Development and mapping of fuel characteristics and associated fire potentials for South America

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 643 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Lucrecia Pettinari ◽  
Roger D. Ottmar ◽  
Susan J. Prichard ◽  
Anne G. Andreu ◽  
Emilio Chuvieco

The characteristics and spatial distribution of fuels are critical for assessing fire hazard, fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and other fire effects. However, fuel maps are difficult to generate and update, because many regions of the world lack fuel descriptions or adequate mapped vegetation attributes to assign these fuelbeds spatially across the landscape. This paper presents a process to generate fuel maps for large areas using remotely sensed information and ancillary fuel characteristic data. The Fuel Characteristic Classification System was used to build fuelbeds for South America and predict potential fire hazard using a set of default environmental variables. A land-cover map was combined with a biome map to define 98 fuelbeds, and their parameters were assigned based on information from global datasets and existing Fuel Characteristic Classification System fuelbeds or photo series. The indices of potential surface fire behaviour ranged from 1.32 to 9, whereas indices of potential crown fire and available fuel for combustion had low to medium values (0–6). This paper presents a geospatial fuels map for South America. This map could be used to assess fire hazard, predict fire behaviour under defined environmental conditions or calculate fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. It could also be easily updated as new remotely sensed information on vegetation becomes available.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ain Kull ◽  
Iuliia Burdun ◽  
Gert Veber ◽  
Oleksandr Karasov ◽  
Martin Maddison ◽  
...  

<p>Besides water table depth, soil temperature is one of the main drivers of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in intact and managed peatlands. In this work, we evaluate the performance of remotely sensed land surface temperature (LST) as a proxy of greenhouse gas emissions in intact, drained and extracted peatlands. For this, we used chamber-measured carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) and methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) data from seven peatlands in Estonia collected during vegetation season in 2017–2020. Additionally, we used temperature and water table depth data measured in situ. We studied relationships between CO<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>4</sub>, in-situ parameters and remotely sensed LST from Landsat 7 and 8, and MODIS Terra. Results of our study suggest that LST has stronger relationships with surface and soil temperature as well as with ecosystem respiration (R<sub>eco</sub>) over drained and extracted sites than over intact ones. Over the extracted cites the correlation between R<sub>eco</sub> CO<sub>2</sub> and LST is 0.7, and over the drained sites correlation is 0.5. In natural sites, we revealed a moderate positive relationship between LST and CO<sub>2</sub> emitted in hollows (correlation is 0.6) while it is weak in hummocks (correlation is 0.3). Our study contributes to the better understanding of relationships between greenhouse gas emissions and their remotely sensed proxies over peatlands with different management status and enables better spatial assessment of GHG emissions in drainage affected northern temperate peatlands.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nafiz E Korkut ◽  
Cevat Yaman ◽  
Yusuf Küçükağa ◽  
Megan K Jaunich ◽  
İbrahim Demir

This article estimates greenhouse gas emissions and global warming factors resulting from collection of municipal solid waste to the transfer stations or landfills in Istanbul for the year of 2015. The aim of this study is to quantify and compare diesel fuel consumption and estimate the greenhouse gas emissions and global warming factors associated with municipal solid waste collection of the 39 districts of Istanbul. Each district’s greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the provision and combustion of diesel fuel was estimated by considering the number of collection trips and distances to municipal solid waste facilities. The estimated greenhouse gases and global warming factors for the districts varied from 61.2 to 2759.1 t CO2-eq and from 4.60 to 15.20 kg CO2-eq t-1, respectively. The total greenhouse gas emission was estimated as 46.4E3 t CO2-eq. Lastly, the collection data from the districts was used to parameterise a collection model that can be used to estimate fuel consumption associated with municipal solid waste collection. This mechanistic model can then be used to predict future fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions associated with municipal solid waste collection based on projected population, waste generation, and distance to transfer stations and landfills. The greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by decreasing the trip numbers and trip distances, building more transfer stations around the city, and making sure that the collection trucks are full in each trip.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (12) ◽  
pp. 1282-1290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cevat Yaman ◽  
Ismail Anil ◽  
Megan K Jaunich ◽  
Nawaf I Blaisi ◽  
Omar Alagha ◽  
...  

Greenhouse gas emissions resulting from municipal solid waste management activities and the associated climate change impacts are getting great attention worldwide. This study investigates greenhouse gas emissions and their distribution during waste collection and transport activities in the Dammam region of Saudi Arabia. Greenhouse gas emissions and associated global warming factors were estimated based on diesel fuel consumption during waste collection and transport activities. Then, waste collection and transport data were used to parameterise a mechanistic collection model that can be used to estimate and predict future fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. For the collection and transport of municipal waste in the study area, the average associated total greenhouse gas emissions were about 24,935 tCO2-eq. Global warming factors for three provinces were estimated as 25.23 kg CO2-eq t-1, 25.04 kg CO2-eq t-1, and 37.15 kg CO2-eq t-1, respectively. Lastly, the American Meteorological Society/Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model (AERMOD) modelling system was used to estimate the atmospheric dispersion of greenhouse gas emissions. Model results revealed that the maximum daily greenhouse gas concentrations ranged between 0.174 and 97.3 mg m-3, while annual average greenhouse gas concentrations were found to be between 0.012 and 27.7 mg m-3 within the study domain. The highest greenhouse gas concentrations were observed for the regions involving the municipal solid waste collection routes owing to their higher source emission rates.


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