Abstract
Background Complex interactions between fuel structure and fire substantially affect fire spread and spatial variability in fire behaviour. Heterogeneous arrangement of the fuel coupled with variability in fuel characteristics can impact heat transfer efficiency, preheating of unburned fuel and consequent ignition and spread.Aim Study the influence of pre-burn fuel structure (canopy height, spatial arrangement) on fire behaviour (rate of spread, flame residence time) derived from high-resolution video of a prescribed gorse fire.Method Rate of spread and flame residence time are calculated and mapped from high-resolution overhead visible-spectrum video, and compared with the Canopy Height Model derived from pre-burn Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) scans.Results Geospatial analytics can provide precision observations of fire behaviour metrics. Rates of spread under high wind conditions are influenced by local changes in canopy height and may be more dependent on other fuel characteristics, while flame residence time is better correlated with canopy height.Conclusions These observational technology and spatio-temporal analytical techniques highlight how detailed fire behaviour characteristics can be derived from these data.Implications The results have implications for wildfire modelling and Wildland–Urban Interface (WUI) building design engineers, as the reported dataset is suitable for model validation and the analysis contributes to further understanding of gorse fire hazard.
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