Australian bushfire hotspots map

Bushfires are part of Australian life

Every year, thousands of hectares of Australian bushland go up in smoke. More often than not fires are raging in remote areas but when they threaten local communities lives are at stake. Big cities are not safe from the ferocity of fires. Such tragedies as the Canberra bushfires of 2003, where 4 lives were lost and as many as 431 properties were damaged, the Ash Wednesday fires of February 1983 (71 deaths in Victoria and South Australia) or the Tasmanian fires of February 1967 (62 lives, more than 1400 houses and buildings lost) place bushfires high on the list of Australia's natural disasters.

Australia ablaze

October marks the start of bushfire season in Australia. Long hot summers in recent years mean that bushfires are a recurring news in Australian media. The map on the right gives a good perspective on the extent of fires raging across Australia and neighboring countries at present.

Timely and authoritative perspective

The fire hotspots shown on the map are derived from the National Bushfire Monitoring System that provides information to emergency service managers across Australia. Source data is obtained from the NASA Earth Observation Satellites Terra and Aqua and is processed by Geoscience Australia. The satellites orbit the Earth collecting data in a path 2330 km wide. They pass over Australia up to three times a day.

Under ideal conditions, the hotspots shown have been detected 1-24 hours ago, depending on regional information received from the last satellite overpass. The hotspot location on any map (no matter how detailed) is only accurate to at best 1.5 km. The symbol used for the hotspot on the maps does not indicate the size of the fire. Not all hotspots are detected by the satellites. Some heat sources may be too small, not hot enough, or obscured by thick smoke or cloud. The satellites detect any heat source that is hotter than normal. As well as fires these may include industrial operations such as furnaces.

Bushfire Watch Map is a free resource provided by aus-emaps.com. Below you will find a comprehensive set of instructions on how to take advantage of the extensive functionality of our maps.

Postscript: Devastating Victorian Bushires of 7 February 2009

Black Saturday was the deadliest and worst ever bushfire disaster in Australian history, with death toll of 173, more than 2000 properties lost, several towns completely obliterated and more than 7,000 people displaced and struggling to rebuild their lives...



























Natural Disasters Monitor

Bushfire hotspots (full screen map option)

For a full screen version of the bushfire hotspots map visit Natural Disaters Monitor - choose between standard google base maps, 1:250K topographic map or a mosaic of latest MODIS satellite images .

Bushfire hotspots map for Individuals

Bookmark specific location on aus-emaps.com Natural Hazards map

Just visit Natural Hazards map from our Thematic Maps Series, navigate to the desired location and click "Link" button under the map to generate a full URL address of the map you are viewing. Use your browser functionality to bookmark/add to favorites the page and you will be able to refer to that specific map and location again and again (see instructions for Webmasters to take advantage of more complex link options).

Bushfire hotspots map for Webmasters


Link to aus-emaps.com Natural Hazards map

Option 1: Link to a map showing specific location

Visit Natural Hazards map from our Thematic Maps Series, navigate to the desired location and click "Link" button under the map to generate a full URL address of the map you are viewing. Copy the link to your web page.

Option 2: Link to a map showing specific location + marker with custom text

You can add a marker with custom text to the map. Just add this extra bit of code to the URL address, generated as per instructions in Option 1, and the marker will appear in the center of the map:

&tx=<b>Title</b><br><a href=http://www.google.com.au>search the net</a>

Hint: html and css code accepted to format the text but please avoid quotes ( " as well as ' ).

Option 3: Link to a map via location search option

You can link to a specific location on the map via adr= parameter, followed by name of town, postcode, locality or full address, as in the example below (experiment for best results):

http://www.aus-emaps.com/hotspots.php?adr=113 Monaro Crescent, Red Hill, ACT, Australia

Hint: In this option zoom level cannot be controlled. Since marker on the map appears as a default, add your own message - there are two additional parameters available to help you format the message, for example:

&ttl=Title of your message&tx=Text of your message

Embed Bushfire Watch Map in a web page

Option 1: Map of Australia (default)

Include the following code in the <body> section of your web page:

<iframe name="iwindow" id="iwindow" style="border:1px solid gray" scrolling="no" width="400" height="445" align="top" frameborder="0" src="http://www.aus-emaps.com/free/bushfires.php"></iframe>

Option 2: Map focused on a specific location

In order to load Bushfire Watch Map centered on location of your choice you need to include 4 separate bits of html code on your web page:

2.1. Geographic coordinates of the point to center the map on, as well as desired zoom level:

<head> <script type="text/javascript"> pX=["150.13119984"]; pY=["-35.33705193"]; pZ=["10"]; </script> </head>

where pX = longitute, pY = latitude and pZ= map zoom level

Hint: To generate coordinates for the point of interest, visit Natural Hazards map, navigate to the desired location and click "Link" button under the map to generate a full URL address of the map you are viewing. Copy geographic coordinates and zoom level information to your page. Alternatively, use our manual geocoder tool.

2.2. Link to an external javascript file to display the map on-page-load (include in <head> section of your page).

<script src="http://www.aus-emaps.com/free/htsptmap.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

2.3 <iframe> to position the map on your page (include in the <body> section of your page):

<iframe name="iwindow" id="iwindow" style="border:1px solid gray" scrolling="no" width="400" height="445" align="top" frameborder="0" src="http://www.aus-emaps.com/free/index.html"></iframe>

2.4. Hidden form to allow passing coordinates from your page to Bushfire Watch Map (include in <body> section of your page):

<form name="data" method="POST" action="http://www.aus-emaps.com/free/bushfires.php" target="iwindow"> <input type="hidden" name="pX"> <input type="hidden" name="pY"> <input type="hidden" name="pZ"> </form>

Option 3: Map with multiple locations

Bushfire Watch Map can show only one location at a time. However, you can specify on your page more than one location by creating an array of points instead of a single point, for example:

<head> <script type="text/javascript"> pX=["150.4962158203125","116.4495849609375"]; pY=["-33.40393120023467","-31.924192605327704"]; pZ=["8","5"]; </script> </head>

When first loaded, the map always centers on the first location in the array. Subsequent locations can be called by including the following links on your page (you must have all other bits of code on your page, as per Option 2):

<a href="http://www.aus-emaps.com" onclick="mapit2(0,'list');return false">Location 1 </a>

<a href="http://www.aus-emaps.com" onclick="mapit2(1,'list');return false">Location 2 </a>

 

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