scholarly journals The Haines Index – it's time to revise it or replace it

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Potter
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Severity Index ◽  
The United States ◽  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Original Publication ◽  
Fire Behaviour ◽  
Large Growth ◽  
Wildland Fire Management ◽  
Original Index

The Haines Index is used in wildland fire management to evaluate the potential for ‘large and/or erratic’ fire behaviour. Published in 1988 as the Lower Atmospheric Severity Index, it was widely adopted and has become popular among fire managers, especially in the United States. Meteorologists have questioned its validity, however. This study revisits the original publication to consider the scientific basis of the Index. It then examines subsequent studies of the Index’s performance. The original Index formulation is found to be incomplete. Some studies suggest that, nonetheless, there may be some association of the Index with large growth events. Others indicate that the Index can be negatively correlated with growth in some situations. The Index, at present, lacks a scientific basis and the limited studies examining its value are inconclusive. It is unclear whether it would more appropriately be revised or replaced.

scholarly journals Effects of policy change on wildland fire management strategies: evidence for a paradigm shift in the western US?

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse D. Young ◽  
Alexander M. Evans ◽  
Jose M. Iniguez ◽  
Andrea Thode ◽  
Marc D. Meyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Western Us ◽  
Strategic Options ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Wildland Fire Management

In 2009, new guidance for wildland fire management in the United States expanded the range of strategic options for managers working to reduce the threat of high-severity wildland fire, improve forest health and respond to a changing climate. Markedly, the new guidance provided greater flexibility to manage wildland fires to meet multiple resource objectives. We use Incident Status Summary reports to understand how wildland fire management strategies have differed across the western US in recent years and how management has changed since the 2009 Guidance for Implementation of Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. When controlling for confounding variation, we found the 2009 Policy Guidance along with other concurrent advances in fire management motivated an estimated 27 to 73% increase in the number of fires managed with expanded strategic options, with only limited evidence of an increase in size or annual area burned. Fire weather captured a manager’s intent and allocation of fire management resources relative to burning conditions, where a manager’s desire and ability to suppress is either complemented by fire weather, at odds with fire weather, or put aside due to other priorities. We highlight opportunities to expand the use of strategic options in fire-adapted forests to improve fuel heterogeneity.

Wildfire Management and Forecasting Fire Potential: The Roles of Climate Information and Social Networks in the Southwest United States

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gigi Owen ◽  
Jonathan D. McLeod ◽  
Crystal A. Kolden ◽  
Daniel B. Ferguson ◽  
Timothy J. Brown
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Fire Ecology ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Wildland Fire Management

Abstract Continuing progress in the fields of meteorology, climatology, and fire ecology has enabled more proactive and risk-tolerant wildland fire management practices in the United States. Recent institutional changes have also facilitated the incorporation of more advanced climate and weather research into wildland fire management. One of the most significant changes was the creation of Predictive Services in 1998, a federal interagency group composed, in part, of meteorologists who create climate- and weather-based fire outlooks tailored to fire manager needs. Despite the numerous forecast products now available to fire managers, few studies have examined how these products have affected their practices. In this paper the authors assess how fire managers in the Southwest region of the United States perceive and incorporate different types of information into their management practices. A social network analysis demonstrates that meteorologists have become central figures in disseminating information in the regional interagency fire management network. Interviews and survey data indicate that person-to-person communication during planning phases prior to the primary fire season is key to Predictive Services’ success in supporting fire managers’ decision making. Over several months leading up to the fire season, predictive forecasts based on complex climate, fuels, and fire-risk models are explained to fire managers and updated through frequent communication. The study’s findings suggest that a significant benefit of the information sharing process is the dialogue it fosters among fire managers, locally, regionally, and nationally, which better prepares them to cooperate and strategically plan for the fire season.

