The wildland - urban interface fire problem - current approaches and research needs

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 238 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Mell ◽  
Samuel L. Manzello ◽  
Alexander Maranghides ◽  
David Butry ◽  
Ronald G. Rehm
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Test Methods ◽  
Wildland Urban Interface ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Treatment Techniques ◽  
Exposure Conditions

Wildfires that spread into wildland–urban interface (WUI) communities present significant challenges on several fronts. In the United States, the WUI accounts for a significant portion of wildland fire suppression and wildland fuel treatment costs. Methods to reduce structure losses are focussed on fuel treatments in either wildland fuels or residential fuels. There is a need for a well-characterised, systematic testing of these approaches across a range of community and structure types and fire conditions. Laboratory experiments, field measurements and fire behaviour models can be used to better determine the exposure conditions faced by communities and structures. The outcome of such an effort would be proven fuel treatment techniques for wildland and residential fuels, risk assessment strategies, economic cost analysis models, and test methods with representative exposure conditions for fire-resistant building designs and materials.

Allowing a wildfire to burn: estimating the effect on future fire suppression costs

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel M. Houtman ◽  
Claire A. Montgomery ◽  
Aaron R. Gagnon ◽  
David E. Calkin ◽  
Thomas G. Dietterich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Cost Model ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Change Model ◽  
Value Change ◽  
Potential Cost ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Sample Paths ◽  
Treatment Benefits

Where a legacy of aggressive wildland fire suppression has left forests in need of fuel reduction, allowing wildland fire to burn may provide fuel treatment benefits, thereby reducing suppression costs from subsequent fires. The least-cost-plus-net-value-change model of wildland fire economics includes benefits of wildfire in a framework for evaluating suppression options. In this study, we estimated one component of that benefit – the expected present value of the reduction in suppression costs for subsequent fires arising from the fuel treatment effect of a current fire. To that end, we employed Monte Carlo methods to generate a set of scenarios for subsequent fire ignition and weather events, which are referred to as sample paths, for a study area in central Oregon. We simulated fire on the landscape over a 100-year time horizon using existing models of fire behaviour, vegetation and fuels development, and suppression effectiveness, and we estimated suppression costs using an existing suppression cost model. Our estimates suggest that the potential cost savings may be substantial. Further research is needed to estimate the full least-cost-plus-net-value-change model. This line of research will extend the set of tools available for developing wildfire management plans for forested landscapes.

scholarly journals Estimating Suppression Expenditures for Individual Large Wildland Fires

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krista M. Gebert ◽  
David E. Calkin ◽  
Jonathan Yoder
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Intensity Level ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Wildland Fires ◽  
Area Burned

Abstract The extreme cost of fighting wildland fires has brought fire suppression expenditures to the forefront of budgetary and policy debate in the United States. Inasmuch as large fires are responsible for the bulk of fire suppression expenditures, understanding fire characteristics that influence expenditures is important for both strategic fire planning and onsite fire management decisions. These characteristics then can be used to produce estimates of suppression expenditures for large wildland fires for use in wildland fire decision support or after-fire reviews. The primary objective of this research was to develop regression models that could be used to estimate expenditures on large wildland fires based on area burned, variables representing the fire environment, values at risk, resource availability, detection time, and National Forest System region. Variables having the largest influence on cost included fire intensity level, area burned, and total housing value within 20 mi of ignition. These equations were then used to predict suppression expenditures on a set of fiscal year 2005 Forest Service fires for the purpose of detecting “extreme” cost fires—those fires falling more than 1 or 2 SDs above or below their expected value.

scholarly journals Modeling Fuel Treatment Costs on Forest Service Lands in the Western United States

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 217-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Calkin ◽  
Krista Gebert
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Forest Service ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Usda Forest Service ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Fuel Loads ◽  
Treatment Type ◽  
The Cost

Abstract Years of successful fire suppression have led to high fuel loads on the nation's forests, and steps are being taken by the nation's land management agencies to reduce these fuel loads. However, to achieve desired outcomes in a fiscally responsible manner, the cost and effectiveness in reducing losses due to wildland fire of different fuel treatments in different forest settings must be understood. Currently, prioritizing fuel treatment activities and planning budget expenditures is limited by a lack of accurate cost data. The primary objective of this research was to develop regression models that may be used to estimate the cost of hazardous fuel reduction treatments based on USDA Forest Service Region, biophysical setting, treatment type, and design. A survey instrument was used to obtain activity-specific information directly from fire management officers at Forest Service Ranger Districts for treatments occurring between 2001 and 2003. For both prescribed burns and mechanical activities, treatment size described the largest amount of variation in cost per acre, with increased size reducing cost per acre, on average. We confirmed that data on Forest Service fuel treatment activities maintained in the National Fire Plan Operations and Reporting System were not sufficiently accurate for reasonable cost analysis and modeling.

