A Quantitative Analysis of Fuel Break Effectiveness Drivers in Southern California National Forests

Fire

article

Benjamin Gannon¹  Yu Wei²  Erin Belval³  Jesse Young³  Matthew Thompson³  Christopher O’Connor³  David Calkin³  Christopher Dunn⁴ 

[1] USDA Forest Service, National Office, Fire and Aviation Management;Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University;USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station;Department of Forest Engineering, Resources & Management, Oregon State University

关键词: fuel break;    suppression effectiveness;    fire weather;    fuel treatment;   

DOI  :  10.3390/fire6030104

学科分类：环境科学（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Fuel and wildfire management decisions related to fuel break construction, maintenance, and use in fire suppression suffer from limited information on fuel break success rates and drivers of effectiveness. We built a dataset of fuel break encounters with recent large wildfires in Southern California and their associated biophysical, suppression, weather, and fire behavior characteristics to develop statistical models of fuel break effectiveness with boosted regression. Our results suggest that the dominant influences on fuel break effectiveness are suppression, weather, and fire behavior. Variables related to fuel break placement, design, and maintenance were less important but aligned with manager expectations for higher success with wider and better maintained fuel breaks, and prior research findings that fuel break success increases with accessibility. Fuel breaks also held more often if burned by a wildfire during the previous decade, supporting the idea that fuel breaks may be most effective if combined with broader fuel reduction efforts.

【 授权许可】

CC BY