Evaluating fire behavior simulators in southwestern China forest area

Abstract

As an important technical reference for efficient prevention and fighting against forest fire, forest fire behavior parameters are mainly obtained from fire behavior simulators in some deve-loped countries. This study selected two simulators, the Farsite from USA and the Prometheus from Canada, which were both widely used in local area. Through comparing simulated results and relative data of the '3·29 Fire' occurred in Anning City, Southwestern China, we tried to evaluate accuracy of the simulators in a quantitative way. The results indicated that, in the simulation of peri-meter, the precision of Farsite under Scott fuel model was the highest, while Prometheus was the lowest, but the difference was not significant. The difference in simulative perimeter between Farsite and Prometheus mainly concentrated in the distribution area of Pinus yunnanensis. In the simulation of rate of spread (ROS), the mean ROS results of Farsite under both fuel models were close to the actual situation, while the results of Prometheus were far away from the actual situation. The diffe-rent simulative area of ROS between Farsite and Prometheus mainly concentrated in the distribution area of P. yunnanensis. In the simulation of fireline intensity (FLI), the mean FLI results of Farsite under both fuel models were similar, and Prometheus obtained significantly different FLI results from Farsite, while the different simulative area of FLI between Farsite and Prometheus mainly concentrated in the distribution area of Quercus.