Use of expert knowledge to develop fuel maps for wildland fire management

Abstract

Fuel maps are becoming an essential tool in fire management because they describe, in a spatial context, the one factor that fire managers can control over many scales-surface and canopy fuel characteristics. Coarse-resolution fuel maps are useful in global, national, and regional fire danger assessments because they help fire managers effectively plan, allocate, and mobilize suppression resources (Burgan et al. 1998). Regional fuel maps are useful as inputs for simulating carbon dynamics, smoke scenarios, and biogeochemical cycles, as well as for describing fire hazards to support prioritization of firefighting resources (Leenhouts 1998; Lenihan et al. 1998).