The Inspector-General for Emergency Management recommends that the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (or the single entity referenced in Recommendation 4) lead the development and distribution of evidence-based land and fuel management tools for use by all legislated fuel management organisations to ensure a common approach to fuel management.
DELWP will work in partnership with the CFA to develop and coordinate the state-wide application of tools to support risk-based bushfire management across public and private land.
DELWP and CFA continue to work closely to develop and apply tools to support risk-based bushfire management.
The development and coordination of risk modelling tools has been undertaken through the Risk 2.0 Project team and the Predictive Services team – joint agency programs that include staff from DELWP and CFA. These projects include advancing risk modelling and metrics (refer to Action 7.1) and coordination of bushfire prediction modelling tools through the Strategic Science Investment Plan (refer to Action 7.4).
IGEM notes that the JFMP is another important program that integrates a risk-focused bushfire management approach (refer to Action 7.5). As part of the JFMP, FFMVic and CFA have committed to working together by sharing resources, vehicles, and other equipment.
IGEM also has an observer role on the Bushfire Risk Mitigation Committee which has representation from DELWP and CFA, and is a forum for discussion on Victoria’s approaches to bushfire risk mitigation and management.