A quantitative comparison of forest fires in central and northern California under early (1911–1924) and contemporary (2002–2015) fire suppression

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon M. Collins ◽  
Jay D. Miller ◽  
Eric E. Knapp ◽  
David B. Sapsis
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Timber Harvesting ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Annual Number ◽  
Regime Changes ◽  
Major Shift

Most studies of fire-regime changes in western North American forests rely on a reference period that pre-dates Euro-American settlement. Less is known about fire-regime changes relative to the early onset of major change agents, i.e. fire suppression and timber harvesting. We digitised ledgers that contained over 18000 individual fire records from 1911 through 1924 (early suppression period). We performed analyses comparing a subset of these fire records, largely in mixed-conifer forests, to similar records from 2002 through 2015 (contemporary period). Mapped ignition frequencies indicated similar geographic patterns for lightning-caused fires between periods, but notable shifts in certain areas for human-caused fires. There was no statistical difference in annual number of human-caused fires between the early suppression and contemporary time periods. However, there was a major shift in the distribution of burned area across fire size classes. Fires >12145ha accounted for 0–6% of total burned area in the early suppression period, and 53–73% in the contemporary period. Also, both the total number and percentage of fires >2024ha occurred significantly earlier in the year in the contemporary period. These shifts are likely driven by large-scale changes in fuel loads and continuity, and possibly exacerbated by climatic warming.

scholarly journals A century of transformation: Fire regime transitions from 1919 to 2019 in southeastern British Columbia, Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer N Baron ◽  
Sarah E. Gergel ◽  
Paul F. Hessburg ◽  
Lori D. Daniels
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Annual Number ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Climatic Period ◽  
Fire Exclusion

The past 100 years marks a transition between pre-colonial and modern era fire regimes, which provides crucial context for understanding future wildfire behavior. Using the greatest depth of digitized fire events in Canada, we identify distinct phases of wildfire regimes from 1919 to 2019 by evaluating changes in mapped fire perimeters (>20-ha) across the East Kootenay forest region (including the southern Rocky Mountain Trench), British Columbia (BC). We detect transitions in annual number of fires, burned area, and fire size; explore the roles of lightning- and human-caused fires in driving these transitions; and quantify departures from historical fire frequency at the regional level. We found that, relative to historical fire frequency, fire exclusion created a significant fire deficit across 89% of the flammable landscape. Fire was active from 1919 to 1940 with frequent and large fire events, but the regime was already altered by a century of colonization. Fire activity decreased after 1940, coinciding with effective fire suppression influenced by a mild climatic period. After 2003, the combined effects of fire exclusion and accelerated climate change fueled a shift in fire regimes of various forest types, with increases in area burned and mean fire size driven by lightning.

scholarly journals Near Real-Time Automated Early Mapping of the Perimeter of Large Forest Fires from the Aggregation of VIIRS and MODIS Active Fires in Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Ivan Briones-Herrera ◽  
Daniel José Vega-Nieva ◽  
Norma Angélica Monjarás-Vega ◽  
Jaime Briseño-Reyes ◽  
Pablito Marcelo López-Serrano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Infrared Imaging ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Coarse Scale ◽  
Early Evaluation ◽  
Active Fire

In contrast with current operational products of burned area, which are generally available one month after the fire, active fires are readily available, with potential application for early evaluation of approximate fire perimeters to support fire management decision making in near real time. While previous coarse-scale studies have focused on relating the number of active fires to a burned area, some local-scale studies have proposed the spatial aggregation of active fires to directly obtain early estimate perimeters from active fires. Nevertheless, further analysis of this latter technique, including the definition of aggregation distance and large-scale testing, is still required. There is a need for studies that evaluate the potential of active fire aggregation for rapid initial fire perimeter delineation, particularly taking advantage of the improved spatial resolution of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer (VIIRS) 375 m, over large areas and long periods of study. The current study tested the use of convex hull algorithms for deriving coarse-scale perimeters from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) active fire detections, compared against the mapped perimeter of the MODIS collection 6 (MCD64A1) burned area. We analyzed the effect of aggregation distance (750, 1000, 1125 and 1500 m) on the relationships of active fire perimeters with MCD64A1, for both individual fire perimeter prediction and total burned area estimation, for the period 2012–2108 in Mexico. The aggregation of active fire detections from MODIS and VIIRS demonstrated a potential to offer coarse-scale early estimates of the perimeters of large fires, which can be available to support fire monitoring and management in near real time. Total burned area predicted from aggregated active fires followed the same temporal behavior as the standard MCD64A1 burned area, with potential to also account for the role of smaller fires detected by the thermal anomalies. The proposed methodology, based on easily available algorithms of point aggregation, is susceptible to be utilized both for near real-time and historical fire perimeter evaluation elsewhere. Future studies might test active fires aggregation between regions or biomes with contrasting fuel characteristics and human activity patterns against medium resolution (e.g., Landsat and Sentinel) fire perimeters. Furthermore, coarse-scale active fire perimeters might be utilized to locate areas where such higher-resolution imagery can be downloaded to improve the evaluation of fire extent and impact.

