National database for calculating fuel available to wildfires

Abstract

Wildfires are increasingly emerging as an important component of Earth system models, particularly those that involve emissions from fires and their effects on climate. Currently, there are few resources available for estimating emissions from wildfires in real time, at subcontinental scales, in a spatially consistent manner. Developing subcontinental-scale databases and applications in fire science requires a framework that uses both fine-scale and coarse-scale data with attention to minimizing extrapolation errors, while ensuring spatial consistency in outputs. The estimation of actual fuel amounts is likely the greatest source of uncertainty in calculating carbon release and other emissions from wildfires, particularly large fires that burn multiple vegetation types. To reduce this uncertainty, the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) provides both a conceptual framework and a software tool for quantifying fuels over spatial domains from a few square meters to many square kilometers.

Keywords

smoke emissions, carbon accounting, climate change, fuels

Citation

McKenzie, Donald; French, Nancy H.F.; Ottmar, Roger D. 2012. National database for calculating fuel available to wildfires. Eos. 93(6): 57-58.