Document

Title

Modeling fuels and fire effects in 3D: model description and applications
Document Type: Journal Article
Author(s): Francois Pimont; Russell A. Parsons; Eric Rigolot; Francois P. deColigny; Jean-Luc Dupuy; Philippe Dreyfus; Rodman R. Linn
Publication Year: 2016

Cataloging Information

Keyword(s):
  • beetle outbreak
  • bulk density
  • CAPSIS - Computer-Aided Projection of Strategies In Silviculture
  • crown fire
  • fire management
  • FIRETEC
  • forest canopy
  • fuel management
  • fuel treatment
  • FuelManager
  • ICFME - International Crown Fire Modeling Experiment
  • Pinus halepensis
  • surface fires
  • tissue necrosis
  • WFDS - Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator
  • wind-flows
Topic(s):
Region(s):
Record Maintained By:
TTRS Staff; https://talltimbers.org/contact-us
Record Last Modified: June 13, 2019
FRAMES Record Number: 54936
Tall Timbers Record Number: 32794
TTRS Location Status: Not in file
TTRS Call Number: Available
TTRS Abstract Status: Fair use, Okay, Reproduced by permission

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy.

Description

Scientists and managers critically need ways to assess how fuel treatments alter fire behavior, yet few tools currently exist for this purpose. We present a spatially-explicit-fuel-modeling system, FuelManager, which models fuels, vegetation growth, fire behavior (using a physics-based model, FIRETEC), and fire effects. FuelManager's flexible approach facilitates modeling fuels across a wide range of detail. Large trees or shrubs with specific coordinates are modeled as individual 'Plants', while understory plants are modeled as collections of plants called 'LayerSets'. Both Plants and LayerSets contain various fuel particles (leaves, needles, twigs) with various properties including shape, size and surface area to volume ratio. A wide range of vegetation and treatments can be modeled, analyzed quantitatively and visualized in a 3D viewer. We describe the modeling approach and demonstrate fuel modeling at different levels of detail, fuel treatment and fire effects capabilities. Detailed model equations are provided in the Appendices. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Online Link(s):
Link to this document
Citation:
Pimont, F., R. Parsons, E. Rigolot, F. De Coligny, J. L. Dupuy, P. Dreyfus, and R. R. Linn. 2016. Modeling fuels and fire effects in 3D: model description and applications. Environmental Modelling & Software, v. 80, p. 225-244. 10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.03.003.