A study of the relationship between fire hazard and burn severity in Grand Teton National Park, USA

Abstract

Fire hazard maps are a useful tool which help land managers with wildfire mitigation planning. These maps are used for predicting the likelihood of fire ignition, fire behavior and effects, and can be generated using different techniques. However, the relationship between fire hazard and the resulting burn severity has not been fully explored. This paper presents a new method for assessing fire hazard and examines the relationship between fire hazard and burn severity. The 2016 Berry Fire in Grand Teton National Park is used as a case study for this examination. Fire hazard was calculated using a multicriteria evaluation based on fuel type, canopy cover, moisture conditions, topography, and infrastructure. Additionally, several previously proposed fire hazard indices were generated for comparison. All fire hazard indices were compared to the burn severities for the Berry Fire to determine if a relationship existed between fire hazard and burn severity. The proposed model exhibited a moderate relationship with two of the tested burn severity categories (unburned and moderate to high) and a weak relationship with the other categories (low, moderate, high). The other fire hazard indices exhibited very weak relationships with burn severity and in some instances the relationship was the inverse of what was expected.