Graduate Certificate in Bushfire Planning and Management

The course covers the fundamentals of fire behaviour and the key drivers. Students will examine the importance of the key factors affecting fire behaviour including fuels, weather, topography and ignitions. Methodologies for measuring fuels, fuel moisture, and weather will be examined through theoretical and practical approaches. Using these skills, students will learn computer and manual approaches for predicting the extent and intensity of landscape fires in a range of ecosystems. Finally, we will assess the potential changes to fire patterns under global climate change.

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The course covers the fundamentals of setting and achieving bushfire management objectives for ecological and fire protection purposes in natural ecosystems. It covers the contents of a fire management plan, setting objectives, developing fire prescriptions, undertaking monitoring and evaluation of the management process, and review.

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This subject sets out the key mechanisms by which land use planning can reduce the risks associated with human settlements located in bushfire prone areas. It begins with an overview of bushfire as a natural hazard that occurs in particular landscapes, and the ways that human settlements interact with these to result in spatial and locally particular risk outcomes.

The ways that urban planning mechanisms can influence risk levels in bushfire prone areas are explored. First principles of planning intervention techniques are set out, followed by a detailed explanation of relevant elements of Victorian planning processes. Current regulatory approaches suitable for the treatment of bushfire risk in Victoria are a core learning outcome for the subject, in parallel with developing understandings of the inter-relations between building, planning, response and land management agencies related to bushfire risk reduction.

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This subject covers the fundamentals of how domestic buildings respond to bushfire in a planned environment context and explores how land use planning can help mitigate associated risks. Students work from the science fundamentals through to the policy and legislation frameworks that tackle bushfire risk mitigation through to building design and planning. The course covers essential planning intervention techniques, along with developing understandings of the inter-relations between building, planning, response and land management agencies related to bushfire risk reduction. With successful completion of the course, students will be well equipped to judge and implement design solutions within the scope of building and planning regulations relating to bushfire risk management.

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The interactions between spatial context and ecosystem composition and structure can have a significant influence on the management of our natural environment. Spatial and temporal patterning of ecosystems can influence ecosystem functioning which in turn can affect resource availability for flora and fauna, dynamics of plant communities, and lead to the alteration of disturbance regimes. Humans play a critical role in shaping the spatial context on ecosystems within landscapes, both creating and affecting these relationships. This subject will cover the principles of landscape ecology with a focus on understanding how spatial heterogeneity, spatial extent, agents of change (i.e. fire, climate) and the role of humans (i.e. forest management, urbanisation) influence ecosystem patterns and in turn ecological processes (i.e. plant migration, meta-population dynamics, provisioning of ecosystem services). Case studies will be drawn from international and domestic examples from urban, agricultural, and forested landscapes.

This subject will involve lectures, practicals and a 3-day field trip.

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Sustainable Landscapes combines social and ecological disciplines to consider the management of urban and rural/regional landscapes for sustainable futures. Subject teaching includes weekly lectures and a 1x weekend field trip to observe and discuss management of landscapes for sustainable outcomes. Australian and overseas case studies are drawn upon to cover the following topics:

• the meaning and significance of sustainability in the context of urban, urban fringe, rural, and regional landscapes and their futures;
• rural and urban land use, and drivers of current and future landscape change, including fragmentation, social change and transformation, biodiversity loss, industrialisation, intensification, pollution, sovereignty, and security;
• assumptions around land ownership, ethics and economics that influence issues of environmental security, commons and sustainable regional futures; · the utilisation, degradation, and management of rural and urban biophysical resources for sustainable futures, including maintenance of ecosystem services and processes;
• the involvement of different stakeholders in decision making for regional, service, rural, fringe and urban areas, including the role of relationships and social features such as politics, memory, and values; and
• the role of governance, including institutions, deliberative democracy, empowerment; and community based natural resource management in navigating landscape change.

The content and the issues raised will draw upon and integrate theory, knowledge and practices from different disciplines familiarising students with systems theory and how it is integral to framing an understanding of landscape management. Theories of complex adaptive systems, social ecological systems, uncertainty, resilience and complexity will also frame the investigation of these issues. Landscape ecology sciences, social sciences (including cultural geographies) and policy frameworks will be drawn upon in analysing and evaluating landscapes and their futures, with a strong focus on community-based knowledge systems. Students will engage deeply with the literature that informs these ideas and will develop a critical understanding of their value and limitations.

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This subject explores the ways people know and interact with nature in the context of ecosystem management. Through a series of local and global case studies, students will critically reflect on real world examples, grounded in ideas and theories drawn from social sciences. By exploring dimensions of power, knowledge, and values, students will analyse the ways in which communities participate, drive, and determine what healthy ecosystems mean. Tensions between government, corporate and community aspirations will be drawn out through the case study examples.

This subject has a particular emphasis on Indigenous knowledges, self-determination and conceptualisations of Country. The field trip will provide students an opportunity to hear from communities directly about their connections to, and applications of caring for Country.

Students will gain insights into different nature framings and perspectives.

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The course covers the fundamentals of spatial analysis for ecosystem management and conservation problems. Students will develop skills in the application of remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for landscape analysis of data. Methodologies for collecting, analysing and interpreting spatial data will be considered through theoretical and practical approaches. These will include data collected by drones through to satellite derived measures at a continental to global scale. Students will learn the spatial skills essential to environmental management by applying industry standard tools and methods. Finally, students will develop an understanding of the emerging technologies in data collection and analysis.

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