Table Of ContentFrancisco Castro Rego
Penelope Morgan
Paulo Fernandes
Chad Hoff man
Fire Science
From Chemistry to
Landscape Management
Springer Textbooks in Earth Sciences,
Geography and Environment
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(cid:129)
Francisco Castro Rego Penelope Morgan
(cid:129)
Paulo Fernandes Chad Hoffman
Fire Science
From Chemistry to Landscape Management
FranciscoCastroRego PenelopeMorgan
InstitutoSuperiordeAgronomia DepartmentofForest,Rangeland,andFire
CentrodeEcologiaAplicadaProf.Baeta Sciences
Neves UniversityofIdaho
UniversidadedeLisboa Moscow,ID,USA
Lisbon,Portugal
PauloFernandes ChadHoffman
DepartamentodeCiênciasFlorestais DepartmentofForestryandRangeland
eArquiteturaPaisagista Stewardship
UniversidadedeTrás-os-Montes ColoradoStateUniversity
eAltoDouro FortCollins,CO,USA
VilaReal,Portugal
ISSN2510-1307 ISSN2510-1315 (electronic)
SpringerTextbooksinEarthSciences,GeographyandEnvironment
ISBN978-3-030-69814-0 ISBN978-3-030-69815-7 (eBook)
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To Will
Foreword I
The field of wildland fire science is more complex than one may think. Not only
mustoneknowtheintimatedetailsofcombustionscienceandfirebehavior,butthat
knowledgemustthenbeinterpretedinthecontextoffireecologyandwildlandfuel
dynamics. Many believe that this extremely wide continuum of topics needed to
understand wildland fire sciences only spans chemistry, combustion physics, heat
transfer,fuelmoisturedynamics,smoketransport,emissions,climate,weather,and
wind for fire behavior. But, the really important topics critical to wildland fire
science are those that cover the full breadth of ecology, such as phenology, eco-
physiology,andmorphology.Itisfireecologythatgivesusthedeepunderstanding
needed for solving the myriad problems in fire behavior and subsequently fire
management. To further complicate matters, each of these diverse wildland fire
disciplines, whether it be fire behavior or ecology, includes intrinsic hierarchically
nested time and space scales that overlap and interact. Fuel moisture, for example,
dependsonbothknowledgeofthewaterdiffusionprocess(deadbiomass)andplant
phenology(livebiomass)attheplant,community,stand,andlandscapescales.
Ihavestudiedfireanditsecologyforover30yearsattheMissoulaFireSciences
LaboratoryinMontana,USA,andIhavefoundthatthis“souptonuts”coverageof
wildland fire science is rare in the diverse books that have been written on the
subject.Toooften,thecomplexityoffirescienceprecludescomprehensivecoverage
ofallrelevanttopics;mostauthorstendtocoveronlythoseareasinwhichtheyhave
the greatest knowledge or the topics that are the most studied. Some books, for
example, are quite detailed in their description of fire physics but totally over-
generalizewildlandfueldynamics.Othersfocusonfireecologywithoutacompre-
hensivecoverageoftheelementsoffirebehavior.Somefirebehaviorbookstendto
focusonlyonthephysicsofcombustionandignorefuelmoisturedynamics.Thisis
importantbecauseover-generalizingsomewildlandfiresciencetopicsbreedsbiasin
scientificstudyandfiremanagementapproaches.Wildlandfuels,forexample,were
historically described using fire behavior fuel models—an abstraction supposed to
representexpectedfirebehavior.Today,weusemorecomprehensiveclassifications
offuelstodescribeandcommunicate,andtouseasinputstomodels.
