Apocalypse Now: Australian Bushfires and the Future of Urban Settlements

The apocalyptic Australian bushfires have challenged the way we plan settlements. What is the future for small urban settlements within fire-vulnerable forests and bushland? Could they create a new model for rural settlements with wider lessons for development in big cities? This paper draws togethe...

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Main Authors: Norman, Barbara, Newman, Peter, Steffen, Will
Format: Journal Article
Published: Nature 2021
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/83405
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author Norman, Barbara
Newman, Peter
Steffen, Will
author_facet Norman, Barbara
Newman, Peter
Steffen, Will
author_sort Norman, Barbara
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The apocalyptic Australian bushfires have challenged the way we plan settlements. What is the future for small urban settlements within fire-vulnerable forests and bushland? Could they create a new model for rural settlements with wider lessons for development in big cities? This paper draws together observations of the 2019/20 bushfire size, intensity and destructiveness and links the fires to the global nature of the climate crisis and an earlier case study that accurately predicted the fire impacts in southeast coastal Australia. The findings are set out in two scenarios suggesting that the fires can lead to a new model for climate resilient development that can flow into larger centres with multiple benefits.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-834052021-05-14T01:43:47Z Apocalypse Now: Australian Bushfires and the Future of Urban Settlements Norman, Barbara Newman, Peter Steffen, Will The apocalyptic Australian bushfires have challenged the way we plan settlements. What is the future for small urban settlements within fire-vulnerable forests and bushland? Could they create a new model for rural settlements with wider lessons for development in big cities? This paper draws together observations of the 2019/20 bushfire size, intensity and destructiveness and links the fires to the global nature of the climate crisis and an earlier case study that accurately predicted the fire impacts in southeast coastal Australia. The findings are set out in two scenarios suggesting that the fires can lead to a new model for climate resilient development that can flow into larger centres with multiple benefits. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/83405 10.1038/s42949-020-00013-7 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Nature fulltext
spellingShingle Norman, Barbara
Newman, Peter
Steffen, Will
Apocalypse Now: Australian Bushfires and the Future of Urban Settlements
title Apocalypse Now: Australian Bushfires and the Future of Urban Settlements
title_full Apocalypse Now: Australian Bushfires and the Future of Urban Settlements
title_fullStr Apocalypse Now: Australian Bushfires and the Future of Urban Settlements
title_full_unstemmed Apocalypse Now: Australian Bushfires and the Future of Urban Settlements
title_short Apocalypse Now: Australian Bushfires and the Future of Urban Settlements
title_sort apocalypse now: australian bushfires and the future of urban settlements
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/83405