Looking across state bushfire maps this morning. On the list of things to review when this crisis is over is a federally coordinated standard for describing and visualising fire movements. Just have a look:
Here is the Victorian government bushfire map. There's a lot going on. Note that the visualisation of bushfire hazards stops at the Victorian border, so the south coast looks hazard free. emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/# 
And as @corduroy pointed out in an earlier tweet, they have 47 different indicator icons. Keep on eye on those indicator icons because...
This is the NSW government bushfire map. Do those icons look familiar? Not even remotely. And each map marks bushfire territory differently.
Let's zoom in on NSW. The map legend explains alert levels. Black outlined territory looks to denote incident areas, although this isn't part of the map legend (I couldn't find it).
Now, let's compare with Victoria's map legend, and descriptions of fire status. Here, fire status and response are split into two sets of icons.
Coloured lines and fill are also used differently. Note in NSW, black looks to denote breadth of incident areas. In Victoria, black lines and grey fill denote areas where evacuations are active.
Here are some other live bushfire maps I found typing "bushfire map Australia" into Google. WA's service, provided by Landgate. myfirewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au
The Australasian Mine Safety Journal also has a live bushfire map! With its own icons.
There isn't a federally managed bushfire map. Geoscience Australia manages Sentinel Hotspots, but rightly points out that for current status of bushfire alerts, citizens should defer to their state services: sentinel.ga.gov.au/#/
When bushfires are live in several states, with citizens trying to figure out how to move to safety, this lack of consistency, while minor in comparison with everything going on, makes making smart, safe decisions harder.
I started digging into it after trying to figure out whether we should drive from Canberra to Melbourne, or Canberra to Sydney, if we wanted a few days respite from smoke.
And while I'm illustrating inconsistencies in data visualisations, note the difference in information provided with each icon on NSW and VIC maps.
I'm not sure whether work is already underway coalescing around a national open bushfire standard (there could be, please tell me!) but it should be on the agenda.
A five minute review of bushfire feeds suggests states are using a mix of international standards (e.g. Common Alerting Protocol - XML) and...their own? There's probably been attempts to agree on a national standard before.
But as bush fires burn across state lines, isolating citizens, making travel dangerous, increasing risk, we need to try again.
.@maxious has just provided more info on CAP-AU-STD, and state uptake/planned uptake. I have no background on CAP, I can't locate resources re standardised front-end elements.
I should add, coalescing around standards is *hard*. Implementing to a standard is harder. And keeping a standard up to date and useful is the hardest. I’ve been there. It’s also where federal intervention and incentive can be a powerful motivator.
And more context from @DrPaulaDootson
From @stevage1
