newcastle bush fire prone lands update...in april 2016 eco logical australia (ela) was contracted by...

Newcastle Bush Fire Prone Lands Update

FINAL

Prepared for

The City of Newcastle

18 July 2016

Bu s h F i r e P r o n e L a n d M a p p i n g U p d at e

© E C O L O G I C AL AU S T R AL I A P T Y L T D i

DOCUMENT TRACKING

ITEM DETAIL

Project Name Newcastle Bushfire Prone Land Map Update 2014

Project Number 14SYDBUS-0006

File location N:\16SYD\4226_Newcastle BPL Mapping New Guidelines 2016\Reports\Final Report

Prepared by AP

Approved by NK

Status FINAL

Version Number 4

Last saved on 18 July 2016

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This document has been prepared by Eco Logical Australia Pty Ltd with support from members of The

City of Newcastle and NSW Rural Fire Service.

Disclaimer

This document may only be used for the purpose for which it was commissioned and in accordance with the contract between

Eco Logical Australia Pty Ltd and The City of Newcastle. The scope of services was defined in consultation with The City of

Newcastle, by time and budgetary constraints imposed by the client, and the availability of reports and other data on the subject

area. Changes to available information, legislation and schedules are made on an ongoing basis and readers should obtain up

to date information.

Eco Logical Australia Pty Ltd accepts no liability or responsibility whatsoever for or in respect of any use of or reliance upon this

report and its supporting material by any third party. Information provided is not intended to be a substitute for site specific

assessment or legal advice in relation to any matter. Unauthorised use of this report in any form is prohibited.


© E C O L O G I C AL AU S T R AL I A P T Y L T D ii

Contents

1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Background................................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Study Area .................................................................................................................................... 1

2 Methods ....................................................................................................................................... 3

2.1 Bush Fire Prone Vegetation ......................................................................................................... 3

3 Results ......................................................................................................................................... 6

3.1 Bush Fire Vegetation Amendments .............................................................................................. 6

3.2 Draft Products ............................................................................................................................... 6

References ............................................................................................................................................... 8


© E C O L O G I C AL AU S T R AL I A P T Y L T D iii

List of Figures

Figure 1: Amendments to Bush Fire Prone Vegetation Mapping ............................................................... 7

List of Tables

Table 1: Rules for Determining Vegetation Categories .............................................................................. 3

Abbreviations

ABBREVIATION DESCRIPTION

BFPL Bush Fire Prone Lands

ELA Eco Logical Australia

EP&A Act Environmental Planning and Assessment Act

LGA Local Government Area

NPWS NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service

RFS NSW Rural Fire Service


© E C O L O G I C AL AU S T R AL I A P T Y L T D 1

1 Introduction

1.1 BACKGROUND

In August 2002 the Rural Fires and Environmental Assessment Legislation Amendment Act (2002) was

introduced. This legislation modifies both the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (1979)

(EP&A Act) and the Rural Fires Act (1997) (RF Act). All Councils that have vegetation that the Rural

Fire Service has identified as a fire risk are required to submit maps of Bush Fire Prone Land to the

NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) for certification by the Commissioner of the RFS. These maps must be

reviewed every five years.

The RFS requires that these maps be prepared according to specifications contained within the recently

updated document ‘Guide for Bush Fire Prone Land Mapping’ (NSW RFS 2015). This is to ensure

legibility, to establish consistency across NSW and to assist in creating a more streamlined system for

planning for bush fire protection.

In April 2016 Eco Logical Australia (ELA) was contracted by The City of Newcastle to validate and

update their mapping of Bush Fire Prone Lands (BFPL). The objective of this project therefore, is to

update Council’s BFPL mapping, in line with established mapping guidelines to sufficiently enable

Council to seek certification of the updated mapping from the RFS and thus meet its statutory

obligations in regard to maintaining the currency of the mapping.

This report details the method undertaken and the results, and is accompanied by the updated mapping

in electronic (GIS files) format for submission to the RFS for pre-certification.

