Data Experts Deliver Life-Saving Bushfire Tool
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DATA EXPERTS DELIVER LIFE-SAVING BUSHFIRE TOOL
As climate change continues to drive Australia’s bushfire threat, new forecasting tools are needed more than ever.
To aid investment planning, the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) partnered with PhD experts on a data-driven Future Decision Support Model that would assist in identifying the likelihood and severity of natural disasters, their impact on the community and assets of Queensland and the services these disaster-driven impacts generate for QFES.
Developed by Queensland’s whole-of-government analytics provider, Data Sharing & Analysis (DSA), the team engaged with APR.Intern to augment its skill in the area of data analytics. PhD student, Puteri ‘Mita’ Paramita from the Queensland University of Technology was a perfect match; able to work with the high-end data scientists on the strategic project.
“My five-month project helped me to gain confidence, identify transferable skills and understand commercial imperatives. The experience exceeded my expectations,”
Puteri ‘Mita’ Paramita, former PhD Intern at DSA
For DSA Program Director, Jeffrey Popova-Clark, Mita’s expertise and professionalism helped QFES adopt the use of modern data science to strategic investment decision making.
“Mita was an excellent addition to this innovative project and I can’t imagine its development without her. The internship increased the project’s success by providing additional support and delivering rapid results through a tightly-focused research project,”
Jeffrey Popova-Clark, DSA Program Director
QFES’s new tool will assist Queensland communities in preparing for fires, floods, cyclones and earthquakes by informing the strategic investment of emergency response infrastructure, proactive skills building and predictive location of emergency response resources.
The data-driven capability was the first of its kind in Australia, catapulting QFES and the Queensland government in terms of its ability to use objective data during emergency services investment decision making.
The DSA team acknowledge Mita’s contribution to the project, which provided a lasting strategic legacy to support volatile emergency services.
This internship was supported by the Australian Government Department of Education, through the ‘Supporting more women in STEM careers: Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) – National Research Internship Program’.
