Tools for fire modeling: FBP Graph

Some time ago, Marty Alexander, Canadian fire behaviour guru emeritus, challenged me to put together a tool for comparing  the fuel types within the Canadian Fire Behaviour Prediction System (a sub-component of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System). I had already been interested in comparing the fuel types graphically to aid in fuel typing (deciding which FBP fuel types would best fit various patches of land based on characteristics such as tree species and density). This proved to be a very hand way to learn the details of the calculations within the FBP system.

The result is FBP Graph, an Excel graphing tool that compares spread rate and headfire intensity between up to 4 FBP fuel types simultaneously, with a fair amount of user control over the inputs and appearance. Although some day I may try to convert this to R or some more sophisticated platform, the Excel graphing format was handy for this purpose and should be familiar to most users.

The current version is 2.1, which allows for the x axis to be toggled between ISI (initial spread index) and wind speed, which is handy for forecasting the likely results of wind gusts and diurnal wind changes. Overall, I believe FBP Graph should be fairly self-explanatory to anyone with a good understanding of the FBP system (say, anyone who has been through the CIFFC Advanced Fire Behaviour course). Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Screen shots and download:

FBPGraph_v2_1

Fire photos and videos

Who isn’t fascinated by wildland fire? I am privileged to be able to study such a cool phenomenon.

Here is a tasting of some great fire images from the great Canadian wild.

Just a random little fire, started by lightning somewhere in Wood Buffalo National Park (southern Northwest Territories), June 2006; landscape is typical of the boreal muskeg – poorly drained soil, lots of water, lots of organic material, small trees.

This is from a walk through a 2005 fire one year later – tens of thousands of jack pine seedlings per hectare, naturally regenerated following wildfire (pine cone is about 5-7 cm or 2-3 inches long).

 

On the ecotone (ecosystem transition area) between the southern boreal plains and prairie grasslands of Saskatchewan; this is a 2009 prescribed burn in Prince Albert National Park designed to restore a grassland ecosystem. The fire is burning through a decadent stand of trembling aspen, burning as a relatively high intensity surface fire.

 

This is a more typical fire photo for the boreal forest – high intensity active (continuous) crown fire burning through black and white spruce. This is probably the type of fire that created this stand in the first place. Wood Buffalo National Park, 2007.

 

 

Canadian Fire Management Links

Canadian fire management links – in Canada, most fire management responsibilities are carried out by provincial natural resource management agencies. The two main exceptions of note are Parks Canada and CIFFC.

British Columbia – Wildfire Management Branch (BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations)

Yukon -Wildland Fire Management (YK Department of Community Services)

Alberta – Sustainable Resource Development/Preventing & Fighting Wildfire

Northwest Territories – Fire Management (NT Environment & Natural Resources)

Saskatchewan – SK Environment and Resource Management

Manitoba – MB Conservation Fire Program

Ontario – Aviation and Forest Fire Management (ON Ministry of Natural Resources)

Quebec – Societe de protection des forets contre le feu (SOPFEU)

Parks Canada Agency – PCA Fire Management Program

Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre – CIFFC

Getting started

Greetings! This is the personal fire ecology blog of Dan Perrakis, Ph.D. I am currently a fire researcher working for a provincial agency in western Canada (if I don’t actually mention my employer, hopefully I can avoid any conflicts at work related to content here!). I am interested in most topics related to wildland fire, including fire effects, fire behaviour, and fire management. I hope to ultimately have papers and discussions posted here as a resource for the fire ecology community.