Forest fire danger rating research in Canada was initiated by the federal government in 1925. Five different fire danger rating systems have been developed since that time, each with increasing universal applicability across Canada. The approach has been to build on previous danger rating systems in an evolutionary fashion and to use field experiments and empirical analysis extensively. The current system, the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS), has been under development by Forestry Canada since 1968. The first major subsystem of the CFFDRS, the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System, provides numerical ratings of relative fire potential based solely on weather observations, and has been in use throughout Canada since 1970. The second major subsystem, the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction (FBP) System, accounts for variability in fire behavior among fuel types (predicting rate of spread, fuel consumption, and frontal fire intensity), was issued in interim form in 1984 with final production scheduled for 1990. A third major CFFDRS subsystem, the Canadian Forest Fire Occurrence Prediction (FOP) System, is currently being formulated. This paper briefly outlines the history and philosophy of fire danger rating research in Canada discussing in detail the structure of the current CFFDRS and its application and use by fire management agencies throughout Canada. Key words: fire danger, fire behavior, fire occurrence prediction, fuel moisture, fire danger rating system, fire management.
The severity of a burn for post-fire ecological effects has been assessed with the composite burn index (CBI) and the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR). This study assessed the relationship between these two variables across recently burned areas located in the western Canadian boreal, a region not extensively evaluated in previous studies. Of particular interest was to evaluate the nature of the CBI–dNBR relationship from the perspectives of modelling, the influence of fire behaviour prediction (FBP) fuel type, and how field observations could be incorporated into the burn severity mapping process. A non-linear model form best represented the relationship between these variables for the fires evaluated, and a similar statistical performance was achieved when data from all fires were pooled into a single dataset. Results from this study suggest the potential to develop a single model for application over the western region of the boreal, but further evaluation is necessary. This evaluation could include stratification by FBP fuel type due to study results that document its apparent influence on dNBR values. A new approach for burn severity mapping was introduced by defining severity thresholds through field assessment of CBI, and from which development of new models could be incorporated directly into the mapping process.
In many forest types, over half of the total stand biomass is located in the forest floor. Carbon emissions during wildland fire are directly related to biomass (fuel) consumption. Consumption of forest floor fuel varies widely and is the greatest source of uncertainty in estimating total carbon emissions during fire. We used experimental burn data (59 burns, four fuel types) and wildfire data (69 plots, four fuel types) to develop a model of forest floor fuel consumption and carbon emissions in nonpeatland standing-timber fuel types. The experimental burn and wildfire data sets were analyzed separately and combined by regression to provide fuel consumption models. Model variables differed among fuel types, but preburn fuel load, duff depth, bulk density, and Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System components at the time of burning were common significant variables. The regression R2 values ranged from 0.206 to 0.980 (P < 0.001). The log–log model for all data combined explained 79.5% of the regression variation and is now being used to estimate annual carbon emissions from wildland fire. Forest floor carbon content at the wildfires ranged from 40.9% to 53.9%, and the carbon emission rate ranged from 0.29 to 2.43 kg·m–2.
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