Built structure identification in wildland fire decision support

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 78 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. Calkin ◽  
Jon D. Rieck ◽  
Kevin D. Hyde ◽  
Jeffrey D. Kaiden
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Fire Spread ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structure Identification ◽  
Incident Management ◽  
Wildland Fire Management

Recent ex-urban development within the wildland interface has significantly increased the complexity and associated cost of federal wildland fire management in the United States. Rapid identification of built structures relative to probable fire spread can help to reduce that complexity and improve the performance of incident management teams. Approximate structure locations can be mapped as specific-point building cluster features using cadastral data records. This study assesses the accuracy and precision of building clusters relative to GPS structure locations and compares these results with area mapping of housing density using census-based products. We demonstrate that building clusters are reasonably accurate and precise approximations of structure locations and provide superior strategic information for wildland fire decision support compared with area density techniques. Real-time delivery of structure locations and other values-at-risk mapped relative to probable fire spread through the Wildland Fire Decision Support System Rapid Assessment of Values at Risk procedure supports development of wildland fire management strategies.

Describing wildland surface fuel loading for fire management: a review of approaches, methods and systems

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Keane
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fire Behaviour ◽  
Fuel Loading ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Prediction Systems ◽  
In Fire

Wildland fuelbeds are exceptionally complex, consisting of diverse particles of many sizes, types and shapes with abundances and properties that are highly variable in time and space. This complexity makes it difficult to accurately describe, classify, sample and map fuels for wildland fire research and management. As a result, many fire behaviour and effects software prediction systems use a generalised description of fuels to simplify data collection and entry into various computer programs. There are several major fuel description systems currently used in the United States, Canada and Australia, and this is a source of confusion for many in fire management. This paper (1) summarises the challenges of describing fuels, (2) contrasts approaches (association, classification and abstraction) for developing fuel description systems and (3) discusses possible future directions in wildland fuel description and science to transition to a universal fuel description system. Most discussion centres on surface fuel loadings as the primary descriptive characteristic. This synthesis paper is intended to provide background for understanding surface fuel classification and description systems and their use in simulating fire behaviour and effects, quantifying carbon inventories and evaluating site productivity.

scholarly journals LANL Five-Year Wildland Fire Management Plan (2016-2020)

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanee Maree Hand ◽  
Rod Moraga ◽  
Manuel J. L'Esperance
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Wildland Fire Management

scholarly journals Wildland Fire Management Plan

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Schwager
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Wildland Fire Management

A New Process for Organizing Assessments of Social, Economic, and Environmental Outcomes: Case Study of Wildland Fire Management in the USA

2007 ◽  
Vol preprint (2009) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall JF Bruins ◽  
Wayne Munns ◽  
Stephen J. Botti ◽  
Steve Brink ◽  
David Cleland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
New Process ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Wildland Fire Management

Changing fuel management strategies - The challenge of meeting new information and analysis needs

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan G. Conard ◽  
Timothy Hartzell ◽  
Michael W. Hilbruner ◽  
G. Thomas Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
Fire Management ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Hazard ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Fuel Management ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Ecological Principles ◽  
In Fire

This paper was presented at the conference ‘Integrating spatial technologies and ecological principles for a new age in fire management’, Boise, Idaho, USA, June 1999 ‘The earth, born in fire, baptized by lightning since before life"s beginning, has been and is a fire planet.’ E.V. Komarek Attitudes and policies concerning wildland fire, fire use, and fire management have changed greatly since early European settlers arrived in North America. Active suppression of wildfires accelerated early in the 20th Century, and areas burned dropped dramatically. In recent years, burned areas and cost of fires have begun to increase, in part due to fuel buildups resulting from fire suppression. The importance of fire as an ecosystem process is also being increasingly recognized. These factors are leading to changes in Federal agency fire and fuels management policies, including increased emphasis on use of prescribed fire and other treatments to reduce fuel loads and fire hazard. Changing fire management strategies have highlighted the need for better information and improved risk analysis techniques for setting regional and national priorities, and for monitoring and evaluating the ecological, economic, and social effects and tradeoffs of fuel management treatments and wildfires. The US Department of Interior and USDA Forest Service began the Joint Fire Science Program in 1998 to provide a sound scientific basis for implementing and evaluating fuel management activities. Development of remote sensing and GIS tools will play a key role in enabling land managers to evaluate hazards, monitor changes, and reduce risks to the environment and the public from wildland fires.

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