Wildland fires

Abstract

Wildland fires have a big impact on the environment, human life, and property and have posed significant economic losses as demonstrated by devastating wildfires that occurred over the last few years. In August 2012, the total of 1470�km(3.64 million acres) burned by wildfires in the United States ranked as the highest for any August since 2000. Moreover, nearly half the entire acreage burned since January 2012 occurred within the single month of August and brought the total acreage burned in a year to the highest on record, exceeding 3100�km(7.72 million acres) [1]. The ignition and corresponding spread of these fires were predominantly influenced by extreme drought and high winds. At the global scale, the impact of wildfires is expected to increase dramatically in the future because of the combined effects of the spreading of the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) and climate changes [2, 3].