Description

The preparation of wildland fire behavior studies represents both an opportunity and a challenge to the wildland fire community in the future. While the continuance of basic research into fire fundamentals is essential to gaining a complete understanding of the physical processes involved in wildland fire dynamics, scientific knowledge alone will not be enough. There is still an overriding need to bolster efforts in observing free-burning wildland fire behavior and completing the necessary case study documentation. Such an effort should be regarded as part and parcel of adaptive management. Case study knowledge will prove a useful complement to fire behavior modeling and experience judgment when it comes to appraising potential wildland fire behavior. This presentation will provide a summary of the authors' feelings on the value of case studies of wildland fire behavior based in part on several articles published in Fire Management Today between 2003 and 2010. This presentation is a contribution of Joint Fire Science Program Project JFSP 09-S-03-1.