vii
viii ForewordI
This textbook, in three parts, appears one of the few that provides the broad
spectrum of coverage across all subjects that are needed to fully understand the
dynamicsofwildlandfirescience.Intheintroduction,theauthorsprovideadetailed
overview of wildland fire science that introduces the reader to the book and its
subjects. Then in Part I, we learn of fine-scale dynamics of fire chemistry and the
reactions that lead to ignition processes, especially the concept of flammability
(Chap. 1). I especially liked the addition of moisture dynamics related to ignition
processes.Combustionprocessesarecoveredfromthebreakingofchemicalbonds
to the heat of combustion along various pyrolysis pathways. In the next chapter
(Chap. 2) we learn about how this chemistry and pyrolysis eventually result in
smoke, and in Chap. 3 we learn how the breaking of chemical bonds generates
heat,specificallytheheatofcombustion,alongthepyrolysishighways.Iespecially
wasgratefulforthecoverageofcharcreationincombustionbecausecharisnowa
majorcarbonpathwayinfireecology.TheninChap.4welearnofthepre-ignition
processes, requirements for ignition, and the breakdown of fuels to release the
volatile gases using a wonderful example. And last, in Chap. 5, we move out of
thesphereofchemistryandontophysicsandheattransfer,wherethefourprimary
modes are introduced—convection, radiation, conduction, and mass transport—
replete with equations, interpretations, and examples. Readers should have a won-
derfulgrasponthemechanisticprocessesthatgoverncombustionscience.
In Part II, we move up in scale from the fine-scale dynamics of combustion to
fuels, fire behavior, and fire effects. The descriptors of fuels and fire behavior are
coveredinChap.6includingthecomponentsofafuelbed,physicalfuelcharacter-
istics, and fuel classifications. A mélange of fuel characteristics are presented but
most are used for fire behavior prediction. Missing are the important ecological
processesthatcontrolthese characteristics, buttheyaredescribed inlaterchapters.
The five phases of fire spread are then discussed in Chap. 7 from fire geometry to
acceleration. Fire propagation has always been important to fire management
because of its influence on fire safety, but it is also one of the most difficult to
predict of all fire behavior processes. The chapter also includes fire growth and
two-dimensional spread. Then, unlike many other wildland fire books, there is a
chapteronextremefirebehavior(Chap.8),whichisbecomingincrediblyimportant
in fire management because it results in our greatest social and biological impacts.
Thereisawonderfultreatmentoflargefiresandtheirconsequences.Crownfiresare
covered in this chapter in great detail with great reverence to Charlie van Wagner,
thepopeofcrownfirebehaviorandeffects.Iespeciallyliketheinclusionofcanopy
moisturedynamicsincrownfirespreadandthethoroughtreatmentoffirebrandsand
embersandtheirloftinganddispersal,alongwithothermajortopicsinthisexhaus-
tive chapter. Since I am a fire ecologist, I was finally rewarded with a delightful
chapter (Chap. 9) on fire effects on plants, soils, and animals. A boatload of
informationwas synthesized inthischapterfrom fire effects on plant stems, seeds,
and roots; a comprehensive review of fire and soil heating; and animal responses
tofire.Anothernoveladditioninthisbookisthecoverageofcontemporarysociety
and its role in fire science (Chap. 10). Protecting people and homes from heat and
smoke is the primary thrust of this chapter, including such diverse topics of safe
ForewordI ix
zones, smoke inhalation, the wildland-urban interface, and impacts on ecosystem
services. I appreciated the juxtaposition of the costs and effects of fire
suppressionvs.benefitsgainedfromsocietybysuppression.Societalandecosystem
resiliencetofireimpactsisalsopresentedinthischapter.
In Part III, we learn about wildland fire science at landscape scales and how to
managefuelsandfireacrossallrelevantscales.InChap.11,wefindoutwhatdrives
fueldynamicsandhowthesefuelscanbeappropriatelymanagedovertime.Itisin
Chap.12wherethisbookseparatesitselffrommostoftheothers.Fireregimesand
theirmeasurementsarecoveredfirst;fireregimesarespatio-temporalexpressionsof
fire and many feel that this is a very complicated subject because fire regimes are
created by the complex interactions of vegetation, fuels, climate, topography, and
ignitions. The authors delved into ways that fire regime information can be inte-
grated into management using concepts of historical ranges of variability, refugia,
and self-organized criticality. This is very useful information for planning and
implementing various treatments, which are then covered in the next chapters.
