A synthesis of live fuel moisture and wildland fire, and development of a national historical live fuel moisture database

Live fuel moisture plays an important role in wildland fire. There is a need for a complete information synthesis on live fuel moisture that fire managers can use in wildland fire planning and implementation activities. And a complete review is needed to identify areas where additional investigations are required. We will prepare a synthesis of available information on live fuel moisture and wildland fire including combustion of live fuel, role of live fuel moisture in existing fire potential and fire behavior models and decision support systems, published observed fuel moisture data and seasonal trends for various species, operational sampling methods and programs, and remote sensing of live fuel moisture and vegetation state. This approach will summarize a wealth of important information into readily-useable references useful to fire managers and to researchers. We will produce two papers from this analysis: a research station publication and a peer-reviewed journal article. An annotated bibliography will be made available on the web, with scanned copies of proceedings and agency papers. We will also parse available historical live fuel moisture datasets into a user-friendly database and make it available through the World Wide Web.

Information for the live fuel moisture synthesis will be considered in the following categories:

• Combustion and fuel chemistry studies, fundamental research
• Sampling methods, programs, and published data
• Remote sensing of live fuel moisture and vegetation state
• Live fuel moisture in models (e.g. Rothermel’s surface fire spread model, Van Wagner’s transition to crown fire model)
• Live fuel moisture in systems (e.g. NFDRS, WFAS, FARSITE, Canadian fire behavior prediction system)

Annotated Live Fuel Moisture Bibliography with Scanned Station Papers

Find papers using the "Search WFAS" option  on the right panel of the screen.