- Extreme Wildfire
Research to validate a new global convection fire spread theory is being undertaken with an interdisciplinary international team.
Research is underpinned by a series of highly instrumented experimental burns in the Canterbury Region, managed by the Scion Extreme Wildfire team.
- to develop globally applicable knowledge embedding the new convection fire spread theory into practice by validating the theory for crown fires and understanding how convection is coupled with atmospheric conditions to drive transitions to increasingly extreme fire behaviour.
- experimental burns have been undertaken in stubble, gorse and most recently (in 2023) in piled wildings.
- burns have all been heavily instrumented, enabling comprehensive data collection and analysis
- these burns have validated the convection fire spread theory, thereby increasing understanding of extreme wildfire behaviour, especially at the fire-front
- burns have provided valuable training in incident management for Fire and Emergency New Zealand and Department of Conservation staff
- further burns are planned for 2025. These burns were originally planned for standing wildings to scale up the fuel type (short – stubble, gorse – medium, wilding pine – tall), however the experimental burn site burned in a wildfire. The Scion team is therefore exploring other options.
Explore the Extreme Wildfire Research Programme workstreams:
Extreme Wildfire News
Building for a wildfire future
As part of Scion’s five-year Extreme Wildfire research programme, social scientists are investigating how decisions throughout planning, design and construction lead to homes being built
New slash sensor operational
A sensor which monitors temperature in slash piles has had extensive testing in forest environments to make it more robust and reliable. The sensor delivers
Experimental burns a world-first
Two new series of extreme wildfire burns was completed near Twizel in autumn 2023, as part of Scion’s Extreme Fire research programme. The burns follow
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