Linking tree rings, summer aridity, and regional fire data: an example from the boreal forests of the Komi Republic, East European Russia

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (11) ◽  
pp. 2327-2339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Drobyshev ◽  
Mats Niklasson
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Siberian Larch ◽  
Komi Republic ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Annual Number ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
Fire Activity

To evaluate the potential use of tree-ring data as a proxy for fire activity at the scale of a large boreal region, we analyzed a set of regional tree-ring chronologies of Siberian larch (Larix sibirica L.), a spatially implicit annual fire record, and monthly climate data for the Komi Republic for the period 1950–1990. In most years, annually burned area was below 0.001% of the republic's forested area and reached up to 0.7% during fire-prone years. Principal components (PC) of summer aridity resolved 64.2% of the annual variation in the number of fires, 12.2% in the average fire size, and 59.2% in the annually burned area. In turn, tree-ring PCs explained 65.2% of variation in fire-related weather PCs. Dendrochronological reconstruction of the annual number of fires and of the log-transformed annually burned area predicted 27.0% and 40.1% of the high-frequency variance of these variables, respectively. Coefficient of efficiency, a measure of reconstruction usefulness, reached 0.081 (number of fires) and 0.315 (annual area burned), supporting the obtained index as a realistic proxy for regional fire activity. Decadal variation in coefficient of efficiency values suggested improved monitoring accuracy since 1960 and more effective fire suppression during the last studied decade (1980–1990).

scholarly journals Fighting forest fires in the Kuibyshev Region in 1931-1940: a little-known aspect of the ecological history of the Middle Volga region

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-188
Author(s):  
Evgeny Vladimirovich Voeykov
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fire Fighting ◽  
Volga Region ◽  
Annual Number ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Forest Protection ◽  
Middle Volga Region ◽  
Middle Volga

The paper deals with the spread of forest fires and measures to combat them in the course of implementing the policy of preserving the forests of the Volga region in the years of the pre-war five-year plans. The paper is written mainly on the basis of archival materials of the Russian State Archive of Economics, the Central State Archive of the Samara Region, and the State Archive of the Ulyanovsk Region, which were first introduced into historical circulation. In the 1930s, large-scale logging was carried out in the Kuibyshev Region in violation of the rules of forestry. One of the problems of forest exploitation was the growth of forest fires, which caused significant economic and environmental damage. The forest industry trust Sredles and the Srednevolzhsky Forestry Trust could not significantly change the situation with the fire protection of forests for the better. The most unfavorable years for the forests of the Middle Volga region and the Kuibyshev Region were 1933 and 1938. After the creation of the Srednevolzhsky (Kuibyshev) Forest Protection Department, the effectiveness of fire-fighting measures increased. Fire fighting was carried out by the most modern means at that time. As a result, the annual number of fires decreased. But it was not possible to completely solve the problem of fires in the forests of the Middle Volga during the third five-year plan.

scholarly journals Interactions among Amazon land use, forests and climate: prospects for a near-term forest tipping point

2008 ◽  
Vol 363 (1498) ◽  
pp. 1737-1746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel C Nepstad ◽  
Claudia M Stickler ◽  
Britaldo Soares- Filho ◽  
Frank Merry
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Amazon Forest ◽  
Fire Control ◽  
Positive Feedbacks ◽  
Forest Dieback ◽  
Near Term