scholarly journals Fire Suppression Resource Scarcity: Current Metrics and Future Performance Indicators

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin J Belval ◽  
Crystal S Stonesifer ◽  
David E Calkin
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Future Performance ◽  
Demand Information ◽  
Key Resources

Wildland fire occurrence is highly variable in time and space, and in the United States where total area burned can vary substantially, acquiring resources (firefighters, engines, aircraft, etc.) to respond to fire demand is an important consideration. To determine the composition and scale of this set of suppression resources managers may utilize data produced by past supply and demand information. The key challenge with this approach is that there is currently no clear system of record to track suppression resource supply and demand, and there are potential pitfalls within existing systems that may provide misleading information regarding the true levels of resource scarcity. In this manuscript, we investigate the issue of resource scarcity by examining two key resources that operations personnel have identified as both high value and scarce: type 1 firefighting crews and large airtankers. We examine data from the Resource Ordering and Status System and analyze the level of resource scarcity indicated by these data over the 2014–2018 fire seasons. We focus on data metrics with potential utility for managers responsible for annual national-level decisions regarding crew and airtanker acquisition; some of these metrics are already used to inform such decisions. We examine the limitations of each metric and suggest new metrics that could more accurately reflect true resource use and scarcity. Such metrics could lead to a substantially improved decision-making process.

Evaluating ecological resilience across wildfire suppression levels under climate and fuel treatment scenarios using landscape simulation modelling

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Keane ◽  
Kathy Gray ◽  
Brett Davis ◽  
Lisa M. Holsinger ◽  
Rachel Loehman
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Simulation Modelling ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Fuel Treatments ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Fire Use ◽  
Wildland Fire Use ◽  
Wildfire Suppression

Continued suppression of wildfires may allow more biomass to accumulate to foster even more intense fires. Enlightened fire management involves explicitly determining concurrent levels of suppression, wildland fire use (allowing some fires to burn) and fuel treatments to manage landscapes for ecological resilience. This study used the mechanistic landscape model FireBGCv2 to simulate ecological dynamics on three landscapes in the US northern Rocky Mountains to determine responses of seven management-oriented variables over a gradient of 10 fire suppression levels under two climate and four fuel treatment scenarios. We used a historical range and variation (HRV) time series of the seven variables individually and merged together as a Principal Components factor (PC1) to define the envelope that represents ecological resiliency and compared all simulations with the HRV base case. We found that under today’s climates, using the PC1 factor, ecological resilience was maintained while suppressing 30–90% of wildfires depending on the landscape. We also found fuel treatments might allow higher suppression levels to occur and still maintain resilience. Other findings indicate that each landscape must be individually evaluated to determine the right mix of wildfires, wildland fire use and fuel treatments depending on the response variables used to evaluate resilience.

Wildland Fire and Chaparral Succession Along the California Baja-California Boundary

1995 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
RA Minnich ◽  
CJ Bahre
Keyword(s):  
Fire History ◽  
Baja California ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fire Control ◽  
Average Mass ◽  
Field Samples ◽  
International Boundary

The United States-Mexico international boundary from ElPaso, Texas to the Pacific Coast shows clear differences in plant communities that were homogeneous prior to being split by a continuous fence at the turn of the century. This study evaluates how disparate fire regimes in California (fire suppression) and northern Baja California (little or no fire control) have influenced succession in the chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) chaparral communities spanning the international boundary between the border towns of Jacume and Tecate. Fire history was reconstructed using U.S. Forest Service fire maps and repeat aerial photography. Once plotted onto topographic maps and dated, the burns were divided into age-classes and sampled using 50 m point-quarter transects to develop successional chronosequences. Although fires are more frequent and smaller on the Mexican side of the border, our repeat photographs of the boundary monument markers together with field samples show that chaparral succession is similar across the international boundary in species composition, stem densities, and average mass shrub height. Chamise chaparral appears to be stable under disparate fire regimes because sprouting habits and latent seed pools permit efficient stand establishment under either short or long fire intervals. Chaparral recovery during the period examined here is unrelated to fire size because recolonization of burns by long-range seed dispersal is not a trait of the majority of the local shrub species and the shrubs either resprout. or germinate from soil seed reservoirs.

