IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v314y2015icp90-99.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparing fuels reduction and patch mosaic fire regimes for reducing fire spread potential: A spatial modeling approach

Author

Listed:
  • Duncan, Brean W.
  • Schmalzer, Paul A.
  • Breininger, David R.
  • Stolen, Eric D.

Abstract

Reduction of fire hazard is becoming increasingly important in managed landscapes globally. Fuels reduction prescribed burn treatments are the most common form of reducing fire hazard on landscapes around the world but often result in homogenized fuel age structures and habitats. Alternatively, the size of unplanned fires, and hence fire hazard, can be reduced by controlling the size and patterning of fuels treatments in a patch mosaic arrangement on landscapes. Patch mosaic burning is being implemented globally as a means to increase heterogeneity to mimic natural fire regime results. Funding for prescribed fire programs is often justified primarily on hazardous fuels reduction with secondary consideration given for ecological effectiveness, which can be increased by particular fire mosaic patterns in some systems. The question we address is: Which of two prescribed fire treatment regimes, fuels reduction or patch mosaic burning, reduces fire hazard most effectively? We address the question using computer simulation modeling on synthetic landscapes representing both fire regime treatments. Treatment scale was important. Among fuel reduction treatments, large blocks burned less area than small blocks. For the mosaic treatments, small blocks reduced fire size the most (out of all treatments) and had the least variance in area burned. It is possible to reduce fire hazard and to provide heterogeneous age fuels structure on the landscape, simultaneously benefiting humans and many native fire-dependent species requiring mosaic habitat patterns.

Suggested Citation

  • Duncan, Brean W. & Schmalzer, Paul A. & Breininger, David R. & Stolen, Eric D., 2015. "Comparing fuels reduction and patch mosaic fire regimes for reducing fire spread potential: A spatial modeling approach," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 314(C), pages 90-99.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:314:y:2015:i:c:p:90-99
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.07.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380015003191
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.07.013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duncan, Brean W. & Weishampel, John F. & Peterson, Seth H., 2011. "Simulating a natural fire regime on an Atlantic coast barrier island complex in Florida, USA," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(9), pages 1639-1650.
    2. David Breininger & Brean Duncan & Mitchell Eaton & Fred Johnson & James Nichols, 2014. "Integrating Land Cover Modeling and Adaptive Management to Conserve Endangered Species and Reduce Catastrophic Fire Risk," Land, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-24, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Monedero, Santiago & Ramirez, Joaquin & Cardil, Adrián, 2019. "Predicting fire spread and behaviour on the fireline. Wildfire analyst pocket: A mobile app for wildland fire prediction," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 392(C), pages 103-107.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:314:y:2015:i:c:p:90-99. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.