Consumption and carbon emission estimates from biomass burning in the Lower-48 combine spatial fuel datasets and fire effects models that together describe the primary interacting physiographic and environmental compartments involved in fires. The ultimate goal is to create a generalized framework for estimating consumption and emissions from historical burn data then expanding the methodology into a predictive context for evaluating present and future consumption/emission probabilities. In addition, the utility of post-fire remote sensing burn ratios (i.e Differenced Normalize Burn Ratio [dNBR]) for assessing biomass consumption will be tested by combining spatial fuel consumption models with dNBR images to search for spatial correlations between fuel-type, fuel moisture, and burn severity. Principle input data and fire effects models are described below.

Spatial Fuel Datasets

FCCS (Fuel Characteristics Classification System)

FCCS is a 1-km fuelbed map for the contiguous United States. Fuel attributes contained within each fuel code provide the fuel loading inputs for the Consume consumption model. A fact sheet for the FCCS can be found here. Please visit the FERA (Fire and Environment Research Applications) webpage for complete FCCS system documentation and references.

Right: FCCS (Fuel Characteristics Classification System) fuel beds for the Western United States overlayed by Omernik's ecoregions. Also visible in the graphic are example burn perimeters derived using dNBR. The current fire database contains over 100 fire perimeters and dNBR images.

USGS Burn Severity Mapping

Burn perimeters and dNBR images for post-2000 fires are freely distributed by the USGS. Data is downloadable and comes in GIS-ready formats. Visit the project's website for more information.

Burn severity (dNBR or Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio) is a remote sensing change detection technique utilizing the two Landsat TM/ETM+ bands most responsive to fire-induced environmental change. dNBR is best described as the magnitude of environmental change occurring during a fire. Attempting to link dNBR to biomass consumption is one of the primary challenges this study addresses. Click here for an example summary of dNBR response by fuel type for three large fires. At left, burn severity mapped using the dNBR approach by the National Burn Severity Mapping program is compared to the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) fuelbed map, developed by FERA, to learn the distribution of fuels burned at various severities.

Below are charts showing the amounts of area burned for seven burn severity classes by fuelbed (top) and ecoregion (bottom) for fires mapped by the Burn Severity Mapping Program (97 fires).

Fire Effects Models

Consume 3.0

The Consume 3.0 model developed by FERA is capable of making biomass consumption estimates using FCCS descriptors and fuel moisture as model inputs. A goal of this project is to make the Consume model spatially explicit to analyze the geographic distribution of consumption patterns. More information on Consume can be found here. Consumption as a function of fuel moisture for five of the most common fuelbeds that burn in Western US (left) and for three ecoregions in the Lower-48 (right) are shown below.

NFDRS (National Fire Danger Rating System)

NFDRS is the standard model to assess fire risk for the United States. Included in the rating system are a set of equations that predict daily fuel moisture conditions. Fusing these equations with improved geostatistical weather interpolation techniques will provide fuel moisture prediction and uncertainty estimates to better inform fire effects models such as Consume.