Integrated landscape fire management is discussed in detail in Chap. 13 using
various examples and case studies. Objectives for integrated fire management are
covered (e.g., biodiversity, fuel reduction) along with the tools needed for
implementingactions(e.g.,prescribedfires).
Thebookendswithalooktothefuture.Chapter14coversclimatechange,global
change,development,exotics,andavarietyofotherissuesfacingfiremanagement.
Included in this chapter is a very timely treatment of the Australian fire season of
2019–2020anditsimportancetoglobalfire.Alsocoveredinthischapterarenascent
technologies that will serve toadvance fire science across theglobe including new
remote sensing platforms, LiDAR, wireless networks, big data, and simulation
models.Neweducationandintegratedapproachestofiresciencearealsodiscussed.
Therearefourunderlyingthemesembeddedinthisbookthat,inmyopinion,setit
apartfrommanyotherfirebooks.Firstistheconceptofintegration—everythingin
fire science must be integrated to reach the fullest potential from designing fuel
treatments to building models, to managing fire. This book does a great job of
emphasizing integration in fire sciences. Next is the concept of scale. Scale issues
areuniquelyhighlightedacrossallpagesofthisbookfromchemicalbondstoheat
transfer to fuel ignition to fire spread to stand conditions to landscape processes.
Third, the authors have integrated the anthropologic influences on wildland fire
science including human ignitions, health concerns, community resilience, and
historicalpeoplesandtheiruseoffire.Andlastistheconceptof“learnbydoing,”
wherethereareusefulexamples,casestudies,and,mostimportantly,spreadsheetsto
understand the content of this book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and feel it is
destined to be a solid reference for wildland fire scientists and managers and a
textbookforallstudentsstudyingfire.
Missoula,MT,USA BobKeane
April2021
Foreword II
Fire management practice has been dominated by developing country reactions to
fires,withafocusondamagingwildfires.Thishasstimulatedandestablishedalong
anddeepbodyofresearchandoperationalpracticethatmiddleincomeandwealthy
nations have benefitted from. Bringing that knowledge together in one place is an
enormousandsustainedeffort,undertakenbyfourhighlyexperiencedandesteemed
membersofthefirecommunity.Itistimelyandveryverywelcome.
Asreflectedinthisbook,fireshavebeenusedbyhumansformillenniaandplaya
critical role in many ecosystems. People are the cause of ~90% of fires globally
through a combination of limited access to alternative approaches to fire, poor
practice, accidents, weak understanding of fire risk, machinery, negligence, and
carelessness. In developing countries the dominant factor in fires starting is the
need to use fire as a tool where there are no viable alternatives to the use of fire
for hunting,favoringpreferred plants for foodor fiber,clearingfor agriculture and
grazing,easingtravel,andcontrollingpests,allofwhichcontinuetoday.
Forthatcontext,andalsofordevelopedcountries,wherefiresaredamaging,they
arealandscapeproblem.Theyarenotaproblemresultingonlyfrominsufficientor
inadequate means of suppression but also from the situation of fuel continuity and
accumulationoffuelsfromvegetation,humanactivities,andsourcesofignition.The
solutionisresilientlandscapesthatbalancethehazards,reducefirerisks,andcanbe
sustained. This is Integrated Fire Management, a key chapter in this book. Under-
pinning that is the need to understand fire, fuels, and landscapes starting from the
fundamentals;somethingthisbookprovideswell.
Key to successfully integrating ecology, society, and fire management with
methods and technologies is an effective analysis of the situation. What is the
ecological role and impact of fire; the social, cultural, and economic context; who
isstartingfiresandwhy;whatarethecharacteristicsofthefuelsintheareaandhow
doesfirebehaveinthemunderdifferentburningconditions;andwhatotherfactors
or threats are exacerbating the fire problem, such as land tenure, illegal logging,
invasivespecies,orclimatechange?
xi
