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Data collection • Scientific publications, technical reports, case studies, online databases, unpublished data h"p://www.(kb.ca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