Estimating the economic, social and environmental impacts of wildfires in Australia

Wildfires often result in widespread destruction and damage to a range of economic, social and environmental assets and functions. This article presents an economic loss assessment framework which has not only been developed to value these assets, but more importantly addresses the fundamental economic principles commonly lacking in other frameworks. Five severe south-eastern Australian wildfires were used as case studies to examine the utility of the framework. The impact and cost data collected as part of this framework provide valuable information for a range of applications, such as measuring the efficacy of government response and recovery arrangements and programmes, shaping policies and providing businesses with disaster information on which they can make decisions. Some areas requiring further research were identified. These included the need to develop consistent values for estimating environmental impacts, in the form of ecosystem service values for south-eastern Australia, and a standardized survey format for valuing a range of indirect economic and social impacts.