Evaluation of the FCCS crown fire potential equations in Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Mill.) stands in Greece

Abstract

This paper evaluates the conceptual crown fire potential equations developed by Schaaf et al against observations and modelling results in Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Mill.) stands in Greece. The equations, integrated into the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) in the United States, are currently used to rank the potential for passive or active crowning across a diverse set of wildland fuelbeds. The framework is based on an extension of the work by Van Wagner and Rothermel but introduces several new physical concepts to the modelling of crown fire behaviour, including the reformulated Rothermel surface fire modelling concepts proposed by Sandberg et al. A sensitivity analysis comparing the FCCS Torching Potential (TP) and Active Crown Fire Potential (AP) against field observations and CFIS modelling outputs has produced encouraging results, suggesting that the FCCS crown fire potentials might be a useful tool for fire managers in the Mediterranean region to consider when evaluating the relative behaviour of crown fires in vegetated canopies.

Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior: volume 2 for fire behavior specialists, researchers, and meteorologists

“…The primary models incorporated into CFIS have been evaluated against both outdoor experimental fires and wildfire observations as shown in figures 9-31C and 9-31D to be reasonably reliable (e.g., , Cronan and Jandt 2008, Stocks et al 2004b. Output from CFIS is now being used as a proxy for reality by some users (e.g., Schreuder et al 2010). Scott (2006) claimed that the small size of the experimental fires used in the development of CFIS "may preclude direct application to real crown fires."…”