Characterizing fire behaviour across the globe

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Characterizing fire behaviour across the globe. Paulo Fernandes*, Ângelo Sil,. Davide Ascoli, Miguel Cruz,. Carlos Rossa, Marty Alexander. * [email protected] ...
Characterizing fire behaviour across the globe Paulo Fernandes*, Ângelo Sil, Davide Ascoli, Miguel Cruz, Carlos Rossa, Marty Alexander * [email protected]

Introduction •  Environmental and societal impacts of fire depend on fire behaviour •  Fire management relies upon understanding and predicting fire behaviour characteristics Global fire behaviour patterns and drivers are incompletely understood and systematized, constraining: •  Fire activity prediction at different temporal and spatial scales •  Anticipation of fire activity response to global change •  Formulation of fire management policies to cope with fire regime changes. The project: -  Worldwide compilation of the available fire behaviour data -  Integrated analysis of variation in fire behaviour characteristics to describe patterns, identify and quantify drivers, and (hopefully) improve models.

Data collection •  Scientific publications, technical reports, case studies, online databases, unpublished data h"p://www.(kb.ca

Fire Behavior and Crop-tree Damage Survey Plot Type Low Intensity Plots Low Intensity Plots Low Intensity Plots Low Intensity Plots Moderate Intensity Plots Moderate Intensity Plots Moderate Intensity Plots Moderate Intensity Plots

Plot Date Burned Ignition time Reached end of plot Rate of Spread (ft/min): Range 2L2 03/09/83 1520 1648 0.8-3.5 4L1 03/11/83 1420 1533 1.4-3.6 9L4 03/09/83 1022 1146 0.6-2.3 11L3 03/11/83 1205 1340 0.5-3.0 3M3 03/04/83 1223 1343 1.3-3.8 7M4 03/04/83 1323 1437 0.9-2.9 8M1 03/09/83 1320 1438 1.7-4.0 10M2 03/04/83 1432 1532 1.7-3.9

•  Outdoors experimental fires, wildfires, and prescribed fires - Natural fuels: flaming, smouldering (peat fires) - Activity fuels (slash, mastication) •  Headfires, point- or line-ignited, no interaction between fire fronts

Data collection •  Variables - Ancillary data (reference, country, location, type of fire, climate, biome, ecoregion, vegetation type, dominant species, …) -  Fire behaviour characteristics: rate of spread, flame characteristics, Byram’s fire intensity -  Wind speed, relative humidity, air temperature, fuel moisture contents or surrogates (Canadian FWI codes) -  Slope -  Fuel characteristics (heights/depths, cover %, loads, ...) -  Fuels consumption (absolute and relative)

Data collection •  Issues and difficulties Highly variable methods: -  Height of wind measurement -  Description of fuel structure, moisture and consumption (e.g. size class, layer, condition) Data availability and willingness to share it Data completeness Data reliability: fuel, weather, fire behaviour

Data distribution Biome

Country

Source

% of Total

% of Total

% of Total

Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas and shrublands

30.01%

Australia

25.59%

Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests

25.70%

Experimental fire

73.52%

South Africa

21.12%

Temperate Coniferous Forests

13.74%

Wildfire

14.56%

USA

17.20%

Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub

13.20%

Prescribed fire

11.93%

Canada

8.13%

Boreal Forests/Taiga

4.95%

Brazil

4.34%

Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands

4.90%

Koppen-Geiger climate

% of Total

Fuel complex

% of Total

Steppe climate - Hot steppe / desert

18.73%

Warm temperate climate, fully humid - Warm summer

18.48%

Grass

21.33%

Warm temperate climate with dry summer - Warm summer

11.89%

Grass-Litter

21.02%

Warm temperate climate, fully humid - Hot summer

10.43%

Litter-Grass/Shrub

12.05%

Warm temperate climate with dry winter - Hot summer

7.06%

Litter

11.83%

Snow climate, fully humid - Warm summer

6.84%

Shrub

10.96%

Warm temperate climate with dry summer - Hot summer

6.77%

Slash or Slash-other

8.50%

Snow climate, fully humid - Cool summer and cold winter

5.29%

Grass-Shrub

8.25%

Equatorial savannah with dry winter

5.01%

Moss/Lichen or Moss/Lichen-Other

4.78%

Data location Forest

Shrubland

Grassland

Woodland

70

60

50

May 2018

40

30

20

10

0

-10

-20

-30

-40

-50

-160

-140

-120

-100

-80

-60

-40

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Data Flame height (m) & Flame length (m) vs. Gener. Veget. Type

RoS m/min vs. Gener. Veget. Type 600

200

400 300

100 Flame height (m)

200

100 70

30 20

10

10 5 3

1 0.5 0.3

7

0.1

5

0.05

3

30 20

2

Flame length (m)

Rate of Spread (m/min)

50

50 30

1 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.2

0.1 0.07

5 3 2

1 0.5 0.3 0.2

0.1

0.05 0.03

10

Forest

Grassland

Shrubland

Gener. Veget. Type

Woodland

0.05

Forest

Grassland

Shrubland

Gener. Veget. Type

Woodland

Data usage 1.  How do fire behaviour characteristics vary regionally and respond to environmental drivers? 2.  Empirically-based modelling of fire behaviour characteristics and fuel consumption for generic/specific vegetation/fuel types. 3.  Development of calibrated fuel models for global use. 4.  Linkage with fire danger rating. 5.  A data repository available for further research.

Conclusion (expectation) •  We will characterize and synthesize fire behaviour patterns and assess how they are influenced by top-down and bottom-up environmental drivers. •  Results will provide a sound foundation for fire management and fire research applications and will increase the understanding of fire regime shifts in relation to global change.

Thank you! Work financed by FEDER – Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 – Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), and by Portuguese funds through FCT- FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in the framework of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016727 (PTDC/AAGMAA/2656/2014).