Canopy fuel modelling in Mediterranean forest stands with airborne LiDAR data at regional scale: preliminary results

Abstract

Canopy fuel characterization is highly relevant for wildfire prevention, especially in the context of extreme events involving crown fires. Airborne laser scanning has been proven very useful to retrieve 3D forest structure at large scales, becoming freely available in many countries in the recent years which provide an opportunity to map fuel parameters that are critical for fire behaviour simulation. Previous studies on canopy fuel modelling predict canopy base height (CBH), fuel load (CFL) and bulk density (CBD) mainly in tree species from temperate conifer forest, with specific models still lacking for the main Mediterranean forest stands and especially deciduous species. This work presents preliminary results of models obtained from low density airborne LiDAR data (1.5 p/m2) for canopy fuel characterization of critical structural variables (CBH, CFL and CBD) in the main Mediterranean forest stands existing in Andalusia region, including Pinus sp, Quercus sp and Eucalyptus sp tree species. A set of 750 plots are used to characterize canopy fuels in 15 different forest stands representative of Mediterranean tree species, with a samplig design that consider structural heterogeneity in a wide study area (29000 km2). Different modelling techniques are tested to selected the best formulation and input LiDAR metrics to be included in the final models for each fuel parameter, that are used to generate high resolution maps of canopy fuels at regional scale.