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- Info
Quantifying and ranking the flammability of ornamental shrubs in the southern United States
| Author: |
Long, A.; Behm, A.; Zipperer, W. [and others] |
| Date: |
2006 |
| Periodical: |
2006 Fire Ecology and Management Congress Proceedings |
| Abstract: |
Wildfire preparedness programs focus on education and provide assistance with community design, home construction, and landscape design. Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) residents, nursery employees, and landscape architects often request lists containing species that would be appropriate for placement in firewise landscaping. Existing lists were created from personal experience or based on lists originating in the western United States. These lists, when applied to southern landscape designs, have inconsistencies.
Even with extensive research, there is still no standard method of ranking plant flammability. Although it is possible to measure the individual plant characteristics that influence flammability, it is not known how those individual characteristics affect overall plant flammability (Behm et al. 2004). A recent study found that the flammability of entire plants is most influenced by foliar moisture content and the quantity of foliar biomass (Etlinger and Beall 2004). To compare species, it is important to reduce the impact of environmental variables such as wind and relative humidity; and to accurately and precisely measure the flammability of entire shrubs. These criteria were met by performing all tests using the large-scale calorimetry equipment at the Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The research objective was to rank landscape shrub species from the South by their flammability. |
| View: |
Quantifying and Ranking Shrubs.pdf
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