A simulation study of thinning and fuel treatments on a wildland–urban interface in eastern Oregon, USA

Ager, Alan A.; McMahan, Andrew; Barrett, James J.; McHugh, Charles W.

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2006.10.009

Cited by 51 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Conditional flame length is the average flame length given among the simulated fires that burned a given pixel and is a measure of wildfire hazard [29]. FlamMap also generates text files containing the fire size (FS, ha) and ignition x-y coordinates for each simulated fire.…”

Section: Fire Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Wildfire Risk in Cultural Heritage Properties Using High Spatial and Temporal Resolution Satellite Imagery and Spatially Explicit Fire Simulations: The Case of Holy Mount Athos, Greece

Mallinis

Mitsopoulos²,

Beltran³

et al. 2016

Forests

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Abstract:Fire management implications and the design of conservation strategies on fire prone landscapes within the UNESCO World Heritage Properties require the application of wildfire risk assessment at landscape level. The objective of this study was to analyze the spatial variation of wildfire risk on Holy Mount Athos in Greece. Mt. Athos includes 20 monasteries and other structures that are threatened by increasing frequency of wildfires. Site-specific fuel models were created by measuring in the field several fuel parameters in representative natural fuel complexes, while the spatial extent of the fuel types was determined using a synergy of high-resolution imagery and high temporal information from medium spatial resolution imagery classified through object-based analysis and a machine learning classifier. The Minimum Travel Time (MTT) algorithm, as it is embedded in FlamMap software, was applied in order to evaluate Burn Probability (BP), Conditional Flame Length (CFL), Fire Size (FS), and Source-Sink Ratio (SSR). The results revealed low burn probabilities for the monasteries; however, nine out of the 20 monasteries have high fire potential in terms of fire intensity, which means that if an ignition occurs, an intense fire is expected. The outputs of this study may be used for decision-making for short-term predictions of wildfire risk at an operational level, contributing to fire suppression and management of UNESCO World Heritage Properties.

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Section: Fire Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Wildfire Risk in Cultural Heritage Properties Using High Spatial and Temporal Resolution Satellite Imagery and Spatially Explicit Fire Simulations: The Case of Holy Mount Athos, Greece

Mallinis

Mitsopoulos²,

Beltran³

et al. 2016

Forests

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“…The GNN grid of inventory plots was intersected with the stand polygon layer and the population of 30 m pixels that represented each plot was identified. The Blue Mountains variant of the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) [31] was used to simulate a restoration thinning in each stand using prescriptions adopted from operational practices by Forest silviculturists developed in previous studies [32,33]. The thinning is based on stand density index (SDI) [34] targets established in the Blue Mountains for each target tree species and plant association [35][36][37].…”

Section: Timber Harvest Volumementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In mixed species stands, prescriptions targeted thinning of late-seral, fire-intolerant species (e.g., grand fir) and retention of fire-tolerant early seral species (e.g., ponderosa pine). The species preferences differed by plant association group [36] as described in Ager et al [32]. We averaged the total merchantable thin volume as defined and reported by FVS [38] for each stand ( Figure 3C) and then estimated a total volume from the thinning treatment by multiplying by the stand area.…”

Section: Timber Harvest Volumementioning

confidence: 99%

Prioritization of Forest Restoration Projects: Tradeoffs between Wildfire Protection, Ecological Restoration and Economic Objectives

Vogler

Ager

Day

et al. 2015

Forests

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Abstract:The implementation of US federal forest restoration programs on national forests is a complex process that requires balancing diverse socioecological goals with project economics. Despite both the large geographic scope and substantial investments in restoration projects, a quantitative decision support framework to locate optimal project areas and examine tradeoffs among alternative restoration strategies is lacking. We developed and demonstrated a new prioritization approach for restoration projects using optimization and the framework of production possibility frontiers. The study area was a 914,657 ha national forest in eastern Oregon, US that was identified as a national priority for restoration with the goal of increasing fire resiliency and sustaining ecosystem services. The results illustrated sharp tradeoffs among the various restoration goals due to weak spatial correlation of forest stressors and provisional ecosystem services. The sharpest tradeoffs were found in simulated projects that addressed either wildfire risk to the urban interface or wildfire hazard, highlighting the challenges associated with meeting both economic and fire protection goals. Understanding the nature of tradeoffs between restoration objectives and communicating them to forest stakeholders will allow forest managers to more effectively design and implement economically feasible restoration projects.

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“…In all custom fuel models, litter load was added to the 1-hr fuel load. Ager et al, 2007). The effect of this modification was that 90 th percentile wind speeds in this study are similar to 97.5 th percentile ("extreme hazard") wind speeds used in other Sierra Nevada fuels and fire behavior studies (e.g., Stephens and Moghaddas, 2005a;Schmidt et al, 2008).…”

Section: Fuels and Fire Behavior Calculationsmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Looking to the future, short-and long-term management goals that guide fire and fuels managers must be informed by the best available scientific research into the efficacy and ecological effects of fuel treatments at both stand and landscape scales (Stephens and Moghaddas, 2005a;Ager et al, 2007;Finney et al, 2007;North et al, 2009b). As an example, the CASPO thinning guidelines (Verner et al, 1992) currently used in USFS fire hazard reduction projects throughout the Sierra Nevada, although effective at reducing canopy bulk density and therefore the probability of active crown fire, do not approximate historical forest structure or composition, leading to concerns over longterm ecological integrity (North et al, 2007;North et al, 2009b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Wildland-Urban Interface Fuel Treatments on Potential Fire Behavior and Ecosystem Services in the Central Sierra Nevada Mountains of California

Hamma

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A simulation study of thinning and fuel treatments on a wildland–urban interface in eastern Oregon, USA

Cited by 51 publications

References 23 publications

Assessing Wildfire Risk in Cultural Heritage Properties Using High Spatial and Temporal Resolution Satellite Imagery and Spatially Explicit Fire Simulations: The Case of Holy Mount Athos, Greece

Assessing Wildfire Risk in Cultural Heritage Properties Using High Spatial and Temporal Resolution Satellite Imagery and Spatially Explicit Fire Simulations: The Case of Holy Mount Athos, Greece

Prioritization of Forest Restoration Projects: Tradeoffs between Wildfire Protection, Ecological Restoration and Economic Objectives

Effects of Wildland-Urban Interface Fuel Treatments on Potential Fire Behavior and Ecosystem Services in the Central Sierra Nevada Mountains of California

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