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In spite of these activities, wildfires still occur when conditions 
are severe. Fire therefore remains an important environmental factor in 
the Australian forest and the management of these areas must take this into 
consideration. In planning appropriate management strategies the forested 
land manager requires much specific information including data on forest 
type distribution and fuel accumulation, prescribed burning history, 
wildfire history, accessibility, etc. 
This paper concentrates on the methods of providing timely and reliable 
maps of the areas burnt in forest wildfires and the patterns of intensity 
within the burnt area. This information is of value in determining the 
need for rehabilitation as well as for future programming of prescribed 
burns. As much of the forest estate receives only extensive management and 
protection, low cost approaches to fire mapping are essential. 
EXISTING METHODS OF WILD PI RE M AP PING 
The methods currently employed to produce maps of wildfires vary 
widely, depending on the detail required and the financial and/or manpower 
resources available. Each management authority has its different policy 
and resources. No attempt will be made to consider the relative merits of 
these methods, rather they are presented as methods currently accepted in 
practice. 
i. Rough field data collection - details of the area burnt and location 
of hot spots and canopy scorch are pieced together from information from 
fire fighters and supervisors and subsequent field reconnaissance. The 
data is presented in map form either directly or through the intermediate 
step of plotting details on pre-existing aerial photographs. 
2. Detailed field survey - more accurate detail can be obtained and 
mapped following field traverses and inspections using consistent survey 
techniques (not necessarily sophisticated). Here again, pre-existing 
aerial photographs, which can be quite outdated, are invaluable in inter- 
polating between the survey lines. 
3. Aerial sketch mapping - aerial reconnaissance and sketching of 
boundaries onto existing aerial photographs has been used successfully 
(Squire, N.S.W. For. Comm., pers. comm.). As light aircraft are involved 
and flights can be made under cloudy conditions results can be obtained 
shortly after the fire is completed, however good maps depend heavily 
on the skill of the observer. It is essential that he know the area in- 
timately otherwise aircraft costs increase substantially. The method 
suffers from the fact that any errors are difficult to detect or check 
without further flights. 
4. Special aerial photography - missions of aerial photography, usually 
in colour and at scales as large as 1:15 000 can be arranged at short 
notice after a major fire, and, together with either random or stratified