Four Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC researchers have been named as the research leaders of four different fields in The Australian’s Research 2020 magazine, illustrating the quality of researchers the CRC draws on.
Each year, The Australian names Australia’s top researchers in 255 individual fields of research using data analytics based on where individual researchers publish and how many citations they have.
CRC project leader Prof Jason Sharples (University of New South Wales) has been named the top researcher in the forests and forestry field. Prof Sharples leads Fire coalescence and mass spotfire dynamicsproject, is part of the Threshold conditions for extreme fire behaviourresearch team, and plays a supervisory role in four different CRC PhD projects (Dr Christopher Thomas, Dr Yang Zhang, Dr Mona Bahri and Michael Storey). It has been a long-term involvement with the CRC, stretching back to the Bushfire CRC’s Highfire projectwhich created an evidence-base for ongoing research following the devastating alpine fires of 2003. Prof Sharples CRC research continues to produce fundamental insights into extreme fire behaviour and fire spread over complex terrain.
The hydrology and water resources research field leader was Prof Albert van Dijk (Australian National University) who is part of the Mapping bushfire hazard and impactsresearch team and is a CRC PhD project supervisor of Li Zhao. Prof Van Dijk’s research has been key to the development of the CRC’s near-real time flammability data service, the Australian Flammability Monitoring System, to support fire risk management and response activities such as hazard reduction burning and pre-positioning firefighting resources.
The top researcher in the sustainable development field was Prof Robert Costanza (Australian National University) who is part of the Enhancing remote north Australian community resilienceproject. Prof Costanza and the team’s research illustrates that to better inform regional development policy, significant challenges remain for appropriate valuation of ecosystem services from north Australian savannas, including recognition of socio-cultural services and wellbeing benefits incorporating Indigenous values.