SHRI RAMSWAROOP MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY

LUCKNOW – DEVA ROAD, UTTAR PRADESH

 
INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING

DISASTER MANAGEMNET
BAR5008

TOPIC: CASE STUDY ON NATURAL DISASTER-

AUSTRALIA BUSHFIRE

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

SAURAV SHUKLA SACHIN KUMAR PATEL
B.ARCH 3RD YEAR
201811101010002
 WHAT ARE DISASTERS
A disaster is a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the
functioning of a community or society and causes human, material,
and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community's
or society's ability to cope using its own resources.
Types of disasters usually fall into two broad categories:
NATURAL DISASTERS
Natural disasters are generally associated with weather and geological
events, including extremes of temperature, floods, hurricanes,
earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and drought.

MAN-MADE DISASTER
Man-made disasters are usually associated with a criminal attack such
as an active shooter incident, or a terrorist attack using weapons
such as explosive, biological, or chemical agents.
 AUSTRALIA BUSHFIRE
What are Bushfires?
• The ecological environment of the Australian continent is such that
it naturally serves as a ground for the birth of wild fires.
• Bushfires are an integrated part of the Australian ecosystem.
• hey are slow moving in nature and hence can spread to large
areas. These fires take anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes to pass
but given the required conditions; they can go on for day and
months without an end. 
• These fires get their name from the starting fuel which they use to
come into existence, which is small bushes, shrubs and dried up
debris from plants and trees.
 HOW DO BUSHFIRES START?
 Bushfires are a naturally occurring phenomenon, which are traditionally
caused due to ignition from lightning and high friction between leaves
and bushes due to winds blowing at tremendous speeds.
 NATURE OF FUEL
 The primary fuel for bushfires are the fallen organic debris from trees
in the form of dried up barks, leaves, twigs, branches and fallen trees. 
 Fuels which are loose and light in weight catch fire more furiously and
easily such as dry leaves, twigs, small grasses etc. 
 whereas, the fuel which is dense and tightly compacted catch fire
slowly and burn for a longer duration, such as thick branches and tree
trunks.
 IMPACTS AND IMPLICATIONS OF
THE BUSHFIRES
 In Australia, the months of April to September have been declared as
the bushfire season for the Northern Australian region, whereas the
southern Australian regions also experience a large threat of bushfires
in the dry summer season.
 Around 70 per cent of Australia's population was exposed
to bushfire smoke during the fires.
 This is because of the high temperature and the low humidity in the
hot summer season.
 bushfire season of 2019-20 all across Australia has proven to be the
most catastrophic in the recorded history.
 Although, the fires are spread throughout the country, the south-east
regions of the country have been the most affected with large raging
fires.
MAJOR AREAS AFFECTED
 DAMAGE CAUSED DUE TO
BUSHFIRES
 This Australian bushfire case study states that being the biggest
bushfires in the history of the continent, the damages caused by it
has been appalling, including damage to property, land, livestock,
flora and fauna. In addition to that the damages from the future
implications of these fires will only increase the loss caused thus
far.
 Over 2000 homes have been destroyed by the fires, this season,
removing thousands of families from their houses. 
 In approximate 18 million acres of land has been burnt after getting
engulfed in flames, out of which about 12 million acres of land is
from the region of New south Wales, which is among the most
affected areas of the country. 
 the total area of land that has been burnt this season (18 million acres),
is larger than the combined area of Belgium and Denmark.
 The overall amount of damages caused due to the bushfires so far is
estimated to be over $4.4 billion.
 LOSS OF WILDLIFES
 Animal species such as kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, quokkas,
cockatoos, honeyeaters and kookaburras among others have
been severely burnt and killed in the fires.
 This has resulted in driving many species towards
endangerment and extinction. (Narayan & Vanderneut, 2019).
 Out of all of the above animal species, Koalas, which are
indigenous to Australia, have been affected the most.
 Reports from various ecologists have suggested that the fires
have rendered the species of already endangered koalas,
functionally extinct because of a major loss of their natural
habitat.
 More than 30% of the population of koalas in the region of
New South Wales have been killed so far in the ongoing fires.
 Apart from koalas, many endangered species of frogs and
birds face extinction due to falling to extremely small
numbers and a great loss to their natural habitat.
 CHOKING ON SMOKE
 For months, hazardous bush fire smoke has intermittently
blanketed heavily populated areas, including Sydney, Melbourne
and Canberra.
 In Canberra on 1 January, air quality was more than 
20 times above hazardous levels, leading to a shutdown of
restaurants, shops, childcare centres, museums and government
departments.
 Plumes of smoke, dust and ash are visible from space and have
even drifted thousands of kilometres east to New Zealand, causing
skies to turn orange and glaciers brown.
 HEAT AND DROUGHT
 Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that 
2019 was the hottest, driest year on record.
 The country is experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades and a
heat wave in December broke the record for 
highest nationwide average temperature of 41.9°C.
 Scientists have warned that climate change increases the likelihood and
intensity of wildfires.
 The Climate Council says a warming planet is 
making bush fire conditions more dangerous than they were in the past,
increasing the risk to people and property.

CO2 EMISSIONS
 The bush fires are estimated to have pumped 350 million tonnes of CO2
into the atmosphere – roughly 
two-thirds of Australia’s annual emissions budget in 2018-19, according
to NASA data.
 It may take a century or more for forests to absorb the CO2 released so
far during this season’s fires, one expert told the Sydney Morning Herald.
HOW ARE THE FIRES FOUGHT?
 Fire-fighters were spraying water and fire retardant from planes and
helicopters as well as from the ground.
 But fighting bush fires is extremely difficult and often authorities
have to focus on just stopping the spread, rather than putting the fire
out.
 The spread can for instance be contained by digging earth boundaries
to stop the flames from spreading. The priority is saving lives.

Who Is Fighting The Fires?

 Professional fire-fighters are the first in line to battle the flames,
but they are outnumbered by the thousands of volunteers. Three
of them have died.
 There's also help coming from abroad: the US, Canada, and New
Zealand have sent firefighters to help.
 Australia's police, military and navy are involved in rescue and
evacuation effort