New 3D simulator predicts how a bushfire will spread in real-time

Australia's bushfires are getting worse, and their devastating impact is set to increase as climate change takes full effect.

Known as Spark, a new project from Australia's peak science research body, the CSIRO, will help those in charge of keeping us safe -- from firefighters to local government -- better predict the behaviour of big blazes that threaten Australian lives and property each summer.

Andrew Sullivan, a member of the team who developed the software, told Mashable Australia Spark is a platform that allows users to collect key information that may influence fire behaviour in one place. It can simulate and model in 3D the spread of a fire front in any given location or weather conditions.

After decades of investigating bushfires, for Sullivan the aim of Spark is to "bring all that knowledge in to the 21st Century," he said. "As a fire researcher, one of the key needs is to have the simulation ability, so you can test fire behaviour models."

Spark takes current knowledge of fire behaviour and combines it with state-of-the-art simulation science to predict bushfire spread. Credit: CSIRO

Spark can give information about the rate at which a fire could spread, its direction and the locations it could affect, he said. The model runs faster than real-time, so decisions can quickly be made about where to concentrate firefighting efforts. It can also model future changes, which means the impact of global warming can be taken into account.

"The framework is the nuts and bolts," he said. It supplies the pipe through which data inputs flow, including weather information, land slope, type of vegetation and fuel, as well as water bodies and roads.

Spark using Vesta model in the Blue Mountains region, imported into Google Earth. Colour scheme shows arrival time. Credit: CSIRO

According to Sullivan, Spark could be used by a wide variety of stakeholders. "The fire authorities could use it for incident management," he said. "But it could also be used for local government planning, for risk analysis, mitigation. The potential for use is quite large."

It could also be helpful as an educational tool for trainee firefighters, he added, especially because the software could be used to make a 3D immersive environment with virtual reality goggles.

First made available on Tuesday, Sullivan's team is planning on opening up the software for people to try out and make comment.

"The framework itself is free," he said. "The idea is for it to be eventually open-source so people can make their own improvements."