Nationally consistent mapping of wildland fuel types across Australia using satellite-derived vegetation structural data

Background Knowledge of the distribution of wildland fuels across the landscape is necessary for the appropriate application of models used to support a broad range of fire management activities. Aims To develop an automated and nationally consistent method that generates up-to-date spatial fuel type information across Australia. Methods Data from various space-borne broad-band optical, LiDAR and radar sensors were combined with land use data to generate structural descriptions of vegetation that were then converted into fuel types. Key results An Australian fuel type spatial layer was generated using the Bushfire Fuel Classification fuel typology. Evaluation against field measurements revealed accuracies of 89 and 71% for native forest and non-forest fuel types, respectively. This product provides a higher level of spatial and structural detail than previously obtained by other national-level fuel classification approaches in Australia. Implications The developed fuel type layer is made available and can be readily used in research applications. The data also have use in supporting jurisdictional-level fuel mapping for a range of fire management applications, such as fire behaviour prediction, fire danger forecasting and risk assessment.