scholarly journals Using the Landsat Burned Area Products to Derive Fire History Relevant for Fire Management and Conservation in the State of Florida, Southeastern USA

Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Casey Teske ◽  
Melanie K. Vanderhoof ◽  
Todd J. Hawbaker ◽  
Joe Noble ◽  
John Kevin Hiers
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Behavior Modeling ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Burn Probability

Development of comprehensive spatially explicit fire occurrence data remains one of the most critical needs for fire managers globally, and especially for conservation across the southeastern United States. Not only are many endangered species and ecosystems in that region reliant on frequent fire, but fire risk analysis, prescribed fire planning, and fire behavior modeling are sensitive to fire history due to the long growing season and high vegetation productivity. Spatial data that map burned areas over time provide critical information for evaluating management successes. However, existing fire data have undocumented shortcomings that limit their use when detailing the effectiveness of fire management at state and regional scales. Here, we assessed information in existing fire datasets for Florida and the Landsat Burned Area products based on input from the fire management community. We considered the potential of different datasets to track the spatial extents of fires and derive fire history metrics (e.g., time since last burn, fire frequency, and seasonality). We found that burned areas generated by applying a 90% threshold to the Landsat burn probability product matched patterns recorded and observed by fire managers at three pilot areas. We then created fire history metrics for the entire state from the modified Landsat Burned Area product. Finally, to show their potential application for conservation management, we compared fire history metrics across ownerships for natural pinelands, where prescribed fire is frequently applied. Implications of this effort include increased awareness around conservation and fire management planning efforts and an extension of derivative products regionally or globally.

scholarly journals AEGIS: a wildfire prevention and management information system

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 643-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kostas Kalabokidis ◽  
Alan Ager ◽  
Mark Finney ◽  
Nikos Athanasis ◽  
Palaiologos Palaiologou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fire Hazard ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
End Users ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Fire Control ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Ignition Point ◽  
Weather Information ◽  
Management Platform ◽  
Burn Probability

Abstract. We describe a Web-GIS wildfire prevention and management platform (AEGIS) developed as an integrated and easy-to-use decision support tool to manage wildland fire hazards in Greece (http://aegis.aegean.gr). The AEGIS platform assists with early fire warning, fire planning, fire control and coordination of firefighting forces by providing online access to information that is essential for wildfire management. The system uses a number of spatial and non-spatial data sources to support key system functionalities. Land use/land cover maps were produced by combining field inventory data with high-resolution multispectral satellite images (RapidEye). These data support wildfire simulation tools that allow the users to examine potential fire behavior and hazard with the Minimum Travel Time fire spread algorithm. End-users provide a minimum number of inputs such as fire duration, ignition point and weather information to conduct a fire simulation. AEGIS offers three types of simulations, i.e., single-fire propagation, point-scale calculation of potential fire behavior, and burn probability analysis, similar to the FlamMap fire behavior modeling software. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were utilized for wildfire ignition risk assessment based on various parameters, training methods, activation functions, pre-processing methods and network structures. The combination of ANNs and expected burned area maps are used to generate integrated output map of fire hazard prediction. The system also incorporates weather information obtained from remote automatic weather stations and weather forecast maps. The system and associated computation algorithms leverage parallel processing techniques (i.e., High Performance Computing and Cloud Computing) that ensure computational power required for real-time application. All AEGIS functionalities are accessible to authorized end-users through a web-based graphical user interface. An innovative smartphone application, AEGIS App, also provides mobile access to the web-based version of the system.

scholarly journals A century of changing fire management alters ungulate forage in a wildfire-dominated landscape

2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (5) ◽  
pp. 523-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly M Proffitt ◽  
Jesse DeVoe ◽  
Kristin Barker ◽  
Rebecca Durham ◽  
Teagan Hayes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Forage Quality ◽  
Wildfire Management ◽  
Winter Range ◽  
Forestry Practices ◽  
Summer Range ◽  
Straightforward Approach

Abstract Forestry practices such as prescribed fire and wildfire management can modify the nutritional resources of ungulates across broad landscapes. To evaluate the influences of fire and forest management on ungulate nutrition, we measured and compared forage quality and abundance among a range of land cover types and fire histories within 3 elk ranges in Montana. We used historical fire data to assess fire-related variations in elk forage from 1900 to 2015. Fire affected summer forage more strongly than winter forage. Between 1900–1990 and 1990–2015, elk summer range burned by wildfire increased 242–1772 per cent, whereas the area on winter range burned by wildfire was low across all decades. Summer forage quality peaked in recently burned forests and decreased as time since burn increased. Summer forage abundance peaked in dry forests burned 6–15 years prior and mesic forests burned within 5 years. Forests recently burned by wildfire had higher summer forage quality and herbaceous abundance than those recently burned by prescribed fire. These results suggest that the nutritional carrying capacity for elk varies temporally with fire history and management practices. Our methods for characterizing nutritional resources provide a relatively straightforward approach for evaluating nutritional adequacy and tracking changes in forage associated with disturbances such as fire.

