Location, timing and extent of wildfire vary by cause of ignition

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra D. Syphard ◽  
Jon E. Keeley

The increasing extent of wildfires has prompted investigation into alternative fire management approaches to complement the traditional strategies of fire suppression and fuels manipulation. Wildfire prevention through ignition reduction is an approach with potential for success, but ignitions result from a variety of causes. If some ignition sources result in higher levels of area burned, then ignition prevention programmes could be optimised to target these distributions in space and time. We investigated the most common ignition causes in two southern California sub-regions, where humans are responsible for more than 95% of all fires, and asked whether these causes exhibited distinct spatial or intra-annual temporal patterns, or resulted in different extents of fire in 10–29-year periods, depending on sub-region. Different ignition causes had distinct spatial patterns and those that burned the most area tended to occur in autumn months. Both the number of fires and area burned varied according to cause of ignition, but the cause of the most numerous fires was not always the cause of the greatest area burned. In both sub-regions, power line ignitions were one of the top two causes of area burned: the other major causes were arson in one sub-region and power equipment in the other. Equipment use also caused the largest number of fires in both sub-regions. These results have important implications for understanding why, where and how ignitions are caused, and in turn, how to develop strategies to prioritise and focus fire prevention efforts. Fire extent has increased tremendously in southern California, and because most fires are caused by humans, ignition reduction offers a potentially powerful management strategy, especially if optimised to reflect the distinct spatial and temporal distributions in different ignition causes.

1999 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 615-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. McAlpine ◽  
K. G. Hirsch

The Level of Protection Analysis System (LEOPARDS) allows the structured assessment of the outcomes and costs associated with alternative fire management policies, budgets, and suppression resource mixes. Its primary component is a deterministic, spatially conscious simulation model that emulates the daily fire suppression activities of a provincial fire management agency. Inputs for the model include historical fire weather and fire occurrence data, land-use objectives and operational rules, and infrastructure and suppression resource information. The model estimates physical outcomes (e.g., response time, number of escaped fires, area burned), fiscal results (e.g., fixed and variable costs), and resource utilization information. LEOPARDS has been used to address a number of strategic fire management issues in the province of Ontario and is being assessed for use in other parts of Canada.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. Calef ◽  
A. Varvak ◽  
A. D. McGuire ◽  
F. S. Chapin ◽  
K. B. Reinhold

Abstract The Alaskan boreal forest is characterized by frequent extensive wildfires whose spatial extent has been mapped for the past 70 years. Simple predictions based on this record indicate that area burned will increase as a response to climate warming in Alaska. However, two additional factors have affected the area burned in this time record: the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) switched from cool and moist to warm and dry in the late 1970s and the Alaska Fire Service instituted a fire suppression policy in the late 1980s. In this paper a geographic information system (GIS) is used in combination with statistical analyses to reevaluate the changes in area burned through time in Alaska considering both the influence of the PDO and fire management. The authors found that the area burned has increased since the PDO switch and that fire management drastically decreased the area burned in highly suppressed zones. However, the temporal analysis of this study shows that the area burned is increasing more rapidly in suppressed zones than in the unsuppressed zone since the late 1980s. These results indicate that fire policies as well as regional climate patterns are important as large-scale controls on fires over time and across the Alaskan boreal forest.


2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 1467-1480 ◽  
Author(s):  
P C Ward ◽  
A G Tithecott ◽  
B M Wotton

Ward and Tithecott (P.C. Ward and A.G. Tithecott. 1993. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Aviation, Flood and Fire Management Branch, Publ. 305) presented data that indicated fire suppression activities in Ontario led to reductions in average annual area burned and greater numbers of small fires, compared with what would have been observed in the absence of suppression. Miyanishi and Johnson (K. Miyanishi and E.A. Johnson. 2001. Can. J. For. Res. 31: 1462–1466) have questioned aspects of that report, suggesting that the evidence does not demonstrate that suppression influences fire size or frequency. Fire-history studies in Ontario's forests and recent fire disturbance records do show that the fire-return interval has lengthened considerably in Ontario's protected forest since pre-suppression times. Analysis of forest inventory age-class distributions also reflect a reduction in overall forest disturbance rates in the past 40 years. Average annual burn fractions (ABF) calculated for protected and unprotected forests in northwestern Ontario for the period 1976-2000 show an ABF of 1.11% in the unprotected forest and only 0.34% in the protected forest. There is clear evidence that fire suppression in Ontario contains many fires at small sizes that would have otherwise grown to larger sizes, and reduces the overall average annual area burned in the protected forest.


Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Nyongesa ◽  
Harald Vacik

This paper proposes an Integrated Fire Management (IFM) framework that can be used to support communities and resource managers in finding effective and efficient approaches to prevent damaging fires, as well as to maintain desirable fire regimes in Kenya. Designing and implementing an IFM approach in Kenya calls for a systematic understanding of the various uses of fire and the underlying perceptions and traditional ecological knowledge of the local people. The proposed IFM framework allows different stakeholders to evaluate the risks posed by fires and balance them with their beneficial ecological and economic effects making it easier for them to develop effective fire management approaches. A case study of the proposed IFM framework was conducted in Gathiuru Forest, which that is part of the larger Mt. Kenya Forest Ecosystem. Focus group discussions were held with key resource persons, primary and secondary data on socio-economic activities was studied, fire and weather records were analysed and the current fire management plans were consulted. Questionnaires were used to assess how the IFM is implemented in the Gathiuru Forest Station. The results show that the proposed IFM framework is scalable and can be applied in places with fire-dependent ecosystems as well as in places with fire-sensitive ecosystems in Kenya. The effectiveness of the proposed IFM framework depends on the active participation, formulation and implementation of the IFM activities by the main stakeholder groups (Kenya Forest Service (KFS), Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), and the Community Forest Associations (CFA). The proposed IFM framework helps in implementing cost-effective approaches to prevent damaging fires and maintain desirable fire regimes in Kenya.


2018 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 112-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abie Horrocks ◽  
Paul A. Horne ◽  
Melanie M. Davidson

An integrated pest management (IPM) strategy was compared with farmers’ conventional pest management practices on twelve spring- and autumn-sown seed and forage brassica crops. Demonstration trials were conducted in Canterbury from spring 2015 to autumn 2017 by splitting farmers’ paddocks in half and applying the two management approaches side by side. A farmer participatory approach was used, with management decisions based on monitoring pests and biological-control agents. Farmer and adviser training with a focus on monitoring and identification was carried out. Biological-control agents capable of contributing to pest control were identified in all brassica crops. There was a 35% reduction in the number of insecticides applied under IPM compared with conventional management, negligible crop yield differences, and the type of insecticides applied was different. IPM adoption at these farms was high by the end of the 3-year project with 11 of the 12 farmers implementing IPM across 90—100% of their brassica crops. This project was a starting point for an industry-wide change of practice to IPM, which has become more widespread since its completion.


Author(s):  
Adrian Daub

This introductory chapter provides the necessary context for the two protagonists (Arnold Schoenberg and Thomas Mann), as well as the leading supporting figure (Theodor Adorno). It aims to guide readers through the thicket of acquaintances, old grudges and new anxieties, problems of politics and aesthetics that resonate—sometimes faintly, sometimes clearly—between the lines in the essays and exchanges gathered in this volume. These are, after all, one reason scholars, students, and lay readers have returned to the Faustus controversy time and time again. The other is that rarely has a literary controversy spoken so directly to a unique place and time: Faustus could not have been written, and Faustus could not have generated the controversy that it did, outside of the highly peculiar setting of Southern California during the Second World War.


Author(s):  
Petter Gottschalk

Policing is heavily dependent on information, intelligence, and knowledge. The amount of information police officers come in contact with in the course of their work is often astounding. With a more proactive and preventive approach to crime reduction, police forces have increasingly relied on information and knowledge and associated information technology in terms of knowledge management systems to improve their performance. Accordingly, the management of knowledge is a crucial aspect of police work to promote knowledge development and sharing. This chapter covers key aspects of the police knowledge management strategy, including intelligence for knowledge, management approaches, knowledge integration, knowledge categories, organizational structure, and organizational culture for knowledge management.


Author(s):  
Daniel Gardner

At the turn of the twentieth century, real estate boosters seeking to promote southern California drew upon the national popularity of Helen Hunt Jackson’s 1884 novel Ramona, in particular its fantasy of the Spanish past. The fantasy’s colonial discourse deployed stereotypes marked by an ambivalence that romanticized “going Spanish” even as it portrayed Mexican communities as burdens necessitating subjugation through various strategies including repatriation. John Fante’s Ask the Dust (1939) repudiates the stereotype of the colonial fantasy by critically mimicking the Spanish past. By reversing the discourse of Ramona, Ask the Dust exposes the imperialist nostalgia of the fantasy, recognizes the instability of the regional sense of colonial authority, protests the racial injustice of the discourse, and recuperates the voice of the Other that the fantasy seeks to silence.


2018 ◽  
Vol 185 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludivine Eloy ◽  
Bibiana A. Bilbao ◽  
Jayalaxshmi Mistry ◽  
Isabel B. Schmidt

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.C.G.M. Van Es ◽  
P.A. Brouwer ◽  
P.W.A. Willems

Little is known on the natural history of ruptured isolated aneurysms of the posterior spinal artery (PSA). To date, only a few of such cases have been described in the literature. This paper aims to assess the most appropriate management strategy, based on the available literature and two new cases. In one of these, treatment was postponed until day 33, when angiography showed slight growth of the aneurysm. In the other, conservative treatment, requested by the patient, was successful. From these data, we conclude that treatment strategies for ruptured PSA aneurysms may vary. Aside from the recommendation by others to perform prompt surgical treatment, we suggest an alternative clinical paradigm allowing for the evaluation of the early clinical course. This may preclude the unnecessary treatment of spontaneously regressing lesions and still allows for appropriate treatment for persistent lesions.


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