This dataset shows all areas of Australia affected by the 2019-2020 bushfires. You can use this data in the ALA to search for species that may have been affected by the 2019-20 bushfires, by mapping occurrence records that have been logged in those areas, both before and after the fires.

How to use the bushfire extent data in the ALA

For more information on how to use this data in the ALA, read our help article Using the National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Dataset 2019-20 in the ALA.

The National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Dataset

The National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Dataset was developed by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) to help quantify the potential impacts of the 2019/20 bushfires on wildlife, plants and ecological communities, and identify appropriate response and recovery actions.

The dataset is a reliable, agreed, fit-for-purpose and repeatable national dataset of burnt areas across Australia for the 2019/20 bushfire season.

The National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Dataset includes:

• data from the national Emergency Management Spatial Information Network Australia (EMSINA) data service, which is the official fire extent currently used by the Australian Government, and
• supplementary data from other sources to form a cumulative national view of fire extent from 1 July 2019 to the 21 April 2020, these sources include NSW Rural Fire Service, Northern Australian Fire Information (NAFI), QLD Fire and Emergency Service, QLD Department of Environment and Science, SA Country Fire Service, SA Department for Environment and Water, Tasmanian Fire Service, TAS Department of Primary Industry, Parks, Water and Environment, VIC Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning, WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

The dataset is released on behalf of the Australian Government and endorsed by the National Burnt Area Dataset Working Group, convened by the National Bushfire Recovery Agency.

More information and links

• For more details about the dataset visit National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Dataset v20200428.
• For help accessing and using the dataset in the ALA, please email  support@ala.org.au

CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, is working with key agencies and community groups to support research underway throughout bushfire impacted areas.

The Citizen Science Bushfire Project Finder website allows members of the public to contribute to projects ranging from air quality, to identifying and confirming animal and plant sightings while maintaining safe social distancing practices.

People can also get involved online by identifying animals in camera images.

Announcing the new website today, CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall said it drew on the passion and commitment of scientists and citizens alike to solve bushfire challenges.

“We’re using cutting-edge science like artificial intelligence, satellite imaging, and seasonal and decadal climate modelling to respond to fires and get ahead of the next bushfire season.

However, the model is only as good as the data we feed it, and there is no substitute for the power of the people to keep us firmly connected with reality on the ground,” Dr Marshall said.

“Australia has some of the greatest biodiversity on the planet, and the Atlas of Living Australia has already proven the power of citizen science – what better way to inform and guide our bushfire recovery.”

The initiative is a key outcome from the Bushfire Science Roundtable hosted in January by Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews and comes at a time when Australians are eager to actively participate.

“As we grapple with the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s important we continue important work to make sure we’re prepared for the next bushfire season and this is a fantastic program that allows all Australians to get involved while still observing social distancing,” Minister Andrews said.

“Despite the challenges we are facing, the Australian spirit remains strong and it is obvious that our citizens are eager to do their part in the bushfire recovery process.”

As well as the devastation and the economic, social and psychological impacts on affected communities, the bushfires took a heavy toll on wildlife and affected water and air quality.

Projects on the website include:

• Australian Museum project Wildlife Spotter enables users to identify animals in photos taken by camera traps around Australia, assisting researchers in monitoring the effects of bushfires on Australian fauna.
• South Australia’s Department for Environment and Water are using camera traps to monitor the flora and fauna recovery on Kangaroo Island.
• There are several projects which people can contribute their sightings of plants and wildlife returning to fire affected areas.
• Some projects also collect information about the intensity of fire impacts, observed fire behaviour, effects on water quality running off of fire grounds, and impacts of the smoke on people’s health.

The website was developed in collaboration between CSIRO, the Atlas of Living Australia (a National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy capability) and the Australian Citizen Science Association.

The Project Finder also features a geographic filter enabling users to identify available projects in their area. It can be accessed at www.csiro.au/bushfireprojects.

More information about CSIRO’s emerging citizen science work is available at www.csiro.au/citizenscience.

The announcement further underlines the leading role science is taking in Australia bushfire recovery efforts.

AVAILABLE for interview:

Andre Zerger – Chief Executive of Atlas of Living Australia
Erin Roger – Australian Citizen Science Association
Paul Flemons – Australian Museum’s Wildlife Spotter
Melissa Martin – South Australia Department for Environment and Water, Kangaroo Island

Media enquiries

Visit CSIRO media release for contact details.

Citizen Science Bushfire Forum

On February 14^th, the ALA and CSIRO hosted a national Citizen Science Bushfire Forum, bringing together many key national partners and interested stakeholders across multiple sectors including research, state and commonwealth government, non-government organisations, industry and citizen science. these groups to begin discussions.

The objectives of this forum included the sharing of ideas for how science and citizen science sectors could work together in cohesion around a common goal, and to identify actions that could be taken immediately to support the sector through the current bushfire response and recovery phase. The scope of the forum was not limited to ecological biodiversity, but also included air, water, and the built environment.

The group discussed the ability to collate resources through common approaches and the need to ensure that all relevant data becomes available in Australia’s national databases such as the ALA, enabling effective landscape scale responses.

Identifying bushfire recovery related projects

We have created a specific category for bushfire recovery related projects, and when tagged, they will appear when searched under the bushfire recovery projects filter on the Citizen Science Project Finder.

If you are planning on creating a new bushfire related citizen science project, we encourage you to register your projects into the Citizen Science Project Finder, ensuring you identify the project as a bushfire recovery/monitoring project. If you have already registered your project, simply edit the project to indicate that it is bushfire recovery/monitoring related. By indicating your project is bushfire recovery related, it will display when the bushfire recovery projects filter is enabled, making the project easy to discover, access and for people to join.

There are already several bushfire related projects using this filter, such as the Environment Recovery Project – Australian Bushfires 2019-2020.

It is important to note that the Australian Citizen Science Association Bushfire Working Group has developed a set of criteria that will be applied to all tagged projects to ensure they are producing data that is publicly accessible, shared into data aggregation depositories such as the ALA, compatible with other data sets, and appropriate to landscape scale assessment, monitoring and response.

In the coming weeks we will be calling on the public and the citizen science community to contribute to the existing projects or continue to create their own with guidance from researchers.

Follow the below links for more information on bushfire recovery and citizen science

• Citizen Science Project Finder
• CSIRO bushfire research
• CSIRO bushfire blog posts
• The Australian Citizen Science Association

Back to ALA Newsletter February 2020