Six Decades of Forest Fire Science in Canada

1990 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. E. Van Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fire ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Fire Ecology ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Fire Science ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Related Science ◽  
Changing Attitudes

This account of the history and accomplishments of forest fire research in Canada begins with a few basic statistics, and some background on changing attitudes to fire. A historical note on the contributions of Wright and Beall in the 1930's and 1940's follows. Fire science is then divided into six diverse categories: fire behavior, fire management systems, fire ecology, prescribed fire, fire economics, and fire suppression, with a note on developments and accomplishments in each. The references given are examples of the wide range of activity within the whole field of fire-related science and technology, but do not constitute a bibliography.

scholarly journals Measuring Initial Attack Suppression Effectiveness through Burn Probability

Fire ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Reimer ◽  
Dan K. Thompson ◽  
Nicholas Povak
Keyword(s):  
Management Strategies ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Initial Attack ◽  
Exclusion Zone ◽  
Escape Probability ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Burn Probability ◽  
Intensity Spread

Most wildfires in North America are quickly extinguished during initial attack (IA), the first phase of suppression. While rates of success are high, it is not clear how much IA suppression reduces annual fire risk across landscapes. This study introduces a method of estimating IA effectiveness by pairing burn probability (BP) analysis with containment probability calculations based on initial fire intensity, spread rate, and crew response time. The method was demonstrated on a study area in Kootenay National Park, Canada by comparing burn probabilities with and without modeled IA suppression. Results produced landscape-level analyses of three variables: burn probability, suppression effectiveness, and conditional escape probability. Overall, IA reduced mean study area BP by 78% as compared to a no-suppression scenario, but the primary finding was marked spatial heterogeneity. IA was most effective in recently burned areas (86% reduction), whereas mature, contiguous fuels moderated its influence (50%). Suppression was least effective in the designated wildfire exclusion zone, suggesting supplementary management approaches may be appropriate. While the framework includes assumptions about IA containment, results offer new insight into emergent risk patterns and how management strategies alter them. Managers can adopt these methods to anticipate, quantify, and compare fine-scale policy outcomes.

scholarly journals Fire Activity and Their Relationship with the Global Fire Weather Index Database Components in Guinea

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Mamadou Baïlo Barry ◽  
Daouda Badiane ◽  
Saïdou Moustapha Sall ◽  
Moussa Diakhaté ◽  
Habib Senghor
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Fire Weather ◽  
Weather Index ◽  
Fire Weather Index ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Active Fire ◽  
Moderate Resolution ◽  
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

The relationships between the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) System components and the monthly burned area as well as the number of active fire which has taken from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua/TERRA were investigated in 32 Guinean stations between 2003 and 2013. A statistical analysis based on a multi-linear regression model was used to estimate the skills of FWI components on the predictability of burned area and active fire. This statistical analysis gave performances explaining between 16 to 79% of the variance for the burned areas and between 29 and 82% of the variance for the number of fires (P<0.0001) at lag 0. Respectively 16 to 79 % and 29 to 82 % of the variance of the burned areas and variance for the number of fires (P<0.0001) at lag0 can be explained based on the same statistical analysis. All the combinations used gave significant performances to predict the burned areas and active fire on the monthly timescale in all stations excepted Fria and Yomou where the predictability of the burned areas was not obvious. We obtained a significant correlation between the average over all of the stations of burned areas, active fires and FWI composites with percentage of variance between (75 to 84% and 29 to 77%) for active fires and burned areas at lag0 respectively. While for burned area peak (January), the skill of the predictability remains significant only one month in advance, for the active fires, the model remains skilful 1 to 3 months in advance. Results also showed that active fires are more related to fire behavior indices while the burned areas are related to the fine fuel moisture codes. These outcomes have implications for seasonal forecasting of active fire events and burned areas based on FWI components, as significant predictability is found from 1 to 3 months and one month before respectively.

