Unit of Study FORS5008 Fire Ecology and Management (2025)

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Unit Snapshot

Unit type

PG Coursework Unit
Credit points

12
Faculty & College

Faculty of Science and Engineering
Placement

No

Anti-requisites

FORS2001 - Fire Ecology and Management

Enrolment information

There will be 3 day compulsory residential for all students (Online and On Campus) that will be held on the Lismore campus. Please refer to http://scu.edu.au/timetables for further information on timetables.

Unit description

Examines principles of combustion and fire behaviour based on an understanding of meteorological events; the role of fire in ecosystem function; techniques of fire control including hazard reduction and other prescribed burning techniques; review of suppression strategies.

Unit content

1. Fire Through Time: pre-human, Aboriginal and European fire

2. Plant and Animal Adaptations: surviving fire and exploiting the post fire environment

3. Open-ecosystems: the role of fire in shaping ecosystem structure & distribution

4. Fire Behaviour: the role of weather, topography and fuel dynamics

5. Fire Management: managing fire regimes for hazard reduction and ecological burning, cultural burning

6. Fire in a Changing World: climate change and carbon cycles

Availabilities

Not currently available in 2025

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

understand the physical principles driving fire behaviour

demonstrate an advanced understanding of the ecological role of fire, particularly in forested ecosystems

analyse opposing fire management systems for their impact on ecological health and community safety.

Fee information

Domestic

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