Landscape and Building Design for Bushfire Areas
By Caird Ramsay and Lisle Rudolph
4/5
()
About this ebook
Shortlisted in TAFE Vocational Education category in the 2004 Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing.
The devastation wreaked by bushfires on Australian homes and landscapes is an all too familiar scenario. Yet, why do we often see one house burn, whilst an apparently similar house on an adjacent block can endure? Research has shown that many factors affect the chances of a building surviving a bushfire. If you are designing landscapes and buildings in bushfire areas you need to be aware of these factors so that the chances of losses to life and property can be minimised.
Landscape & Building Design for Bushfire Areas integrates the latest scientific knowledge about buildings and bushfires with a flexible design approach.
The book contains two main sections:
1) Provides a clear description of what happens in a bushfire. It describes the environment in which bushfires occur, how a fire attacks, and how buildings are ignited and destroyed.
2) Sets out a practical design approach to the design of buildings and their immediate surroundings. It presents a range of options for designing the various elements of both landscapes and buildings in bushfire-prone areas.
This book encourages design for bushfire to be included as a normal part of designing in bushfire-prone areas, rather than as an undesirable add-on. It will assist planning and building regulatory authorities to improve and administer regulatory requirements and guidelines.
Related to Landscape and Building Design for Bushfire Areas
Related ebooks
Field Guide: Fire in Dry Eucalypt Forest: Fuel Assessment and Fire Behaviour Prediction in Dry Eucalypt Forest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsManaging and Conserving Grassy Woodlands Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEcosystem-Based Adaptation: Approaches to Sustainable Management of Aquatic Resources Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlanting Wetlands and Dams: A Practical Guide to Wetland Design, Construction and Propagation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDictionary for Managing Trees in Urban Environments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFractional Operators with Constant and Variable Order with Application to Geo-hydrology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProject Vesta: Fire in Dry Eucalypt Forest: Fuel Structure, Fuel Dynamics and Fire Behaviour Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTree by Tree: Saving North America's Eastern Forests Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCSIRO List of Australian Vertebrates: A Reference with Conservation Status Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTidal Marsh Restoration: A Synthesis of Science and Management Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWoods and People: Putting Forests on the Map Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAustralian Soils and Landscapes: An Illustrated Compendium Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRestoring Farm Woodlands for Wildlife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAquatic Plants of Pennsylvania: A Complete Reference Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecond Growth: The Promise of Tropical Forest Regeneration in an Age of Deforestation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoastal Plants: A Guide to the Identification and Restoration of Plants of the Greater Perth Coast Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Other Moderns: Sydney's Forgotten European Design Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsModel Illustrating Sustainable Architectural Design. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVital Soil: Function, Value and Properties Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAustralia Burning: Fire Ecology, Policy and Management Issues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBurning Issues: Sustainability and Management of Australia's Southern Forests Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWildland Fire Behaviour: Dynamics, Principles and Processes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCommunity Bushfire Safety Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDust Explosions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrassfires: Fuel, Weather and Fire Behaviour Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Architecture - Comfort and Energy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCorrosion and Corrosion Protection of Wind Power Structures in Marine Environments: Volume 1: Introduction and Corrosive Loads Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLandslide Hazards, Risks, and Disasters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGenerating Electricity in a Carbon-Constrained World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMountain Ash: Fire, Logging and the Future of Victoria's Giant Forests Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Construction For You
An Architect's Guide to Construction-Second Edition: Enduring Ways in the Age of Immediacy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5HVAC Principles And Systems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Plumbing ABC's Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Architect's Guide to Construction: Tales from the Trenches Book 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Homeowner's DIY Guide to Electrical Wiring Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beginner's Guide to Japanese Joinery: Make Japanese Joints in 8 Steps With Minimal Tools Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Machining For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAudel HVAC Fundamentals, Volume 3: Air Conditioning, Heat Pumps and Distribution Systems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Newnes Workshop Engineer's Pocket Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn Plumbing Skills Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Building Construction Technology: A Useful Guide - Part 2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Field Guide for Construction Management: Management by Walking Around Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miller's Guide to Home Wiring Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEarth-Sheltered Houses: How to Build an Affordable Underground Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Welding for Beginners in Fabrication Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5PEX Pipe Plumbing for Beginners: Learning the Fundamentals and Mastering DIY PEX Pipe Plumbing: Homeowner House Help Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAudel Electrician's Pocket Manual Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Guide to Building Your Own Home and Saving Thousands on Your New House Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Basic Machines: The U.S. Navy Training Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Starting Your Career as a Contractor: How to Build and Run a Construction Business Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Building Construction Technology: A Useful Guide - Part 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making Things Move DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComplete Book of Framing: An Illustrated Guide for Residential Construction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Simplified Stair Building Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Welding: Featuring Ryan Friedlinghaus of West Coast Customs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssential Hempcrete Construction: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Build a Pole Barn Chicken Coop: Instructions and Plans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Everything Woodworking Book: A Beginner's Guide To Creating Great Projects From Start To Finish Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inkle Loom Design & Construction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Managing Construction Projects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Landscape and Building Design for Bushfire Areas
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
Landscape and Building Design for Bushfire Areas - Caird Ramsay
Section one
What happens in
a bushfire?
This section describes the environment in which bushfires occur and the problems facing people living in areas prone to bushfire. It explains how bushfires attack, how buildings ignite and the relevant attributes of vegetation.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Every bushfire season in Australia increases the urgency to design buildings and their landscape settings so that they are better adapted to their environments.
