Conversion of fuel moisture content values to ignition potential for integrated fire danger assessment

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (11) ◽  
pp. 2284-2293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilio Chuvieco ◽  
Inmaculada Aguado ◽  
Alexandros P Dimitrakopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Content ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Fire Propagation ◽  
Web Mapping ◽  
Danger Assessment ◽  
Fuel Moisture Content ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Fire Ignition

Fuel moisture content (FMC) estimation is a critical part of any fire danger rating system, since fuel water status is determinant in fire ignition and fire propagation. However, FMC alone does not provide a comprehensive assessment of fire danger, since other factors related to fire ignition (lightning, human factors) or propagation (wind, slope) also need to be taken into account. The problem in integrating all these factors is finding a common scale of danger rating that will make it possible to derive synthetic indices. This paper reviews the importance of FMC in fire ignition and fire propagation, as well as the most common methods of estimating FMC values. A simple method to convert FMC values to danger ratings is proposed, based on computing ignition potential from thresholds of moisture of extinction adapted to each fuel. The method has been tested for the Madrid region (central Spain), where a fire danger assessment system has been built. All the variables related to fire danger were integrated into a dedicated geographic information system and information provided to fire managers through a web mapping server.

scholarly journals Estimation of dead fuel moisture content from meteorological data in Mediterranean areas. Applications in fire danger assessment

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 390 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Aguado ◽  
E. Chuvieco ◽  
R. Borén ◽  
H. Nieto
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Content ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Simple Method ◽  
Danger Assessment ◽  
Mediterranean Areas ◽  
Field Samples ◽  
Fuel Moisture Content ◽  
In Fire

The estimation of moisture content of dead fuels is a critical variable in fire danger assessment since it is strongly related to fire ignition and fire spread potential. This study evaluates the accuracy of two well-known meteorological moisture codes, the Canadian Fine Fuels Moisture Content and the US 10-h, to estimate fuel moisture content of dead fuels in Mediterranean areas. Cured grasses and litter have been used for this study. The study was conducted in two phases. The former aimed to select the most efficient code, and the latter to produce a spatial representation of that index for operational assessment of fire danger conditions. The first phase required calibration and validation of an estimation model based on regression analysis. Field samples were collected in the Cabañeros National Park (Central Spain) for a six-year period (1998–2003). The estimations were more accurate for litter (r2 between 0.52) than for cured grasslands (r2 0.11). In addition, grasslands showed higher variability in the trends among the study years. The two moisture codes evaluated in this paper offered similar trends, therefore, the 10-h code was selected since it is simpler to compute. The second phase was based on interpolating the required meteorological variables (temperature and relative humidity) to compute the 10-h moisture code. The interpolation was based on European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) predictions. Finally, a simple method to combine the estimations of dead fuel moisture content with other variables associated to fire danger is presented in this paper. This method estimates the probability of ignition based on the moisture of extinction of each fuel type.

A global review of remote sensing of live fuel moisture content for fire danger assessment: Moving towards operational products

2013 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 455-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Yebra ◽  
Philip E. Dennison ◽  
Emilio Chuvieco ◽  
David Riaño ◽  
Philip Zylstra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Moisture Content ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Danger Assessment ◽  
Live Fuel Moisture ◽  
Fuel Moisture Content

Estimation of Live Fuel Moisture Content From MODIS Images for Fire Danger Assessment in Southern Gran Chaco

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 5339-5349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Arganaraz ◽  
Marcos Alejandro Landi ◽  
Sandra Josefina Bravo ◽  
Gregorio Ignacio Gavier-Pizarro ◽  
Carlos Marcelo Scavuzzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Content ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Danger Assessment ◽  
Gran Chaco ◽  
Live Fuel Moisture ◽  
Fuel Moisture Content

scholarly journals PROPAGATOR: An Operational Cellular-Automata Based Wildfire Simulator

Fire ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Andrea Trucchia ◽  
Mirko D’Andrea ◽  
Francesco Baghino ◽  
Paolo Fiorucci ◽  
Luca Ferraris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Content ◽  
Fire Spread ◽  
Fire Fighting ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Ignition Point ◽  
The Real ◽  
Fire Propagation ◽  
Spread Model ◽  
Fuel Moisture Content

PROPAGATOR is a stochastic cellular automaton model for forest fire spread simulation, conceived as a rapid method for fire risk assessment. The model uses high-resolution information such as topography and vegetation cover considering different types of vegetation. Input parameters are wind speed and direction and the ignition point. Dead fine fuel moisture content and firebreaks—fire fighting strategies can also be considered. The fire spread probability depends on vegetation type, slope, wind direction and speed, and fuel moisture content. The fire-propagation speed is determined through the adoption of a Rate of Spread model. PROPAGATOR simulates independent realizations of one stochastic fire propagation process, and at each time-step gives as output a map representing the probability of each cell of the domain to be affected by the fire. These probabilities are obtained computing the relative frequency of ignition of each cell. The model capabilities are assessed by reproducing a set of past Mediterranean fires occurred in different countries (Italy and Spain), using when available the real fire fighting patterns. PROPAGATOR simulated such scenarios with affordable computational resources and with short CPU-times. The outputs show a good agreement with the real burned areas, demonstrating that the PROPAGATOR can be useful for supporting decisions in Civil Protection and fire management activities.

