Fire potential rating for wildland fuelbeds using the Fuel Characteristic Classification SystemThis article is one of a selection of papers published in the Special Forum on the Fuel Characteristic Classification System.

Abstract

The Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) is a systematic catalog of inherent physical properties of wildland fuelbeds that allows land managers, policy makers, and scientists to build and calculate fuel characteristics with complete or incomplete information. The FCCS is equipped with a set of equations to calculate the potential of any real-world or simulated fuelbed to spread fire across the surface and in the crowns, and consume fuels. FCCS fire potentials are a set of relative values that rate the intrinsic physical capacity of a wildland fuelbed to release energy and to spread, crown, consume, and smolder under known or benchmark weather and fuel moisture conditions. The FCCS reports eight component fire potentials for every fuelbed, arranged in three categories: surface fire behaviour (reaction intensity, spread rate, and flame length), crown fire potential (torching and active crown fire), and available fuel potential (flaming, smouldering, and residual smouldering). FCCS fire potentials may be used to classify or compare fuelbeds that differ because of location, structure, passage of time, or management action, based on expected fire behavior or effect outcomes. As a classification tool, they are offered as an objective alternative to categorizing bulk properties of fuelbeds or stylized model inputs.