Canadian Forest Service Publications
Testing large woody fuel consumption models for prescribed fires in British Columbia. 1994. Hawkes, B.C.; Taylor, S.W. Pages 461-471 in Proceedings of the 12th conference on fire and forest meteorology, October 26-28, 1993, Jekyll Island, GA, USA. Society of American Foresters, Bethesda, MD.
Year: 1994
Issued by: Pacific Forestry Centre
Catalog ID: 3361
Language: English
CFS Availability: Order paper copy (free)
Abstract
The accuracy and precision of two American and two Canadian large woody fuel consumption models was examined on four and five fires, respectively, in British Columbia (B.C.). The United States (U.S.) CONSUME model underpredicted percent volume reduction for all large size classes but with root mean squared errors (RMSE) which were generally smaller than those associated with other models. Equations developed for a north Idaho model underpredicted consumption for the sound material but overpredicted consumption for rotten and combined woody fuel conditions. The north Idaho prediction RMSE was similar to CONSUME for sound material but was up to two times larger for rotten and combined material. The B.C. Prescribed Fire Predictor (PFP) model underpredicted percent consumption with the highest RMSE of all models. A recently developed non-linear equation, using B.C. data, underpredicted with a small bias and a RMSE larger than CONSUME, similar to the north Idaho model, but less than the PFP. Direct implementation of U.S. models is difficult in Canada because the different fuel moisture models used in each country are commonly used as independent variables. The new B.C. non-linear equation was an improvement over the currently used PFP model but was similar in bias and precision to the U.S. models for percent large woody fuel consumption.