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- Info
Aids to determining fuel models for estimating fire behavior
| Author: |
Anderson, H.E. |
| Date: |
1982 |
| Periodical: |
Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-122. 22 p. |
| Link: |
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_int/int_gtr122.pdf
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| Abstract: |
During the past two decades in the United States, the USDA Forest Service has progressed from a fire danger rating system comprising two fuel models (USDA 1964), to nine models in 1972 (Deeming and others 1972), and to 20 models in 1978 (Deeming and others 1977). During this time the prediction of fire behavior has become more valuable for controlling fire and for assessing potential fire damage to resources. A quantitative basis for rating fire danger and predicting fire behavior became possible with the development of mathematical fire behavior models (Rothermel 1972). The mathematical models require descriptions of fuel properties as inputs to calculations of fire danger indices or fire behavior potential. The collections of fuel properties have become known as fuel models and can be organized into four groups: grass, shrub, timber, and slash. Fuel models for fire danger rating have increased to 20 while fire behavior predictions and applications have utilized the 13 fuel models tabulated by Rothermel (1972) and Albini (1976). This report is intended to aid the user in selecting a fuel model for a specific area through the use of
photographic illustrations. A similarity chart allows the user to relate the fire behavior fuel models to the fire danger rating system fuel models. The chart also provides a means to associate the fire danger rating system fuel models with a photographic representation of those fuel types. |
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