Modular Bridge Expansion Joints for Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge

1997 ◽  
Vol 1594 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Van Lund ◽  
Mark R. Kaczinski ◽  
Robert J. Dexter
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Strength ◽  
Fatigue Cracking ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Limit States ◽  
Expansion Joints ◽  
Lake Washington ◽  
Floating Bridge ◽  
Modular Bridge Expansion Joints ◽  
Washington State Department

The Lacey V. Murrow Bridge (LVM Bridge) is a 2013-m-long floating bridge on Interstate 90 across Lake Washington in Seattle, Washington. Single-support-bar, swivel-joist modular bridge expansion joint systems are located at each end of the bridge between the shore approach spans and the floating pontoons. These joints were designed for 960 mm of longitudinal movement as well as horizontal and vertical rotations caused by wind, wave, temperature, and changes in lake level elevation. A similar joint in an adjacent floating bridge had experienced premature fatigue cracking at welded attachment details because of low fatigue strength. For the LVM Bridge the joint components were fatigue tested and designed by using fatigue limit-states loads, resulting in welded attachment details with improved fatigue strength. In addition, a stiffer center beam and reduced center-beam span lengths produced lower fatigue stress ranges. Joint movements and rotations, fatigue design methodology, results of dynamic analyses, field measurements of the dynamic response, and construction details are described. The total cost of the LVM joints was 1 percent of the final bridge cost. The Washington State Department of Transportation required a 5-year guarantee for the LVM joints. These are the largest modular bridge expansion joints in the United States to be tested and designed for fatigue.

scholarly journals The Economic Effects of COVID-19 on the Producers of Ethanol, Corn, Gasoline, and Oil

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Schmitz ◽  
Charles B. Moss ◽  
Troy G. Schmitz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare Economic ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Corn Ethanol ◽  
Empirical Estimation ◽  
Total Oil

AbstractThe COVID-19 crisis created large economic losses for corn, ethanol, gasoline, and oil producers and refineries both in the United States and worldwide. We extend the theory used by Schmitz, A., C. B. Moss, and T. G. Schmitz. 2007. “Ethanol: No Free Lunch.” Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization 5 (2): 1–28 as a basis for empirical estimation of the effect of COVID-19. We estimate, within a welfare economic cost-benefit framework that, at a minimum, the producer cost in the United States for these four sectors totals $176.8 billion for 2020. For U.S. oil producers alone, the cost was $151 billion. When world oil is added, the costs are much higher, at $1055.8 billion. The total oil producer cost is $1.03 trillion, which is roughly 40 times the effect on U.S. corn, ethanol, and gasoline producers, and refineries. If the assumed unemployment effects from COVID-19 are taken into account, the total effect, including both producers and unemployed workers, is $212.2 billion, bringing the world total to $1266.9 billion.

scholarly journals Facilitating Prescribed Fire in Northern California through Indigenous Governance and Interagency Partnerships

Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Tony Marks-Block ◽  
William Tripp
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northern California ◽  
Prescribed Burn ◽  
California Department ◽  
State Regulations

Prescribed burning by Indigenous people was once ubiquitous throughout California. Settler colonialism brought immense investments in fire suppression by the United States Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention (CAL FIRE) to protect timber and structures, effectively limiting prescribed burning in California. Despite this, fire-dependent American Indian communities such as the Karuk and Yurok peoples, stalwartly advocate for expanding prescribed burning as a part of their efforts to revitalize their culture and sovereignty. To examine the political ecology of prescribed burning in Northern California, we coupled participant observation of prescribed burning in Karuk and Yurok territories (2015–2019) with 75 surveys and 18 interviews with Indigenous and non-Indigenous fire managers to identify political structures and material conditions that facilitate and constrain prescribed fire expansion. Managers report that interagency partnerships have provided supplemental funding and personnel to enable burning, and that decentralized prescribed burn associations facilitate prescribed fire. However, land dispossession and centralized state regulations undermine Indigenous and local fire governance. Excessive investment in suppression and the underfunding of prescribed fire produces a scarcity of personnel to implement and plan burns. Where Tribes and local communities have established burning infrastructure, authorities should consider the devolution of decision-making and land repatriation to accelerate prescribed fire expansion.

Estimating the Economic Cost of Childhood Poverty in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McLaughlin ◽  
Mark R Rank
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
The United States ◽  
Childhood Poverty
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