Chapter 2 Climatic and Weather Factors Affecting Fire Occurrence and Behavior

Benson, Randall P.; Roads, John O.; Weise, David R.

doi:10.1016/s1474-8177(08)00002-8

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 73 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Diurnal changes in temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and direction influence fire behavior [ 56 ]. Temperature has a direct influence on fire behavior because of the heat requirements for ignition and continuing the combustion process.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualitative Study on the Observations of Emissions, Transport, and the Influence of Climatic Factors from Sugarcane Burning: A South African Perspective

Shikwambana

Ncipha

Sangeetha

et al. 2021

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There are two methods of harvesting sugarcane—manual or mechanical. Manual harvesting requires the burning of the standing sugarcane crop. Burning of the crop results in the emission of aerosols and harmful trace gases into the atmosphere. This work makes use of a long-term dataset (1980–2019) to study (1) the atmospheric spatial and vertical distribution of pollutants; (2) the spatial distribution and temporal change of biomass emissions; and (3) the impact/influence of climatic factors on temporal change in atmospheric pollutant loading and biomass emissions over the Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal provinces in South Africa, where sugarcane farming is rife. Black carbon (BC) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) are two dominant pollutants in the JJA and SON seasons due to sugarcane burning. Overall, there was an increasing trend in the emissions of BC, SO2, and carbon dioxide (CO2) from 1980 to 2019. Climatic conditions, such as warm temperature, high wind speed, dry conditions in the JJA, and SON season, favor the intensity and spread of the fire, which is controlled. The emitted pollutants are transported to neighboring countries and can travel over the Atlantic Ocean, as far as ~6600 km from the source site.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualitative Study on the Observations of Emissions, Transport, and the Influence of Climatic Factors from Sugarcane Burning: A South African Perspective

Shikwambana

Ncipha

Sangeetha

et al. 2021

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A recent review on the role of natural disturbances in European forests from 1850 to 2000 reveals that fires are the second most important disturbance (after the storms) been responsible for 16% of total damage over the 1950-2000 period (Schelhaas et al, 2003). A combination of natural factors (vegetation stress, slopping topography, weather and climate), with a long history of human management practices of natural environments by means of fire, that favour anthropogenic ignitions in the Mediterranean countries, makes this region especially prone to the occurrence of a large number of fire events and to the onset of extreme fire episodes that determine per se the majority of the total amount of burnt area (hereafter, BA) in a whole fire season (Viegas et al, 1992;Pereira et al, 2005;Pyne, 2006;Benson et al, 2008;Rasilla et al, 2010;Amraoui et al, 2013). Therefore, it is not surprising that the largest numbers of f ires and burnt area in Europe are found in southern European countries, namely Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece Schmuck et al, 2011;Amraoui et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land cover fire proneness in Europe

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim of study: The characterization of the fuels is an important aspect of the fire regime in each specific ecosystem while fire is an important disturbance for global vegetation dynamics. This study aims to identify and characterize the spatial and temporal evolution of the fire incidence and of the vegetation types that are most affected by forest fires in Europe, with emphasis on the mixed forests.Area of study: Europe. Material and methods:Corine Land Cover maps for 2000 and 2006 (CLC2000, CLC2006) and burned area (BA) perimeters, from 2000 to 2013 in Europe are combined to access the spatial and temporal evolution of the types of vegetation that are most affected by fires using geostatistics and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques.Main results: The spatial and temporal distribution of BA perimeters, vegetation and burnt vegetation by fires was performed and different statistics were obtained for Mediterranean and northern Europe, confirming the usefulness of the used land cover classification. A fire proneness index (FPI) is proposed to assess the fire selectivity of land cover classes, to quantify and compare the propensity of vegetation classes and countries to fire.Research highlights: Mixed forests area is 5% of total European area but has increased 2.1% from 2000 to 2006, while other forest types followed an opposite trend. FPI for scrubs is twice (quadruple) of the value for the forests (agricultural areas) except during the occurrence of mega fire events, when the LCC of forest present higher FPI than the LCC of scrub.

show abstract

“…Another factor affecting the likelihood that fire can percolate across the landscape is the likelihood that fire can spread from a burning site to adjacent sites in the neighborhood. Factors affecting this include fuel load, moisture status of vegetation, relative humidity, temperature, windspeed and wind direction (Benson et al, 2008;Fuentes-Ramirez et al, 2016;Estes et al, 2017). We explored the impact of changing conditions of spread in an experiment [E-2] altering the probability that a burning site will set an adjacent site with sufficient fuel to burn on fire (Figure 6).…”

Section: Spread Of Fire Across the Landscape (Percolation)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Impacts on Fire Risk in Desert Shrublands: A Modeling Study

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fire is recognized to be an important disturbance in many ecosystems worldwide, although desert ecosystems are not generally thought of as being prone to fire, primarily because of the lack of a continuous fuel bed. However, the likelihood of catastrophic fires in some desert systems is increasing due to the spread of exotic species, which can grow in the open. A second factor increasing fire risk may be extreme rainfall events caused by climate warming that can lead to an increase in fuel loads. Our work explores the impact of increased rainfall on fire risk in creosote shrublands that have been invaded by exotic grasses. We take experimental results from creosote (Larrea tridentata) shrublands in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the Southwestern United States and develop spatially explicit simulation models to explore the impact of shifting rainfall regimes on biomass production and fire spread. In doing this, we explore two scales that are important in the spread of fire: (1) the macro-scale which considers the likelihood that fire arriving at one edge of a modeled landscape will successfully reach the opposite edge, leading to spread at a broader scale; and (2) the micro-scale, which considers fire spread within the landscape. We use a very simple model to first explore how changes in the distribution of fuel in the landscape impact the ability of fire to spread across and within the landscape. We then add more realism by including a direct consideration of creosote shrub distributions and biomass levels produced in different vegetation zones associated with distance from creosote. Our models show that the spread of fire at both macro- and micro-scales can be predicted from a knowledge of the statistical distribution of biomass in the field. The only additional information that is needed to predict the extent of fire spread is the amount of biomass at a local site (g m–2) required to ignite standing biomass in adjacent sites. This will depend upon species composition as well as amount of biomass, the hydration status of the vegetation and climatic conditions, such as windspeed and relative humidity.

show abstract

Chapter 2 Climatic and Weather Factors Affecting Fire Occurrence and Behavior

Cited by 23 publications

References 73 publications

Qualitative Study on the Observations of Emissions, Transport, and the Influence of Climatic Factors from Sugarcane Burning: A South African Perspective

Qualitative Study on the Observations of Emissions, Transport, and the Influence of Climatic Factors from Sugarcane Burning: A South African Perspective

Land cover fire proneness in Europe

Climate Impacts on Fire Risk in Desert Shrublands: A Modeling Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About