scholarly journals Data assimilation of dead fuel moisture observations from remote automated weather stations

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Vejmelka ◽  
Adam K. Kochanski ◽  
Jan Mandel
Keyword(s):  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Moisture Content ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Weather Stations ◽  
Fuel Moisture Content

Fuel moisture has a major influence on the behaviour of wildland fires and is an important underlying factor in fire risk assessment. We propose a method to assimilate dead fuel moisture content (FMC) observations from remote automated weather stations (RAWS) into a time lag fuel moisture model. RAWS are spatially sparse and a mechanism is needed to estimate fuel moisture content at locations potentially distant from observational stations. This is arranged using a trend surface model (TSM), which allows us to account for the effects of topography and atmospheric state on the spatial variability of FMC. At each location of interest, the TSM provides a pseudo-observation, which is assimilated via Kalman filtering. The method is tested with the time lag fuel moisture model in the coupled weather-fire code WRF–SFIRE on 10-h FMC observations from Colorado RAWS in 2013. Using leave-one-out testing we show that the TSM compares favourably with inverse squared distance interpolation as used in the Wildland Fire Assessment System. Finally, we demonstrate that the data assimilation method is able to improve on FMC estimates in unobserved fuel classes.

Integrating geospatial information into fire risk assessment

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 606 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Chuvieco ◽  
I. Aguado ◽  
S. Jurdao ◽  
M. L. Pettinari ◽  
M. Yebra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Moisture Content ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
National Level ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Fire Occurrence ◽  
Fire Risk Assessment ◽  
Fuel Moisture Content

Fire risk assessment should take into account the most relevant components associated to fire occurrence. To estimate when and where the fire will produce undesired effects, we need to model both (a) fire ignition and propagation potential and (b) fire vulnerability. Following these ideas, a comprehensive fire risk assessment system is proposed in this paper, which makes extensive use of geographic information technologies to offer a spatially explicit evaluation of fire risk conditions. The paper first describes the conceptual model, then the methods to generate the different input variables, the approaches to merge those variables into synthetic risk indices and finally the validation of the outputs. The model has been applied at a national level for the whole Spanish Iberian territory at 1-km2 spatial resolution. Fire danger included human factors, lightning probability, fuel moisture content of both dead and live fuels and propagation potential. Fire vulnerability was assessed by analysing values-at-risk and landscape resilience. Each input variable included a particular accuracy assessment, whereas the synthetic indices were validated using the most recent fire statistics available. Significant relations (P < 0.001) with fire occurrence were found for the main synthetic danger indices, particularly for those associated to fuel moisture content conditions.

scholarly journals Live fuel moisture content time series in Catalonia since 1998

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Gabriel ◽  
Ruth Delgado-Dávila ◽  
Miquel De Cáceres ◽  
Pere Casals ◽  
Antoni Tudela ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Moisture Content ◽  
R Package ◽  
Fire Danger ◽  
Plant Responses ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Live Fuel Moisture ◽  
Fuel Moisture Content

Abstract Key message We present a structured and curated database covering 21 years of LFMC measurements in the Catalan region, along with an associated R package to manage updates and facilitate quality processing and visualisation. The data set provides valuable information to study plant responses to drought and improve fire danger prediction. Dataset access is at10.5281/zenodo.4675335, and associated metadata are available athttps://metadata-afs.nancy.inra.fr/geonetwork/srv/fre/catalog.search#/metadata/583fdbae-3200-4fa7-877c-54df0e6c5542.

Flame characteristics, temperature - time curves, and rate of spread in fires propagating in a bed of Pinus pinaster needles

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
José M. C. Mendes-Lopes ◽  
João M. P. Ventura ◽  
José M. P. Amaral
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Moisture Content ◽  
Pinus Pinaster ◽  
Flame Height ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Propagation Models ◽  
Fire Propagation ◽  
Rate Of Spread ◽  
Fuel Moisture Content ◽  
Flame Angle

An extensive set of experiments was carried out in order to collect data to validate fire propagation models being developed in the context of an European research project. The experiments were performed in a dedicated burning tray (2.0 m × 0.70 m working section), where wind velocity, fuel moisture content and slope were varied to study fire propagation in beds of Pinus pinaster needles. All the runs were videotaped and, from the recordings, information on flame geometry (i.e. flame height, flame length and flame angle) and rate of spread was obtained. Temperature measurements were also carried out by a small tower of six thermocouples at different heights above the fuel bed. Results show that headfire rate of spread increases steeply with wind speed for wind-driven fires but does not depend on wind speed for backing fire spread rates. Rate of spread increases slightly with slope for up-hill propagation, and is not slope dependent for down-hill cases. Rate of spread decreases when fuel moisture content increases. Flame angle and flame height are also dependent on wind velocity, slope, and fuel moisture content. The importance of temperature for fire propagation is discussed, emphasizing the role of radiation heat transfer in the process. Correlations between temperature and other indicators of fire behaviour (namely the rate of spread) are presented. Results are discussed and compared. The results obtained provide a good database for the assessment of fire propagation models.

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