Primary outcome

The National Bushfire Resilience Network (NOBURN) is a citizen science project empowering people to use their mobile phones to collect information that will help predict bushfire hotspots and minimise their impact. It’s a collaboration between UniSC, Noosa Shire Council and the University of Adelaide (Australian Institute for Machine Learning).

Key goals

• Getting community involved in the data collection and mapping of forest fuels with the message: “Snap a pic, help predict!”
• Predict severity, probability and burn area of potential bushfires
• Build community resilience and increase awareness on risks associated with forests and fuels
• Create what will become a nationwide database of forest evidence to document both visual and actual measures of structures, quantities, densities and dryness of forest fuels with a precise and wide geographic coverage.

Progress

This project commenced in 2021 and is set to be completed in 2026.

Lead researchers

• Mark Brown
• Paul Salmon
• Sam Van Holsbeeck
• Andrew Ward
• Sarah Casey
• Henry Dugmore
• Shannon Horsfall
• Shelby Schumacher

Project funded by

Australian Government Dept of Industry, Science and Resources

Sustainable Development Goals

This project works towards these UN Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 15: Life on Land
• SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• SDG 4: Quality Education