Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System: An Overview

Stocks, B. J.; Lynham, T. J.; Lawson, B. D.; Alexander, Martin E.; Wagner, C. E. Van; McAlpine, Robert S.; Dubé, D. E.

doi:10.5558/tfc65258-4

Cited by 246 publications

(165 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…In terms of their stand structure and fire behaviour characteristics, these two species are similar and are a very common forest type found across Canada. Although there are numerous published descriptions of the FWI System and its components (e.g., Stocks et al 1989), the mathematical structure of the system, as it is used today, was described by Van Wagner (1987).…”

Section: The Fire Weather Index Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting and using outputs from the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System in research applications

2008

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Understanding and being able to predict forest fire occurrence, fire growth and fire intensity are important aspects of forest fire management. In Canada fire management agencies use the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS) to help predict these elements of forest fire activity. In this paper a review of the CFFDRS is presented with the main focus on understanding and interpreting Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) System outputs. The need to interpret the outputs of the FWI System with consideration to regional differences is emphasized and examples are shown of how the relationship between actual fuel moisture and the FWI System's moisture codes vary from region to region. Examples are then shown of the relationship between fuel moisture and fire occurrence for both human-and lightningcaused fire for regions with different forest composition. The relationship between rate of spread, fuel consumption and the relative fire behaviour indices of the FWI System for different forest types is also discussed. The outputs of the CFFDRS are used every day across Canada by fire managers in every district, regional and provincial fire management office. The purpose of this review is to provide modellers with an understanding of this system and how its outputs can be interpreted. It is hoped that this review will expose statistical modellers and other researchers to some of the models used currently in forest fire management and encourage further research and development of models useful for understanding and managing forest fire activity.

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Section: The Fire Weather Index Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting and using outputs from the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System in research applications

2008

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“…MC2 was initialized with climate data representing 1895-1950(PRISM, Daly et al 2008) and run forward from 1950 to 2100 with the downscaled GCM climate data. The MC2 wildfire model (Lenihan et al 2008a;Lenihan et al 2008b) initiates fires based on fuel moisture conditions (driven by temperature and relative humidity), with critical parameters in the form of Canadian Forest Fire Weather System BUI (Build-up Index) and FFMC (Fine Fuel Moisture Code) indices (Stocks et al 1989). Here, the BUI and FFMC thresholds were adjusted to produce a fire regime that approximated the historical rate of standreplacing fire in our domain during the 1985-2010 interval (see below).…”

Section: The Dynamic Global Vegetation Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Projected climate change impacts on forest land cover and land use over the Willamette River Basin, Oregon, USA

2015

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Upland forests in the Pacific Northwest currently provide a host of ecosystem services. However, the regional climate is expected to warm significantly over the course of the 21st century and this factor must be accounted for in planning efforts to maintain those services. Here we couple a dynamic global vegetation model (MC2) with a landscape simulation model (Envision) to evaluate potential impacts of climate change on the vegetation cover and the disturbance regime in the Willamette River Basin, Oregon. Three CMIP5 climate model scenarios, downscaled to a 4 km spatial resolution, were employed. In our simulations, the dominant potential vegetation cover type remained forest throughout the basin, but forest type transitioned from primarily evergreen needleleaf to a mixture of broadleaf and needleleaf growth forms adapted to a warmer climate. By 2100, there was a difference (i.e., climate/vegetation disequilibrium) between potential and actual forest type for 20-50 % of the forested area. In the moderate to high climate change scenarios, the average area burned per year increased three to nine fold from the present day. Forest harvest on private land is projected to be affected late in the century because of fire altering the availability of rotation-age stands. A generally more disturbed and open forest landscape is expected, which may significantly alter the hydrologic cycle.Climatic Change

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“…The most common variables for those simulations are fuel moisture (estimated as a function of temperature, humidity and precipitation), wind speed, and terrain conditions (such as slope or aspect). Examples of widely-used fire behavior models are BehavePlus [8], the National Fire Danger Rating System [9], the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction System [10], and the Fuel Characteristic Classification System [11]. These systems were developed for regional or national territories, where fuel characteristics information is available,…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire Behavior Simulation from Global Fuel and Climatic Information

Pettinari

Chuvieco

2017

Forests

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Large-scale fire danger assessment has become increasingly relevant in the past few years, and is usually based on weather information. Still, fuel characteristics also play an important role in fire behavior. This study presents a fire behavior simulation based on a global fuelbed dataset and climatic and topographic information. The simulation was executed using the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS). The climatic information covered the period 1980-2010, and daily weather parameters were used to calculate the mean monthly fuel moisture content (FMC) and wind speed for the early afternoon period. Also, as the most severe fires occur with extreme environmental conditions, a worst-case scenario was created from the 30 days of each month with the lowest FMC values for the 1980-2010 period. The FMC and wind speed information was grouped into classes, and FCCS was used to simulate the reaction intensity, rate of spread and flame length of the fuelbeds for the average and worst-case monthly conditions. Outputs of the simulations were mapped at global scale, showing the variations in surface fire behavior throughout the year, both due to climatic conditions and fuel characteristics. The surface fire behavior parameters identified the fuels and environmental conditions that produced more severe fire events, as well as those regions where high fire danger only occurs in extreme climatic conditions. The most severe fire events were found in grasslands and shrublands in tropical dry biomes, and corresponding with the worst-case scenario environmental conditions. Also, the results showed the importance of including detailed fuel information into fire danger assessment systems, as the same weather and topographic conditions may have different danger rates, depending on fuel characteristics.

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Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System: An Overview

Cited by 246 publications

References 9 publications

Interpreting and using outputs from the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System in research applications

Interpreting and using outputs from the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System in research applications

Projected climate change impacts on forest land cover and land use over the Willamette River Basin, Oregon, USA

Fire Behavior Simulation from Global Fuel and Climatic Information

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