1.2 STUDY AREA

Newcastle LGA is highly urbanised, comprising significant industrial, commercial and residential areas.

Situated approximately 174 km north of Sydney, the LGA is 214 km² in area and extends from the

Pacific Ocean to the foothills of the Watagan Mountains.

Surrounding LGAs include Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens, Cessnock and Maitland. The majority of

Newcastle’s bushland exists in the western and southern sections of the LGA, with small coastal and

urban remnants of vegetation scattered throughout the LGA. Approximately 20% of the LGA is

vegetated, most of which is found in a combination of National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS)

reserves, smaller Council and Crown reserves with the remainder in private ownership.

The landscape of the LGA varies from flat to undulating terrain (generally less than 5 degrees) around

coastal, urban and grazing areas. Steeper gradients are prevalent around small hills in the urban area

and west towards Mount Sugarloaf.

There are a number of areas within the LGA where bush fire may pose a risk to life and property,

especially where bushland adjoins urban development. Areas of remnant bushland that are bounded

by urban development include:

Kooragang Nature Reserve

Hexham Swamp



Blackbutt Reserve

Glenrock State Recreation Area

Hunter Wetlands National Park



2 Methods

An update of the Bush Fire Prone Lands mapping was undertaken in accordance with Section 146 of

the EP&A Act 1979, using the methodology detailed within the NSW Rural Fire Service Guide for Bush

Fire Prone Land Mapping (NSW RFS 2015). All GIS mapping data relevant to the project was supplied

by Council (2016 aerial photography) and the NSW RFS (2014 Bush Fire Prone Vegetation).

Existing BFPL mapping, vegetation extent and structure were reviewed as per the guidelines through

aerial photograph interpretation (API) across the entire Council area. Council also provided

supplementary vegetation mapping undertaken by Kleinfelder (2016) and identified targeted sites for

additional review which have been incorporated into this update. The update of the Bush Fire Prone

Lands mapping involved classifying and adjusting the existing 2014 Bush Fire Prone Vegetation

(BFPV).

The above tasks are outlined in the following sections.

2.1 BUSH FIRE PRONE VEGETATION

Existing vegetation mapping was reviewed in a GIS by overlaying it over the 2016 aerial photographs.

Areas of change in vegetation (increases and decreases) were adjusted by API techniques (polygons

deleted, cut, split etc). The classification of vegetation into categories based on vegetation type was

also checked according to their structural characteristics, in particular canopy cover (as per Planning for

Bush Fire Protection 2006). Areas of Remnant Vegetation (<2.5 ha or where considered to be of a lower

bush fire risk due to size and/or shape) were also identified, as shown within Table 1 below, according

to NSW RFS 2015.

Table 1: Rules for Determining Vegetation Categories

Category Vegetation Type Size (ha) Remnant and Short Fire Run

Vegetation

Category 1

Forest, woodlands, heaths (tall and

short), forested wetlands and timber

plantations

>= 1 ha or <

1 ha when

within 100m

of other bush

fire prone

vegetation

Includes Category 1 Remnant

and Short Fire Run vegetation

within 30 metres of each other

where the combined area is

greater than 2.5 hectares or

when within 100m of other bush

fire prone vegetation

Vegetation

Category 2

Rainforests.

Lower risk vegetation parcels. These vegetation parcels represent a lower bush fire risk to surrounding development and consist of: › Remnant vegetation;

› Land with ongoing land management practices that actively reduces bush fire risk. These areas must be subject to a plan of management or similar that demonstrates that the risk of bush fire is offset by strategies that reduce bush fire risk; AND include: › Discrete urban reserve/s;

<2.5 ha or

where

considered to

be of a lower

bush fire risk

due to size

and/or shape

Includes all Category 2

Remnant and Short Fire Run

vegetation.