Some model experiments predict a large-scale substitution of Amazon forest by savannah-like vegetation by the end of the twenty-first century. Expanding global demands for biofuels and grains, positive feedbacks in the Amazon forest fire regime and drought may drive a faster process of forest degradation that could lead to a near-term forest dieback. Rising worldwide demands for biofuel and meat are creating powerful new incentives for agro-industrial expansion into Amazon forest regions. Forest fires, drought and logging increase susceptibility to further burning while deforestation and smoke can inhibit rainfall, exacerbating fire risk. If sea surface temperature anomalies (such as El Niño episodes) and associated Amazon droughts of the last decade continue into the future, approximately 55% of the forests of the Amazon will be cleared, logged, damaged by drought or burned over the next 20 years, emitting 15–26 Pg of carbon to the atmosphere. Several important trends could prevent a near-term dieback. As fire-sensitive investments accumulate in the landscape, property holders use less fire and invest more in fire control. Commodity markets are demanding higher environmental performance from farmers and cattle ranchers. Protected areas have been established in the pathway of expanding agricultural frontiers. Finally, emerging carbon market incentives for reductions in deforestation could support these trends.

scholarly journals Environmental Factors Affecting Wildfire Burned Area In South-Eastern France, 1970–2019

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christos Bountzouklis ◽  
Dennis Michael Fox ◽  
Elena Di Bernardino
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Sharp Decrease ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Abstract. Forest fires burn an average of about 440,000 ha each year in southern Europe. These fires cause numerous casualties and deaths and destroy houses and other infrastructures. In order to elaborate suitable fire-fighting strategies, complex interactions between human and environmental factors must be taken into account. In this study, we investigated the spatio-temporal evolution in burned area over a 50-year period (1970–2019) and its interactions between topography (slope inclination and aspect) and vegetation type in south-eastern France by exploiting Geographic Information System databases. Burned area decreased sharply after 1994, with the advent of the new fire suppression policy which focused on rapid extinction of fires in their early phase. The geographic distribution of burned area has also changed in the last 25 years, mainly in regions where large fires occurred (Var department). In other parts, even though forest fires are still frequent and occur in the same geographic locations, the total extent of the burned area is significantly reduced. Slope orientation presents an increasingly important role every decade, S-facing slopes have the greatest burned areas and increase their proportion each decade, while the opposite is observed for N-facing and W-facing ones. Fire increasingly favors low and intermediate slopes after the sharp decrease of burned area in 1990. The largest part of the BA is strongly associated with the location of sclerophyllous vegetation clusters, which exhibit high fire proneness while simultaneously expanding the region. On the contrary, natural grassland numbers decline through time as the proportion of area burned increases.

scholarly journals Spatio-temporal patterns of wildfires in the Niassa Reserve –Mozambique, using remote sensing data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eufrásio Nhongo ◽  
Denise Fontana ◽  
Laurindo Guasselli
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Ecosystem Change ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Active Fire

AbstractWildfires are among the biggest factors of ecosystem change. Knowledge of fire regime (fire frequency, severity, intensity, seasonality, and distribution pattern) is an important factor in wildfire management. This paper aims to analyze the spatiotemporal patterns of fires and burned areas in the Niassa Reserve between 2002-2015 using MODIS data, active fire product (MCD14ML) and burned area product (MCD64A1). For this, the annual and monthly frequencies, the trend of fires and the frequency by types of forest cover were statistically analyzed. For the analysis of the spatial dynamics of forest fires we used the Kernel density (Fixed Method). The results show a total of 20.449 forest fires and 171.067 km2 of burned areas in the period 2002-2015. Fire incidents were highest in 2015, while the largest burned areas were recorded in 2007. The relationship between increased fires and burned areas is not linear. There was a tendency for fires to increase, while for burnt areas there was stabilization. Forest fires start in May and end in December. August-October are the most frequent period, peaking in September. Fires occur predominantly in deciduous forests and mountain forests because of the type of vegetation and the amount of dry biomass. There is a monthly spatial dynamics of wildfires from east to west in the reserve. This behavior is dependent on vegetation cover type, fuel availability, and senescence.