This chapter touches on some of the responses of people to the risk of bushfire in bushfire-prone areas and lists some common misconceptions. The chapter also describes the design approach used in this manual.
Planning and building regulations — a cautionary note
Before proceeding to develop any proposals, designers should first check all planning requirements that have to be met, covering factors such as zoning, siting of buildings and management of vegetation. A similar check should be made with regard to all building regulations. In all cases, these requirements take precedence over anything contained in this manual.
Designers should also refer to the Australian Standard AS 3959 – 1999 and amendments, Construction of Buildings in Bushfire-prone Areas, which is the current edition at the time of writing this manual. This Standard is a primary reference standard for the Building Code of Australia (BCA) which applies throughout Australia, and there are variations to it at both State and local levels.
However, this manual may provide information which facilitates the design of ‘alternative solutions’ under the BCA performance approach.
Bushfire hazard in Australia
Australia, like most parts of the world, has its share of natural hazards, including earthquakes, cyclones, droughts, and bushfires. Large bushfires also occur in several other regions of the world including California, Southern France, Central Spain, Russia and China. Australian bushfires can be particularly large, severe and destructive. In Australia, the climate and the vegetation combine each year to produce fire-hazardous conditions across vast areas. When concentrations of flammable vegetation, high temperature, low humidity and very strong wind all occur together, they set the stage for a serious and destructive bushfire.
Adapting to bushfire
Aboriginal Australians were well adapted to their environment, and they used fire to assist in hunting and food gathering. On the other hand the Europeans who first began to settle in Australia would not have encountered fires on such a scale before, and must have feared them. Uncertainty and fear remain with many people today. At the same time there are others who are gradually coming to accept bushfire as part of their country through increased understanding of what happens in bushfire.
The most recent development has been to plan to prepare buildings and their surroundings so that, when a bushfire does come, it will be less destructive and people will be better able to survive. An essential requirement for this to happen is the knowledge about how buildings are ignited and destroyed in a bushfire.
This knowledge has been slow in coming for several reasons. The limited amount of research on the ignition of buildings may be due, in part, to the infrequent occasions on which researchers have had the opportunity to study a sufficient number of buildings at any one time to provide statistical reliability, and to the difficulties inherent in this type of research. One of the first significant studies undertaken was in 1944 after a fire in Beaumaris, an outer suburb of Melbourne, but the findings were relatively inconclusive.
A major step forward in the research came after the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 16 January 1983. On that day in Victoria and South Australia 76 people died, 2463 houses were destroyed and 360,000 hectares of land were burned. The cost of the damage has been estimated at $440 million, not to mention the human costs of trauma and disruption to people’s lives.
In the Ash Wednesday fires, the very large number of buildings that were either destroyed, ignited but not destroyed, or not ignited at all, provided a statistically large sample. Some fairly reliable conclusions were able to be drawn about the ignition and destruction of buildings. These are elaborated in Chapter 3 in this manual, ‘Ignition and destruction of buildings’.
Community responses to bushfire risk
Communities respond to the risk of bushfire in various ways. Many rural communities are familiar with fires, have much at stake if burned out, and they prepare for them regularly. In other areas, particularly the expanding urban fringes, people are less likely to be aware of bushfires. Within each community there will be a range of personal responses as well.
The following table shows the different ways in which communities and individuals can respond. It also shows the area of activities which this manual deals with.
Responses to the risk of bushfire
Individual responses to bushfire risk
It is difficult to know to what extent individuals are currently conscious of the risk of bushfire, and what they are doing, if anything, to prepare their properties for the possibility of a bushfire. Undoubtedly, a bushfire does increase the awareness of people for a few years afterwards but then, as vegetation grows back quickly and normality returns, awareness and preparedness decline.
There are probably several reasons for this decline. One reason may be a healthy tendency not to dwell on the hazards and negatives of life. Nevertheless this does not reduce the need for reliable information to be available to those who do want to increase their preparedness and the peace of mind that goes with that. The successful efforts of some people will eventually spread and become conventional wisdom to others.
Appropriate form of information
Another reason for lack of action may be the information available. Some people may be well aware of the hazards, but may be confused by the information or the form in which it is available. While there are a number of publications about buildings and bushfires, people may have difficulty in applying the information to their own individual situations. For example some advice offered describes all of the many measures that can be taken as things that ‘should’ be done. The reasons why they should be done are often not given, nor are alternative courses of action offered.
The result may be a list of ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ that is long, intimidating and in some cases too expensive and inappropriate for the individual situations.
A design approach
The design approach taken in this manual first states the objectives that need to be achieved, and then offers a range of design options (solutions) to achieve them. People can then choose the options that fit in with the rest of their designs. Furthermore they can also decide to reject any advice knowingly on the basis that they are aware of the problem and the likely extent of the risks they are taking.
For example, one objective in bushfire areas is to deal with the risk of buildings being ignited in the sub-floor space. The problem can be eliminated by the use of a concrete slab-on-ground floor. If a timber floor is desired for some reason, such as a steeply sloping site, then there are other design options, such as enclosing the sub-floor space with non-combustible materials and/or managing the vegetation nearby. A non-design approach might simply state, ‘use concrete slab-on-ground for floors’.
Common misconceptions
Another reason for lack of preparation for bushfires may be a number of misconceptions about buildings and bushfires. There seem to be several common misconceptions in circulation.