Also includes Category 1

Remnant and Short fire Run

vegetation greater than 100

metres lateral separation from

other bush fire prone vegetation



Category Vegetation Type Size (ha) Remnant and Short Fire Run

› Parcels that are isolated from larger uninterrupted tracts of vegetation and known fire paths;

› Shapes and topographies which do not permit significant upslope fire runs towards development;

› Suitable access and adequate infrastructure to support suppression by firefighters;

› Vegetation that represents a lower likelihood of ignitions because the vegetation is surrounded by development in such a way that an ignition in any part of the vegetation has a higher likelihood of detection.

Vegetation

Category 3

Grasslands, freshwater wetlands, semi-

arid woodlands, arid shrublands.

>= 1 ha or <

1 ha when

within 100m

of other bush

fire prone

vegetation

Certain types of vegetation are excluded from the above categories (as per RFS 2015). These include:

Single areas of vegetation less than 1 hectare in area and greater than 100 metres separation

from other areas of Category 1, 2 or 3 vegetation;

Multiple areas of vegetation less than 0.25 hectares in area and not within 30 metres of each

other;

Strips of vegetation less than 20 metres in width, regardless of length and not within 20 metres

of other areas of Category 1, 2 or 3 vegetation;

Areas of “managed grassland” including grassland on, but not limited to, recreational areas,

commercial/industrial land, residential land, airports/airstrips, maintained public reserves and

parklands, commercial nurseries and the like;

Areas of managed gardens and lawns within curtilage of buildings;

Non-vegetated areas, including waterways, roads, footpaths, buildings and rocky outcrops.

Managed botanical gardens;

Agricultural lands used for annual and/or perennial cropping, orchard, market gardens,

nurseries and the likes are excluded;

Saline wetlands including mangroves.



Other areas that, due to their size, shape and overall risk are not considered Category 1, 2 or 3

vegetation.

These areas were effectively dropped from bushfire prone vegetation mapping. The data produced by

this process is called ‘Bush Fire Vegetation’.



3 Results 3.1 BUSH FIRE VEGETATION AMENDMENTS

In order to re-certify the updated Bush Fire Prone Land map, the RFS require a map detailing the

proposed amendments to the bush fire prone lands mapping.

The updated Bush Fire Prone Vegetation dataset (2016) was unioned with the original Bush Fire Prone

Vegetation dataset (2014) for the purpose of evaluating areas of proposed change. This produced a

dataset with a field designating the type of update made (if any):

1. Retained - These areas were mapped as Bush Fire Prone Vegetation in both the original and updated Bush Fire Prone Vegetation datasets (i.e. no change).

2. Removed - These are areas that were mapped as Bush Fire Prone Vegetation in the original Bush Fire Prone Vegetation dataset and have been removed as part of this update.

3. Added - These are areas that were not mapped as Bush Fire Prone Vegetation in the original Bush Fire Prone Vegetation dataset and have been added as part of this update.

A total of 5,820 ha of Bush Fire Prone Vegetation were retained, 92 ha were removed and 1,346 ha

were added (Figure 1). Of the areas added, the majority were unmanaged grassland areas mapped as

Category 3 or regeneration. 29 ha of previously mapped Bush Fire Prone Vegetation were removed

alone, through the review of vegetation mapping undertaken by Kleinfelder (2016), which identified

saline wetlands which are excluded.

The sites identified by council for additional review were found to not conform with the NSW RFS 2015

guidelines of Bush Fire Prone Vegetation. These sites were assessed as either managed, too small, or

not within proximity to other remnant vegetation.

3.2 DRAFT PRODUCTS

As per ‘Bush Fire Prone Land Mapping’ (NSW RFS 2015 requirements, the following digital dataset has

been produced in ESRI Shapefile format:

BFV_Newcastle_20160718.shp



Figure 1: Amendments to Bush Fire Prone Vegetation Mapping



References

Kleinfelder (2016) Wetland Surveys and Mapping - Newcastle City Council Lands.

NSW Rural Fire Service (2006). Guideline for Bush Fire Prone Land Mapping. Version 3 - June 2006.

NSW Rural Fire Service, Homebush.

NSW Rural Fire Service (2014) Guide for Bush Fire Prone Land Mapping.

NSW Rural Fire Service (2015) Guide for Bush Fire Prone Land Mapping.



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