Senior Lecturer, Fire Ecology and Management, University of Melbourne
Kevin Tolhurst is Senior Lecturer in Fire Ecology and Management in the Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, University of Melbourne based in Creswick and a member of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre.
Kevin provides expert advice on fire behaviour and fire suppression strategies at major bushfires. Some recent examples include the Black Saturday fires in Victoria in 2009, and the Great Divide Fires in 2007. Kevin has been involved in several inquiries and court cases involving fires including: Linton Coronial Inquiry, Canberra Coronial Inquiry, House of Representative 2003 Inquiry, 2005 Wangary Coronial Inquiry S.A., the 2008 Parliamentary Inquiry into the 2007 fires in Victoria, and the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.
Kevin’s current research activities are centred around developing a bushfire risk management decision support system to be used nationally. This work has been a core activity in the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre since 2003.
His research and consulting interests include:
• Wildfire behaviour prediction
• Development of prescribed burning techniques and guidelines
• Landscape scale fire ecology management
• Fire risk management
• Ecological impacts of repeated fires
http://www.forestscience.unimelb.edu.au/people/staff/kevin_tolhurst/index.html
http://www.bushfirecrc.com/research/a41/a41.html
The burn legacy: why the science on hazard reduction is contested
Feb 25, 2020 13:20 pm UTC| Insights & Views
When it comes to reducing the extent of bushfires, scientists disagree on the best way to do it. Hazard reduction burning (also known as prescribed burning or controlled burning) is controversial and, depending on the...
We have already had countless bushfire inquiries. What good will it do to have another?
Jan 16, 2020 09:53 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature
As our country battles the most extensive fires of our lifetime, there are increasing calls for a royal commission into the states and territories preparedness and the federal governments response to the disaster. A...
What has Australia learned from Black Saturday?
Feb 07, 2019 14:45 pm UTC| Insights & Views Business
Black Saturday was a day like no other; it will be forever remembered in the history of bushfire disasters in Australia. The fires burned about 300,000 hectares in a single day; 173 human lives were lost and more than...
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