Does predicting fire behaviour in conifer forests interest you? While at our conference, attend the Predicting fire behaviour in modified conifer fuels with the Conifer Pyrometrics system affiliated workshop.
Date: 2 pm – 5 pm, Monday Nov 18, 2019
Workshop lead: Dan Perrakis, Canadian Forest Service (Pacific Forestry Centre)
Registration: To register for this workshop contact daniel.perrakis@canada.ca
*Attendance at this workshop is restricted to participants registered for the Wildland Fire Canada 2019 conference. Conference registration fees and details can be found here: https://wildlandfire2019.ca/register/
This workshop introduces a new fire behaviour modelling scheme that links new models of crown initiation and spread in conifer forests together with new stand specific moisture models. Tentatively called ‘Canadian Conifer Pyrometrics’ (CCP), this scheme is a hybrid between the existing Canadian Fire Behaviour Prediction (FBP) System and Crown Fire Initiation and Spread (CFIS) systems (Cruz et al. 2003-5) that incorporates new research on fuel moisture and crown fire initiation. A simple function to estimate surface fire spread based on the FPB System observations was combined with a new crown fire initiation model (Perrakis et al. in prep.), using the Wotton and Beverly (2007) equations to improve moisture content estimation. For crown fires, the CFIS crown rate of spread model (Cruz et al. 2005) is adapted to represent high danger conditions. The result is a modelling system built on empirical data that offers much greater flexibility with respect to conifer forest structure than the existing FBPS. A simple visualization tool for viewing scenarios using the CCP is called FuelGraph, which allows users to compare predicted rate of spread (ROS) and crown fire initiation thresholds under different fuel and weather conditions.
In this workshop, participants will be introduced to the studies and components that make up the CCP System, and be shown how to use FuelGraph to make fire behaviour assessments. Participants are expected to have some degree of technical knowledge of fire behaviour prediction, including the CFFDRS. Operational users should have taken the CIFFC Advanced Wildfire Behaviour course (S-490), while researchers and consultants should have several years of experience working with the FBP System (and/or CFIS) and understand some detail of its workings. Please note that the system being presented is still in development and should not be used for operational fire behaviour prediction.
Participants in the workshop should bring a laptop. A list of recommended software will be provided to participants at least one week prior to the workshop.
Please note, attendance at this workshop will be limited to 20 participants. There is no registration fee required but if you are interested please register (email) with Dan Perrakis daniel.perrakis@canada.ca directly to reserve your spot!
For information on more workshops, visit our Workshops and Affiliated Meetings page.