scholarly journals Spatial Assessment of Wildfires Susceptibility in Santa Cruz (Bolivia) Using Random Forest

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 224
Author(s):  
Marcela Bustillo Sánchez ◽  
Marj Tonini ◽  
Anna Mapelli ◽  
Paolo Fiorucci
Keyword(s):  
Random Forest ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Santa Cruz ◽  
Mapping Tool ◽  
Testing Dataset

Wildfires are expected to increase in the near future, mainly because of climate changes and land use management. One of the most vulnerable areas in the world is the forest in central-South America, including Bolivia. Despite that this country is highly prone to wildfires, literature is rather limited here. To fill this gap, we implemented a dataset including the burned area that occurred in the department of Santa Cruz in the period of 2010–2019, and the digital spatial data describing the predisposing factors (i.e., topography, land cover, ecoregions). The main goal was to develop a model, based on Random Forest, in which probabilistic outputs allowed to elaborate wildfires susceptibility maps. The overall accuracy was finally estimated by using 5-fold cross-validation. In addition, the last three years of observations acted as the testing dataset, allowing to evaluate the predictive performance of the model. The quantitative assessment of the variables revealed that “flooded savanna” and “shrub or herbaceous cover, flooded, fresh/saline/brakish water” are respectively the ecoregions and land cover classes with the highest probability of predicting wildfires. This study contributes to the development and validation of an innovative mapping tool for fire risk assessment, implementable at a regional scale in different areas of the globe.

scholarly journals Assessing the wildfire activity in protected areas of the Amazon basin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Da Ponte ◽  
Fermin Alcasena ◽  
Tejas Bhagwat ◽  
Zhongyang Hu
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Fire Control ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Burn Probability ◽  
Fire Ignition

&lt;p&gt;Despite &amp;#160;growing concerns regarding the Amazonian wildfires, the magnitude of the problem is poorly understood. In this study, we assessed the wildfire activity in the &amp;#160;protected natural sites (n= 428) of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela, encompassing an area of 1.4 million km&lt;sup&gt;2 &lt;/sup&gt;of the Amazon basin. A 250 m resolution spectroradiometer sensor imaging (MODIS) was used to obtain land-use/land-cover (MODIS land use land cover product) changes and derive the wildfire activity data (ignition locations and burned areas (MODIS active fire products)) from 2001 to 2018. First, we characterized the mean fire return interval, wildfire occurrence, and empiric burn probability. Then, we implemented a transmission analysis to assess the burned area from incoming fires. We used transmission analysis to characterize the land use and anthropic activities associated to fire ignition locations across the different countries. On average, 867 km &lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; of natural forests were burned in protected natural sites annually, and about 85 incoming fires per year from neighboring areas accounted for 10.5% (9,128 ha) of the burned area. The most affected countries were Brazil (53%), Bolivia (24%), and Venezuela (16%).Considerable amount of fire ignition points were detected in open savannas (29%) and grasslands (41%) , where the fire is periodically used to clear extensive grazing properties. The incoming fires from savannas were responsible for burning the largest forest areas within protected sites, affecting as much as 9,800 ha in a single fire event. In conclusion, we &amp;#160;discuss the potential implications of the main socioeconomic factors and environmental policies that could explain increasing trends of burned areas. Wildfire risk mitigation strategies include the fire ignition prevention in developed areas, fire use regulation in rural communities, increased fuels management efforts in the buffer areas surrounding natural sites, and the early detection system that may facilitate a rapid and effective fire control response. Our analysis and quantitative outcomes describing the fire activity represent a sound science-based approach for an well defined wildfire management within the protected areas of the Amazonian basin.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals The Role of Previous Fires in the Management and Expenditures of Subsequent Large Wildfires

Fire ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin J Belval ◽  
Christopher D O’Connor ◽  
Matthew P Thompson ◽  
Michael S Hand
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Behavior ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Fire Size ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
Percent Area