scholarly journals Möglichkeiten zur Holzmobilisierung im Tessiner Kastaniengürtel

2015 ◽  
Vol 166 (5) ◽  
pp. 291-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Golo Stadelmann ◽  
Christian Temperli ◽  
Marco Conedera ◽  
Andrés Gómez ◽  
Peter Brang
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Tree Mortality ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Timber Harvesting ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Growth Simulator ◽  
Definition Of

Timber mobilization possibilities for the chestnut belt of Ticino Many of the traditionally managed chestnut groves and coppice forests in the canton of Ticino have been abandoned in the second half of the 20th century. The ensuing natural development resulted in homogenized stand structures across the landscape, increasing growing stocks and diminishing provision of ecosystem services (e.g. timber, protection from gravitational hazards, nature conservation and recreation services). We used a forest growth simulator (“Massimo”) to simulate a range of management scenarios and possible consequences. Under the current low intensity management growing stocks and tree mortality continue to increase, which – at a large scale – could further reduce the protection and other services and increase the risk of forest fires. This process could be countered with more intense management practices, yet facing relatively high timber harvesting costs. An optimized forest management in the chestnut belt would require the definition of the dominating forest functions, the designation of priority areas and monetary compensation schemes for the provision of the respective forest ecosystem services.

scholarly journals Fire and Forest Management in Montane Forests of the Northwestern States and California, USA

Fire ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Allen ◽  
Sophan Chhin ◽  
Jianwei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dry Forests ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Wet Forests

We reviewed forest management in the mountainous regions of several northwestern states and California in the United States and how it has impacted current issues facing these forests. We focused on the large-scale activities like fire suppression and logging which resulted in landscape level changes. We divided the region into two main forests types; wet, like the forests in the Pacific Northwest, and dry, like the forests in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. In the wet forests, the history of intensive logging shaped the current forest structure, while fire suppression played a more major role in the dry forests. Next, we looked at how historical management has influenced new forest management challenges, like catastrophic fires, decreased heterogeneity, and climate change. We then synthesized what current management actions are performed to address these issues, like thinning to reduce fuels or improve structural heterogeneity, and restoration after large-scale disturbances. Lastly, we touch on some major policies that have influenced changes in management. We note a trend towards ecosystem management that considers a forest’s historical disturbance regime. With expected climate induced changes in fire frequency, it is suggested that fuel treatments be implemented in dry forests to ensure an understory fire regime is restored in these forest systems. With respect to wet forests in this region, it is suggested that there is still a place for stand-replacing fire regimes. However, these forests will require structural changes incorporating heterogeneity to improve their resiliency and health.

scholarly journals TECHNIQUE FOR IDENTIFYING BURNED VEGETATION AREA USING LANDSAT 8 DATA

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Bambang Trisakti ◽  
Udhi Catur Nugroho ◽  
Ani Zubaidah
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Bare Area ◽  
Spectral Bands ◽  
Swir Band ◽  
Multi Temporal ◽  
Land Covers

During the last two decades, forest and land fire is a catastrophic event that happens almost every year in Indonesia.  Therefore, it is necessary to develop a technic to monitor forest fires using satellite data to obtain the latest information of burned area in a large scale area. The objective of this research is to develop a method for burned area mapping that happened between two Landsat 8 data recording on August 13rd and September 14th 2015. Burned area was defined as a burned area of vegetation. The hotspot distribution during the period August - September 2015 was used to help visual identification of burned area on the Landsat image and to verify the burned area resulted from this research. Samples were taken at several land covers to determine the spectral pattern differences among burned area, bare area and other land covers, and then the analysis was performed to determine the suitable spectral bands or indices and threshold values that will be used in the model. Landsat recorded on August 13rd before the fire was extracted for soil, while Landsat recorded on September 14th after the fire was extracted for burned area. Multi-temporal analysis was done to get the burned area occurring during the certain period. The results showed that the clouds could be separated using combination of ocean blue and cirrus bands, the burned area was extracted using a combination of NIR and SWIR band, while soil was extracted using ratio SWIR / NIR. Burned area obtained in this study had high correlation with the hotspot density of MODIS with the accuracy was around 82,4 %.

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