Natural Hazards Research Australia is pleased to announce its inaugural Postgraduate Research Scholarships. The future research capability of Australia's emergency management sector is in safe hands with these 12 new PhDs.
Cameron Atkinson’s PhD from the University of Tasmania is exploring policy and its links with critical infrastructure. His project Creating resilient and sustainable critical infrastructure using evidence informed policy will develop a new and innovative methodology for research protocol development in systematic literature reviews to provide policy makers with the confidence needed to use the knowledge from systematic literature reviews and integrate this into the development of their evidence informed policies.
Fadia Isaac from Federation University is investigating the links between sleep disturbance and the trauma experienced by people during a bushfire. Her project, A multi-component cognitive behavioural therapy for the treatment of insomnia and nightmares in survivors of bushfires presenting with post-traumatic stress disorder, aims to implement a sleep-specific online self-paced psychological treatment for sleep disturbances for those affected by bushfires, those who live remotely and do not have access to mental health providers, those who are affected by other natural hazards and present with symptoms of sleep disturbances and trauma symptoms, and those who feel stigma in seeking face to face treatment for their symptoms.
Jiyu Liu’s PhD with the University of New South Wales is exploring new ways of using LiDAR to assess areas burnt by bushfires. His project, Assessing post-fire forested ecosystem by using Spaceborne LiDAR over south-east Australia, proposes to develop accurate and efficient methods to identify burnt area and assess the ecological impacts on forested ecosystems after bushfire events by using Spaceborne LiDAR data.
Hafiz Suliman Munawar is conducting his PhD with the University of New South Wales on artificial intelligence, drones and how to improve evacuation of aged care facilities during floods. His project, Machine learning for humanitarian disaster relief efforts through employing rule-based verification on drone aerial imagery, will emphasise the integration of new technologies with conventional methods to address the barriers to building resilience and bringing innovation in flood risk management strategies.
The following eight postgraduate students continue their association with the Centre, following on from their involvement with the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC’s postgraduate scholarship program.
Shauntelle Benjamin’s PhD at the University of New England is exploring Why do people drive through floodwater? Utilising virtual reality to assess motivations and behaviour associated with driving through floodwater. Her project will use virtual reality and eye tracking laboratories to experimentally test the psychological factors that might influence the decision to drive into floodwater, and will examine the protective effects of risk treatments such as warning signs, penalties and safety education.
Saimum Kabir’s project, Flood risk reduction in a dynamic urban context exploring the urban-water-resilience nexus is being conducted through the University of Melbourne and aims to reduce community’s vulnerability to flood risks by enhancing risk reduction capacity of the built environment. His research follows the system approach to empirically investigate the research questions in the context of urban catchment of Elster Creek, Melbourne.
Matthew Kyng is conducting his PhD with Victoria University on the Parameterisation for a simplified short-range firebrand model from physics-based modelling. This project will involve experimental modelling scenarios for firebrand transport and statistical analysis of the transport to determine dynamic transport equations to incorporate firebrand creation probability, dynamic transport and ignition probabilities into an operational model.
Wavne Rikkers’ project, Fighting the fires within: breaking down the barriers to mental help-seeking amongst first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder and high psychological distress, being conducted with the University of Western Australia, aims to identify the strategies and recommendations that emergency services agencies can adopt in order to improve the mental health and wellbeing of their workforce.
Catherine Ryland’s PhD project, Planning for bushfire protection: maintenance of bushfire protection measures, is being completed with the University of Wollongong and aims to determine the different options which exist for providing a compliance/enforcement program to address a significant gap in bushfire protection.
Kate Simmonds’ research, being conducted through the University of Melbourne, is exploring the Impact of fires on temperate rainforests in northern New South Wales. Her project aims to characterise the resilience and sensitivity of temperate rainforest communities to historic disturbance, climate variability and bushfire using a combination of long-term stand dynamic observations, dendrochronology and landscape spatial analysis.
Heather Simpson is conducting research on the Productivity and effectiveness of suppression resources and tactics on large fires at the University of Wollongong. Her PhD is providing empirical measures and modelling of resources that are used for suppression of campaign fires by examining historical data and evaluating recent campaign fires in Australia.
Simeon Telfer’s research is investigating Remote sensing of fuel to improve fire behaviour predictions with RMIT University. Remote sensing of bushfire has been identified as a way to objectively measure fuel to assess risk and make predictions of fire spread. This project proposes to measure bushfire fuel using remote sensing and the effects of fuel on fire behaviour.
As scholarship recipients, Cameron, Catherine, Fadia, Hafiz, Heather, Jiyu, Kate, Matthew, Saimum, Shauntelle, Simeon and Wavne join the Centre’s broader postgraduate program, which includes associate students and the Centre’s first Early Career Research Development Fellow, Dr Phillipa McCormack.
For details on the Centre’s Postgraduate Research Scholarship program, including scholarship eligibility criteria, how to apply and key dates, click here. Or check out the Education tab for other postgraduate support opportunities.