The fuelbed: a key element of the Fuel Characteristic Classification SystemThis article is one of a selection of papers published in the Special Forum on the Fuel Characteristic Classification System.

Riccardi, Cynthia L. RiccardiC.L.; Ottmar, Roger D.; Sandberg, David; Andreu, Anne G.; Elman, Ella; Kopper, Karen; Long, Jennifer L.

doi:10.1139/x07-143

Cited by 60 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…FCCS was designed to represent the structural and geographic diversity in wildland fuels and combines the fuel properties into "fuelbeds", which include the physical and chemical variables used to model fire behavior and fuel consumption, and predict emissions [38]. FCCS uses fuel characteristics (e.g., percentage cover, loading, depth) to calculate and report nine fire potentials, organized into three categories: surface fire behavior potential, crown fire potential and available fuel potential [39].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

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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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire Behavior Simulation from Global Fuel and Climatic Information

Pettinari

Chuvieco

2017

Forests

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“…The FCCS organizes and categorizes fuelbeds (measured or averaged physical fuel characteristics depicting a particular fire environment) to assess potential fire behavior (Ottmar et al, 2007;Riccardi et al, 2007). FCCS stratifies fuelbeds into six major types: canopy, shrubs, nonwoody vegetation, woody vegetation, litterlichen-moss, and ground fuels (also duff ) (Ottmar et al, 2007).…”

Section: Fuel Characteristic Classification System (Fccs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fuelbed data are input into fire behavior models to predict fire potentials-surface fire behavior, crown fire potential, and available fuel potential (Riccardi et al, 2007;Sandberg et al, 2007). Each dimension of fire potential can be broken down into component parts.…”

Section: Fuel Characteristic Classification System (Fccs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2019

HER

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It will be difficult to imagine a sustainable earth in the long-term future without realizing that we will have to increasingly interfere with natural earth systems in order to maintain ourselves and those things and creatures we value. Will we be able to speak of anything wild or even natural on such a managed planet? I argue in the affirmative, drawing on some concepts of nature of both the ancient Greeks and the Chinese. The essentialist concept of nature that depends on the absolute distinction between humans and nature is criticized, and a process view is suggested which sees nature as more than a collection of objects untouched by humans.

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“…The study of fuel beds has been developed worldwide in different ecosystems (Sandberg et al 2001;Ottmar et al 2007;Riccardi et al 2007;Arroyo et al 2008;Donato et al 2013;Keane, 2013;Bernau et al 2018), tempered (Villers y López, 2004;Bautista et al 2005;Muñoz et al 2005;Wong and Villers, 2006) and tropical (Rodríguez-Trejo et al 2011; Adame et al 2013; Barrios-Calderón et al 2018). However, few studies have focused on exploring tropical freshwater forested wetlands with different levels of disturbance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fuel beds variation of coastal tropical freshwater forested wetlands in three disturbance regimes at La Encrucijada, Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

Barrios-Calderón¹,

Mata²,

Garnica³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Tropical freshwater forested wetlands in coastal regions are rapidly disappearing, one of the causes is forest fires. This is caused by high accumulation of fuel beds that can vary in origin and type. Therefore, the objective of this study was to characterize the fuel beds in tropical freshwater forested wetlands with three different level of disturbance at El Castaño, La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve.Methods: Seventeen sampling units were used to described the strates of forest fuel beds (canopy, sub-canopy and understory) in both the vertical and horizontal stratum. Quantity and quality of dead (fallen woody material, surface litterfall and fermented litterfall) fuels were characterized using the planars intersections technique.Results: A total of eight tree species, two shrubs, five lianas and two herbaceous species were found in tropical freshwater forested wetlands. The vertical structure concentrates the highest proportion of trees between 2 and 12 m high, including the first two defined height classes. The horizontal structure denotes a higher percentage of trees with a normal diameter between 2.5 to 7.5 cm (61.4%) of the total. The sites none disturbance presented the highest arboreal density (2,686 ind. ha− 1), however the highest basal area was found in the sites with medium disturbance (39.41 m2 ha− 1). The richness and diversity of species shows that the Fisher, Margalef, Shannon and Simpson α indices were higher in the sites undisturbed, while the Berger-Parker index shows greater dominance in the sites high disturbance. Pachira aquatica Aubl. was the species with the highest importance value index, and contributes the most to the fuel beds. The average accumulation of dead fuel beds was higher in sites with high disturbance (222.18 ± 33.62 t ha− 1), with the largest accumulations of woody fuels occurring in the 1 h, 10 h and 1000 h classes, the latter in a state of fermentation.Conclusions: It’s important to consider the probability of occurrence of surface fires is high. In these tropical freshwater forested wetlands, independent of disturbance, underground fires have the same probability and the intensity will depend on the depth of the organic matter layer. This study contributes define fire-prone areas in these ecosystems. The results are of great importance to design fire prevention strategies.

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The fuelbed: a key element of the Fuel Characteristic Classification SystemThis article is one of a selection of papers published in the Special Forum on the Fuel Characteristic Classification System.

Cited by 60 publications

References 15 publications

Fire Behavior Simulation from Global Fuel and Climatic Information

Fire Behavior Simulation from Global Fuel and Climatic Information

Untitled

Fuel beds variation of coastal tropical freshwater forested wetlands in three disturbance regimes at La Encrucijada, Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

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