Land Use Planning and Bushfire Risk: CFA Referrals and the February 2009 Victorian Fire Area

Abstract

The Victoria Planning Provisions (VPPs) include siting and design regulations incorporated into local government planning schemes to mitigate risk in areas prone to bushfires. Introduced in 1997, these provisions were previously called the Wildfire Management Overlay (WMO). Now updated and renamed the Bushfire Management Overlay (BMO), the provision's ongoing development has been informed by fire behaviour and how houses ignite. The aim of the research reported here, conducted following the catastrophic February 2009 Victorian fires, was to review dwelling losses in terms of the WMO's effectiveness. Empirical evidence compares house losses of dwellings referred to the Country Fire Authority (CFA) via the WMO, with overall house losses. The results suggest that proportionately fewer houses referred to the CFA were lost, compared with those not assessed under the WMO. It should be noted that other factors influenced the results, such as the houses assessed under the WMO being generally newer.

《维多利亚规划规定》（VPPs）中包含了地方政府规划在选址和设计方面的规定,以减少高危地区的森林火险。这些规定于1997 年正式实施,原名是《野火治理总则》（WMO）。经过修订,WMO 更名为《林火治理总则》（BMO）,吸纳了火情模式和房屋燃烧的经验。本研究始于2009年2月维多利亚数起森林火灾之后,旨在评估WMO 生效后的住房损失。文章通过实证数据比较了经WMO 评估后向乡村消防队报案的住房损失和住房损失总量。结果显示未经WMO 评估的住房遭到更大损失。应该注意的是,这一结果也受到其他因素的影响,如经过WM评估的住房通常较新。

Keywords:

• Wildfire
• bushfire
• planning
• overlay
• management

Acknowledgements

The comments of the anonymous referees significantly assisted in the improvement of this article. An earlier version of this article was subpoenaed and considered by the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.