Previously burned areas can influence the occurrence, extent, and severity of subsequent wildfires, which may influence expenditures on large fires. We develop a conceptual model of how interactions of fires with previously burned areas may influence fire management, fire behavior, expenditures, and test hypotheses using regression models of wildfire size and suppression expenditures. Using a sample of 722 large fires from the western United States, we observe whether a fire interacted with a previous fire, the percent area of fires burned by previous fires, and the percent perimeter overlap with previous fires. Fires that interact with previous fires are likely to be larger and have lower total expenditures on average. Conditional on a fire encountering a previous fire, a greater extent of interaction with previous fires is associated with reduced fire size but higher expenditures, although the expenditure effect is small and imprecisely estimated. Subsequent analysis suggests that fires that interact with previous fires may be systematically different from other fires along several dimensions. We do not find evidence that interactions with previous fires reduce suppression expenditures for subsequent fires. Results suggest that previous fires may allow suppression opportunities that otherwise might not exist, possibly reducing fire size but increasing total expenditures.

scholarly journals AEGIS: a wildfire prevention and management information system

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 6185-6228 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Kalabokidis ◽  
A. Ager ◽  
M. Finney ◽  
N. Athanasis ◽  
P. Palaiologou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
End Users ◽  
Behavior Modeling ◽  
Web Gis ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Fire Control ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Ignition Point ◽  
Management Platform

Abstract. A Web-GIS wildfire prevention and management platform (AEGIS) was developed as an integrated and easy-to-use decision support tool (http://aegis.aegean.gr). The AEGIS platform assists with early fire warning, fire planning, fire control and coordination of firefighting forces by providing access to information that is essential for wildfire management. Databases were created with spatial and non-spatial data to support key system functionalities. Updated land use/land cover maps were produced by combining field inventory data with high resolution multispectral satellite images (RapidEye) to be used as inputs in fire propagation modeling with the Minimum Travel Time algorithm. End users provide a minimum number of inputs such as fire duration, ignition point and weather information to conduct a fire simulation. AEGIS offers three types of simulations; i.e. single-fire propagations, conditional burn probabilities and at the landscape-level, similar to the FlamMap fire behavior modeling software. Artificial neural networks (ANN) were utilized for wildfire ignition risk assessment based on various parameters, training methods, activation functions, pre-processing methods and network structures. The combination of ANNs and expected burned area maps produced an integrated output map for fire danger prediction. The system also incorporates weather measurements from remote automatic weather stations and weather forecast maps. The structure of the algorithms relies on parallel processing techniques (i.e. High Performance Computing and Cloud Computing) that ensure computational power and speed. All AEGIS functionalities are accessible to authorized end users through a web-based graphical user interface. An innovative mobile application, AEGIS App, acts as a complementary tool to the web-based version of the system.

scholarly journals Effects of prescribed fire and timber harvest on terrestrial salamander abundance, behavior, and microhabitat use

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Katherine M. O'Donnell
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Timber Harvest ◽  
Plant Responses ◽  
Microhabitat Use ◽  
Prescribed Burn ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Before And After

The goal of my dissertation was to assess how terrestrial salamanders respond to two common forest management practices -- prescribed fire and timber harvest. Previous studies have reported that timber harvest adversely affects terrestrial salamanders, but there is not enough information to draw conclusions about the effects of prescribed fire. It is important to understand how prescribed fire affects wildlife, as it is increasingly being used to decrease wildfire risk and restore fire-adapted ecosystems. However, many fire management decisions are currently based on predicted plant responses, since there is more data available on plants than wildlife. To estimate terrestrial salamander population size (abundance) prior to treatments, I conducted surveys for three years and used a statistical modeling approach that accounted for the tendency of terrestrial salamanders to be belowground and unavailable for surveys. I found that terrestrial salamander density at our Missouri Ozark study site ranged from 0.4 to 1.6 salamanders per square meter. I found that salamanders were most likely to be on the forest floor surface during or following rainfall, and that they were more likely to be in leaf litter than under cover objects if it had recently rained. Following timber harvest and prescribed fire, salamanders were less likely to be on the surface. It appears that terrestrial salamander abundance is more adversely affected by timber harvest than by prescribed fire. I also tracked individual salamanders before and after a prescribed burn, and found that they stayed belowground much more frequently in burned areas than non-burned areas. However, I did not find evidence of direct salamander mortality due to the fire. My results indicate that terrestrial salamanders respond to post-fire and post-harvest conditions by spending more time belowground to avoid increased physiological stress. Though it appears that terrestrial salamanders can generally avoid direct consequences of prescribed fire, behavioral responses to post-fire micro-environmental conditions could affect salamander populations in ways that are not yet apparent.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document