Welcome to the Wildland Fire Assessment Tool lesson. WFAT, as it will be referred to throughout this lesson, is a custom ArcMap toolbar that provides an interface between ArcGIS desktop software, FlamMap5 algorithms (Finney 2006) and First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM) algorithms (Reinhardt 2003) to produce predicted fire behavior and fire effects map layers. Let’s start by looking at the various components of this WFAT lesson… 1
Now that you understand the flow of the lesson as a whole, let’s look more closely at what Part 1 of the lesson entails. You’ll learn about fire behavior and fire effects. Then you’ll be introduced to WFAT. Next, you’ll read Chapter 3 of the WFAT User’s Guide for a general overview of the tool inputs. After that you’ll read Chapter 4 of the User’s Guide for an overview of the tool outputs. And finally, you’ll work through a short comprehension check (short quiz). So, let’s get started with Part 1. This section will take approximately two hours , g pp y to complete. 2
Fire behavior refers to the way that fire reacts to the three parts of the fire behavior triangle; Fuel, Weather, and Topography. Examples of fire behavior characteristics are fire rate of spread, flame length, fireline intensity. 3
First order fire effects are the direct and immediate environmental consequences of a fire. These are outcomes that are directly linked to the combustion process and include plant mortality and seed bank reduction, soil heating and exposure, water repellant soil conditions, smoke production, and fuel consumption. 4
Longer-term ecosystem responses are often referred to as second order fire effects and usually involve interaction with other agents. These include soil erosion and stream sedimentation, regeneration by existing vegetation and colonization by new plant species, changes in the fuel matrix including arrangement and amounts of fine and coarse woody debris, and vegetation mortality from insects and disease drawn to fire-weakened plants. These effects may take from a few days to years to become apparent. t k f f d t t b t First order fire effects form the basis for second order fire effects, but second order fire effects are not predicted in WFAT and so will not be discussed further in this lesson. For more information on fire ecology and effects, see “Fire Ecology of Pacific Northwest Forests” by James K. Agee (1993). y g ( ) 5
WFAT is a custom ArcMap toolbar that integrates and runs FOFEM (predicting fire effects) and FlamMap (predicting fire behavior) from the ArcMap platform to model and portray fire behavior and fire effects outputs spatially. We will discuss the FOFEM and FlamMap software in more detail later. These predicted spatial fire effects and fire behavior data support land management planning, including potential fire behavior map g p g, g p p layers, such as flame length and rate of spread, and fire effects layers, such as fuel consumption, smoke emissions, soil heating and tree mortality. WFAT helps answer the question ― Where on a landscape are fire behavior and effects likely to be most problematic in regards to specific land management objectives? 6
WFAT incorporates three main data processing steps. First, the tool builds the landscape file (.lcp) from LANDFIRE input data, required to run FlamMap. WFAT can also utilize an existing user- specified .lcp file. Next, WFAT runs FlamMap to condition fuel moistures – if the user has opted to do so – and to predict potential crown fire activity and scorch height. Lastly, WFAT runs FOFEM and FlamMap for each unique combination of inputs to predict potential fire behavior characteristics and potential first di t t ti l fi b h i h t i ti d t ti l fi t order fire effects. 7
Lets take a moment to become more familiar with FlamMap and FOFEM so that we can better understand how WFAT works. FlamMap is a fire behavior mapping and analysis program that computes potential fire behavior characteristics (flame length, rate of spread, fire type or crown fire activity (CFA), and fireline intensity) at a pixel level over an entire assessment area. There is no temporal component in FlamMap. It uses spatial information on topography and fuel to calculate fire behavior characteristics at one t h d f l t l l t fi b h i h t i ti t instant. WFAT uses an Arc GRID format and consequently there is no longer any need to convert files back and forth between ASCII and Arc GRID formats as required by FlamMap. 8
FOFEM is a non-spatial fire effects analysis program that computes potential first order fire effects (fuel consumption, smoke emissions, soil heating, and tree mortality). WFAT enhances non-spatial FOFEM by modeling and portraying fire effects outputs spatially and by simplifying the analysis of heterogeneous landscapes or multiple planning units through spatial analysis. The development and function of FOFEM are described in: Reinhardt, E.D.; Keane, R.E.; Brown, J.K. 1997. First Order Fire Effects Model: FOFEM 4.0, User's Guide. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-GTR- 344. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station. This document is available in the resources section for REM407 resources section for REM407. 9
Now that you know a little more about how WFAT works, lets discuss some general benefits of using WFAT. The integration of spatial data that describe the fire environment allows managers to visualize the spatial relationships of these fire behavior and fire effects by viewing them adjacent to or near each other on a map. The example on this slide shows post-fire 100-hour fuel loads across a landscape. 10
Managers can also overlay other map layers onto the individual fire effects layers to observe and analyze other spatial relationships. For example, you can overlay a soil type layer onto soil surface temperature to see how each soil type is affected, as shown here. 11
Let’s consider why assessments with WFAT are useful to land managers…or what it can help you do. WFAT can be used to 1. identify the location of hazardous fuels 2. Prioritize, evaluate, and design fuel treatment projects 3. Develop burn plans for prescribed fire 4. Predict fire behavior and effects for planning and monitoring documents 5. Assess appropriate management response to wildland fire 6. Calibrate fuel data layers based upon observed fire behavior. We will be covering each of these points in more detail in the next section of the course. 12
WFAT requires two kinds of input data: 1) Spatial data layers and 2) Model inputs The SPATIAL data can be provided in the form of ArcGIS rasters (grids). The following grids are required inputs: Elevation, slope, aspect, fire behavior fuel models, canopy cover, canopy height, canopy base height, canopy bulk density, fire effects fuel model, and a tree list. These data layers can be obtained from the y LANDFIRE data access web site (www.landfire.gov). NOTE: The tree list grids are not yet available via LANDFIRE. Please contact your instructor of REM407 to obtain a treelist grid for a specific area!!! 13
The MODEL inputs include a Fuel Moisture File (which will be described in more detail on the next slide), wind speed, wind direction, and foliar moisture of the live leaves and needles. Two fuel moisture settings are available: 1) Fixed fuel moistures from the fuel moisture file, and 2) Conditioning of the fuel moisture based on weather and wind. If fuel moisture conditioning is requested, input files describing the weather and wind are required. The composition of these files are described in the WFAT i d Th iti f th fil d ib d i th WFAT User’s Guide. Soil moisture is another input in WFAT. Typical soil moisture values range from 5% (very dry) to 25% (wet). Wet soils tend to conduct heat more rapidly than drier soils due to the conductive properties of water. A soil with higher moisture has potential to heat up more f il i h hi h i h i l h rapidly and to a greater depth than a drier soil assuming the same amount and duration of heat. 14
WFAT allows the user to specify the crown fire calculation method to be used - Finney (1998) or Scott and Reinhardt (2001). The choice is largely dependent on the source of the canopy bulk density (CBD) data. If the source of the CBD data is based on a method that uses biomass equations (running mean methods), the Scott and Reinhardt method (2001) should produce the best results, whereas the Finney (1998) method would be expected to under-predict active crown fire potential. Scott/Reinhardt should d di t ti fi t ti l S tt/R i h dt h ld be used with LANDFIRE National data while Finney should be used with LANDFIRE Rapid Refresh data (see the WDAT User Guide for more information). Finally the user will specify the Region and the Season using the drop down menus drop-down menus. 15
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