Wildland Fires and Air Pollution
Wildland Fires and Air Pollution

Author: Andrzej Bytnerowicz

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 688

ISBN-13: 0080556094

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Wildland fires are one of the most devastating and terrifying forces of nature. While their effects are mostly destructive they also help with regeneration of forests and other ecosystems. Low-intensity fires clear accumulating biomass reducing risk of catastrophic crown fires and can be used as an effective management tool. This book presents current understanding of wildland fires and air quality as well as their effects on human health, forests and other ecosystems. in the first section of the book the basics of wildland fires and resulting emissions are presented from the perspective of changing global climate, air quality impairment and effects on environmental and human health and security. in the second section, effects of wildland fires on air quality, visibility and human health in various regions of the Earth are discussed. The third section of the book deals with complex issues of the ecological impacts of fires and air pollution in forests and chaparral in North America. The fourth section discusses various management issues facing land and fire managers which are related to wildfires, use of prescribed fires, and air quality. This section also presents various modeling systems used for describing fire dangers and behavior as well as smoke and air pollution predictions applied in the risk assessment analysis. The book concludes with a series of expert recommendations for wildland fire and atmospheric research.

The Photoload Sampling Technique
The Photoload Sampling Technique

Author: Robert E. Keane

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Fire managers need better estimates of fuel loading so they can more accurately predict the potential fire behavior and effects of alternative fuel and ecosystem restoration treatments. This report presents a new fuel sampling method, called the photoload sampling technique, to quickly and accurately estimate loadings for six common surface fuel components (1 hr, 10 hr, 100 hr, and 1000 hr downed dead woody, shrub, and herbaceous fuels). This technique involves visually comparing fuel conditions in the field with photoload sequences to estimate fuel loadings. Photoload sequences are a series of downward-looking and close-up oblique photographs depicting a sequence of graduated fuel loadings of synthetic fuelbeds for each of the six fuel components. This report contains a set of photoload sequences that describe the range of fuel component loadings for common forest conditions in the northern Rocky Mountains of Montana, USA to estimate fuel loading in the field. A companion publication (RMRS-RP-61CD) details the methods used to create the photoload sequences and presents a comprehensive evaluation of the technique.

Development and Evaluation of the Photoload Sampling Technique
Development and Evaluation of the Photoload Sampling Technique

Author: Laura J. Dickinson

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-06-25

Total Pages: 34

ISBN-13: 9781511539722

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Wildland fire managers need better estimates of fuel loading so they can accurately predict potential fire behavior and effects of alternative fuel and ecosystem restoration treatments. This report presents the development and evaluation of a new fuel sampling method, called the photoload sampling technique, to quickly and accurately estimate loadings for six common surface fuel components using downward looking and oblique photographs depicting a sequence of graduated fuel loadings of synthetic fuelbeds. This report details the methods used to construct the photoload sequences (series of photos depicting gradually increasing loadings) for the six fuel components. A companion paper (RMRS-GTR-190) presents the set of photoload sequences developed from this study for common fuelbed conditions found in the northern Rocky Mountains of Montana, USA, along with a detailed sampling protocol that can be used with these photoload picture series to estimate fuel component loadings in the field at various levels of effort and scale. An evaluation of the photoload sampling technique was conducted where 29 participants were asked to estimate loadings for the six fuel components on five sites using the photoload technique. These visual estimates were compared with actual measured loadings to obtain estimates of accuracy and precision. We found that photoload estimates consistently underestimated fuel loadings (average bias 0.182 kg m-2 or 0.8 tons acre-1) but the error of the estimate (0.018 kg m-2 or 0.08 tons acre-1) was within 10 to 50 percent of the mean depending on fuel component. We also found that accuracy and precision of the photoload estimates increased with increasing field experience and also with increasing fuel loadings.