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NZ Fire Behaviour Toolkit: User Guide and Technical Report 
A NZ Fire Behaviour Toolkit has been developed to incorporate as much as possible of the current knowledge on fuels and fire behaviour in the New Zealand fire environment into a user-friendly software package. It is based on the fuel and fire behaviour models developed by the Scion Rural Fire Research Group, that are also available in paper (tabular) format. The toolkit contains a number of separate modules, each developed for different purposes and levels of use. These include a calculator (for quick and easy determination of fire potential), worksheet (allowing more detailed calculations and prediction of fire behaviour over longer periods of time for specific fires), firebreak effectiveness tool (to either determine the likely effectiveness of an existing firebreak or the firebreak width required to contain a fire), fire intensity tool (calculates fire intensity from flame length and vice versa), and information sections on fire behaviour “rules of thumb” and the productivity of NZ fire suppression resources. Users can save calculations, and produce and print detailed reports. There is also a comprehensive “Help” module. This Toolkit represents a significant improvement in the level of tools that are available to assist fire managers across the country in incorporating fire behaviour information into fire management decision-making, and is an excellent example of creating user-friendly applications from science knowledge.

Key Information

Report Number: 105 
Title: NZ Fire Behaviour Toolkit: User Guide and Technical Report 
Published: 4/06/2010 
Author: Scion 
Summary:
This report describes the level of tools that are available to assist fire managers across the country in incorporating fire behaviour information into fire management decision-making.
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