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Chapter 3: Simulating fire hazard across landscapes through time: integrating state-and-transition models with the Fuel Characteristic Classification System

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Information on the effects of management activities such as fuel reduction treatments and of processes such as vegetation growth and disturbance on fire hazard can help land managers prioritize treatments across a landscape to best meet management goals. State-and-transition models (STMs) allow landscape-scale simulations that incorporate effects of succession, management, and disturbance on vegetation composition and structure. State-and-transition models have been used for many different types of landscape-scale assessments. However, STMs do not currently assess fuels and fire hazard for different vegetation state classes.

We integrated STMs with a software application called the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) to enable assessment of fuel properties and fire hazard with succession, disturbance, and management across landscapes over time. We created FCCS fuel beds from inventory plots for each vegetation state class in STMs covering forests and woodlands in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. We used FCCS to analyze each fuel bed for its potential fire behavior, and we linked results to STM simulation output to assess potential changes in fire hazard with management and natural disturbance regimes over time.

Parent Publication

Keywords

Landscapes, state-and-transition modeling, vegetation mapping, fuels, wildfire hazard, treatment costs, biomass, wildlife habitat, decision support, climate change, watersheds, community economics, all ownerships, geographic information systems, landscape assessment.

Citation

Halofsky, Jessica E.; Hart, Stephanie K.; Hemstrom, Miles A.; Halofsky, Joshua S.; Johnson, Morris C. 2014. Simulating fire hazard across landscapes through time: integrating state-and-transition models with the Fuel Characteristic Classification System. In: Halofsky, Jessica E.; Creutzburg, Megan K.; Hemstrom, Miles A., eds. 2014. Integrating social, economic, and ecological values across large landscapes. Gen.Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-896. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: 71-110. Chapter 3.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/47222