The National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Dataset has been developed rapidly to support the immediate needs of the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) in:

a) quantifying the potential impacts of the 2019/20 bushfires on wildlife, plants and ecological communities;and,

b) identifying appropriate response and recovery actions.

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

The dataset takes the national Emergency Management Spatial Information Network Australia (EMSINA) data service, which is the official fire extent currently used by the Commonwealth, and adds supplementary data from other sources to form a cumulative national view of fire extent. This EMSINA data service shows the current active fire incidents, and the Department map shows the total fire extent from 1 July 2019 to the 25 May 2020.

EMSINA have been instrumental in providing advice on access to data and where to make contact in the early stages of developing the National Indicative Aggregated Fire Extent Dataset.

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

Known Issues:

The dataset has a number of known issues, both in its conceptual design and in the quality of its inputs. These are outlined below and should be taken into account in interpreting the data and developing any derived analyses.

The list of known issues below is not comprehensive: it is anticipated that further issues will be identified in the future, and the Department welcomes feedback on this. We will seek as far as possible to continuously improve the dataset in future versions.

In addition, the 2019/20 bushfire season is ongoing and it can be expected that the fire extent will increase. Future versions of the dataset will therefore document and distinguish between changes arising from methodological improvement, as distinct from changes to the actual fire extent.

1. The dataset draws data together from multiple different sources, including from state and territory agencies responsible for emergency and natural resource management, and from the Northern Australian Fire Information website. The variety of mapping methods means that conceptually the dataset lacks national coherency.

2. The limitations associated with the input datasets are carried through to this dataset. Users are advised to refer to the input datasets’ documentation to better understand limitations.

3. The dataset is intentionally precautionary and the rulesets for its creation elect to accept the risk of overstating the size of particular burnt areas. If and when there are overlapping polygons for an area, the internal boundaries have been dissolved.

4. The dataset shows only the outline of burnt areas and lacks information on fire severity in these areas, which may often include areas within them that are completely unburnt. For the intended purpose this may limit the usability of the data, particularly informing on local environmental impacts and response. This issue will be given priority, either for future versions of the dataset or for development of a separate, but related, fire severity product.

5. This continental dataset includes large burnt areas, particularly in northern Australia, which can be considered part of the natural landscape dynamics. For the intended purpose of informing on fire of potential environmental impact, some interpretation and filtering may be required. There are a variety of ways to do this, including by limiting the analysis to southern Australia, as was done for recent Wildlife and Threatened Species Bushfire Recovery Expert Panel’s preliminary analysis of 13 January 2020. For that preliminary analysis area, boundaries from the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia version 7 were used by the Department to delineate an area of southern Australia encompassing the emergency bushfire areas of the southern summer. The Department will work in consultation with the expert panel and other relevant bodies in the future on alternative approaches to defining, spatially or otherwise, fire of potential environmental impact.

6. The dataset cannot be used to reliably recreate what the national burnt area extent was at a given date prior to the date of release. Reasons for this include that information on the date/time on individual fires may or may not have been provided in the input datasets, and then lost as part of the dissolve process discussed in issue 2 above.

7. With fires still burning extents are not yet refined.

8. Fire extents are downloaded daily and datasets are aggregated. This results in an overlap of polygon extents and raises the issue that refined extents are disregarded at this early stage.

9. The NAFI dataset is only current to 18 May 2020.