reduced impact on properties.

The impacts on life and property that remain after planned burning and bushfires, we call the  'risk'.

If estimated risk is 100 per cent – there has been no fire in the landscape and no fuel reduced and we are at maximum risk where fires will spread and impact. If estimated risk is at 70 per cent – the impacts on life and property will be reduced by about a third.

Read more about how we are measuring bushfire risk in Victoria.

Measuring Bushfire Risk in Victoria [PDF File - 563.7 KB]
Measuring Bushfire Risk in Victoria [MS Word Document - 25.6 KB]

Managing fuel loads in both remote places and close to towns

For fuel management on public land, the government will set a statewide target to maintain bushfire risk at, or below, 70 per cent of Victoria’s maximum bushfire risk. Based on the current assessment of risk, this will involve treating approximately 200,00 hectares per year. Where and how much land needs to be treated to keep bushfire risk at or below 70% will vary each year based on fire history, fuel loads and climate.

Under our integrated, risk-based approach, fuel management such as planned burning will be conducted in all parts of the landscape – around towns and assets and in the back country.

Modelling shows that we can significantly reduce risk through fuel management in remote areas. Knowing where fires are likely to start means we can reduce fuel loads and stop small fires from building momentum and spreading. This stops them from becoming major bushfires and gives our fire agencies a greater opportunity to control them before they affect our communities.

Risk beyond life and property - other assets and values

It is important to understand the impacts of bushfires to not only life and property, but to infrastructure, the environment, businesses and communities. Many people and industries – including asthma sufferers, grape growers and bee keepers – and many native plants and animals are vulnerable to bushfires and can be affected by planned burning.

We are developing ways to measure the costs and benefits of different bushfire risk reduction strategies on the things we value – both how effective they are at reducing risk and their impacts.

This includes impacts on lives, property, critical and community infrastructure, businesses, cultural heritage, ecological resilience, biodiversity including threatened species, and ecosystem services, such as water, landscape amenity, carbon and climate moderation including smoke. Understanding these impacts is important to ensure our bushfire management actions keep Victorians safe without creating unnecessary impacts on the things we value most.

Regional risk

We can measure bushfire risk for the whole of Victoria and at local regional scales. Bushfire Risk Regions are geographical areas of Victoria that are grouped together because bushfires tend to behave in a similar way in those locations. There are seven regions across Victoria and we strategically plan for bushfire management in each region.

We need to manage each region differently so that our actions meet the unique needs of local communities and ecosystems.

Bushfire risk is not evenly distributed across all seven risk regions. The amount of bushfire risk in a region is related to where communities and assets are located, the size of those communities, the types and arrangements of vegetation (fuel) and topography. Not all communities at highest risk from bushfires are located immediately adjacent to forests and other vegetation.

This map shows the residual risk in each region throughout Victoria.

Bushfire risk across the state of Victoria in 2020-21. Statewide risk was 63%, Loddon Mallee region was 71%, Hume region was 69%, Gippsland region was 42%, Port Phillip region was 85% (Bushfire risk is elevated in Port Phillip region due to large areas of private land and wet forests which cannot be treated easily by planned burning), Barwon South West region 62%, Grampians region 75%.

Managing risk across the landscape

Because bushfires burn on private and public land, land and fire agencies will work with you to deliver an integrated approach to fuel management.

Modelling shows that by only managing fuel on public land, bushfire risk is unlikely to get below about 40 per cent. Achieving this level of risk reduction would also require a significant amount of fuel management – a level that would likely have major impacts on native plants and animals and would not be sustainable for our communities. That's why fuel management on public land needs to be integrated with the management of private land, as well as other management strategies to reduce bushfire risk.

Fire spreading

Beyond fuel management

No single strategy or action alone can manage bushfire risk. We must develop a multifaceted approach, using all the activities available to us. Fuel management is just one strategy for reducing bushfire risk.

Planned burning is a key part of fuel management, but it also includes:

  • Slashing and mowing
  • Creating fuel breaks around towns and assets
  • Maintaining infrastructure like fire dams and lookout towers in our forests and parks

Beyond fuel management, our fire management activities include:

  • Preparing and positioning firefighters and aircraft across Victoria for rapid response to bushfires when they start
  • Building standards for new housing
  • Developing neighbourhood shelters
  • Issuing community warnings
  • Coordinating evacuations

Our land and fire agencies will work in partnership with local communities through these initiatives to best reduce risk in a particular region.

Fuel management rings

Page last updated: 29/12/21