# Presentation: 928118

## For 438Introduction to 

**FOR-438**
- Introduction to:

**Notes:**
How many flammap users prior to doing the tutorial exercise?  What were you modeling?  

Flammap is one of several fire behavior predictive models developed at the RMRS since 1990.  Low complexity = BEHAVE plus.  High complexity and elegance = FARSITE.  Flammap is intermediate in complexity.  After two years of development, up to version 3.

## FBAT 

**(Fire Behavior **
**Assessment Tool)**** **
**FlamMap**

**FRCC **
**Mapping **
**Tool**

**MRIT **
**(Multi-scale **
**Resource**
**Integration **
**Tool)**

**ACT **
**(Area Change Tool)**

**FOR-438 Tool & Data Flow Overview**

- Data re-runs

**Notes:**
All of the tools you’re exposed to this week will have some application to landscape fuels assessment   FRCC is recognized as a metric describing ecological departure, and became a key performance measure for our fuels program in 2003.  Many of you have expressed that FRCC doesn’t tell the whole story in regards to our national fuels management program.  The IFC requested that a metric be developed which helps address the need for a tool to describe fire behavior.  The FBAT helps to describe the fire behavior part of the hazardous fuels/land health equation.  FBAT is driven by Flammap, so we’ll teach flammap so that you understand what takes place in the background.    

## FlamMap

**Data output**

**FBAT **
**(Fire Behavior Assessment Tool)**

**Available from fire.org web site**
**Outputs raster maps of potential fire behavior**
***  Rate of Spread (ROS)**
***  Flame length (FL)**
***  Crown fire activity (CFA)**
**Uses same input files as FARSITE**
**	*****  Landscape (.LCP) **
**	*****  Initial Fuel Moistures (.FMS)**

**Tool & Data Flow**

**Notes:**
Focusing in on Flammap:  It is public domain software, downloadable from the fire.org website.  The key outputs we’re concerned with are ROS, FL, and CFA.  For those of you that are farsite users, recognize that flammap uses the same input files as does farsite.

## “Damn Wendel, why do we keep crashing the Area Change interface?”

**“****Damn Wendel, why do we keep crashing the Area Change interface?”**
**“****Hhhmmmm.....Must be an inverted command line code, causing a data stream interruption.”**

## Objectives

**Objectives**

- Provide cursory overview of the FlamMap model
- Learn the minimum inputs required for making FlamMap runs
- Understand layers to be synthesized in Fire Behavior Assessment Tool (FBAT)
- Complete exercise, and discuss FlamMap outputs and uses

**Notes:**
The objectives for the Flammap review include:

## Why add fuel planning skills?

- “Girls only like boys with great skills.  Nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills....”
- Instead of: “I caught you a very delicious bass”........
- “I integrated WUI, FRCC, and absolute fire behavior in the MRIT.  Gosh.”

## What is FlamMap?

- Fire Behavior Model that creates raster maps of:
-  Potential fire behavior characteristics
- Rate-of-spread
- Flame length
- Crown fire activity
- Fireline intensity
- Horizontal spread rate
- Fuel Conditioning (advanced options)
- Dead fuel moisture
- Mid-flame windspeeds
- Solar irradiance

**Notes:**
Flammap can potentially produce a total of 8 predictive fire behavior layers.  We’ll focus on the first three, as they have the most management relevance.  Fuel conditioning is an advanced application that we won’t use.  It essentially customizes fuel moisture conditions based upon the location and aspect of pixels, and requires the inputs of wind and weather files from firefamily plus or NFDRS.  We can customize our fuel moisture file to show unique fuel moisture conditions for each fuel model.  

## Basic Steps to run FlamMap

- Acquire a landscape file (.lcp) and fuel moisture file (.fms) for area of interest
- Provide required inputs describing environmental conditions
- Select the desired output layers
- Launch FlamMap and interpret results

**Notes:**
These are the basic steps involved in running Flammap.  

## How does it work?

- Pixel based – each pixel “burns” independently; fire behavior is not influenced by neighboring pixels
- Uses ASCII grids
- NOT temporal - uses constant weather and fuel moisture parameters
- Partially spatial – does not map fire perimeters or incremental growth
- Uses same spatial and tabular data as FARSITE (.lcp and .fms files)

**Notes:**
Flammap is a pixel based model.  The specific conditions in each pixel determine if and how it burns.  There is not a contagion effect from neighboring pixels.  It uses ascii grids, which is simply a text file where cell values correspond to individual pixels.  It is not temporal, but predicts fire behavior characteristics at a single point in time.  Need to rerun it with different conditions to make it temporal.

Flammap is only partially spatial.  It does not map fire perimeter growth as does farsite.    

## Spatial Input DataASCII grids of:

- Spatial Input DataASCII grids of:

- Topographic data
- Elevation (DEM)
- Slope
- Aspect
- Fuels data
- Fire behavior fuel model (FBFM 13 or 40)
- Stand height
- Canopy base height
- Canopy bulk density
- Canopy cover

**Notes:**
A common limitation which local units encounter in running fire behavior predictive models such as NEXUS, FARSITE, and FLAMMAP is inadequate data.  How many of your GIS libraries have all of these layers to run FM?  

In order to create a landscape file, you need to characterize the topographic and fuels conditions for your landscape.  To characterize the topo conditions, you’ll need an elevation layer,  a slope layer, and an aspect layer.  To characterize the fuels of the area, you’ll need one of the fire behavior fuel models (13 or 40), stand height, CBH, CBD, and CC.  Notice that all of these layers are landfire products.

## Model ParametersInput by User

- Model ParametersInput by User

- Fuel moisture file (.fms), by fuel model:
- Dead: 1-hr, 10-hr, 100-hr,
- Live: herbaceous, woody
- Canopy foliar moisture (75 – 125%)
- 20-ft wind speed (above crown)
- Wind direction (directly upslope or from azimuth)

**Notes:**
There are certain user defined inputs required to run flammap.  The fuel moisture file describes the fuel moisture for surface fuels.  These include the dead fuel moistures, and the live herbaceous and woody fuel moistures.  The second user defined input is canopy foliar moisture, which is required if characterizing fire behavior for timber fuel models.  A third user defined input is 20’ wind speed.  If you’re in a shrub fuel model, this is the windspeed 20’ above the upper shrub canopy.  If in a timber fuel model, it’s the WS at 20’ above the top of the forest canopy.
The final user defined input is the wind direction, where you must specify if winds are  blowing directly upslope or from a fixed direction.

## Output Data

- Rate of Spread
- Flame Length
- Crown Fire Activity (each pixel classified as unburned, surface, passive crown, active crown)

**Notes:**
The outputs we’ll look at are ROS, FL, and CFA.  Flammap actually classifies CFA into into four classes:  (1) the pixel won’t burn, (2) any fire activity in grass and shrub models, or this kind of fire behavior in timber fuel models; (3)  transitional fire behavior where individual torching is occurring, or (4) sustained fire spread from crown to crown; essentially independent crown fire.

## What is a landscape file?

**A grid containing rasterized spatial inputs of ****topographic**** and ****fuels**** information for a landscape of interest**
**Potential problem:  LANDFIRE ArcGRIDS**
**Solution:  Convert ArcGrids to ASCII in ArcToolbox**
**LCP files downloadable from National Map website**
**Build LCP file in FlamMap from ASCII grids**

**Notes:**
A landscape file is defined as a grid having all the rasterized spatial inputs of topographic and fuels information for the landscape of interest.  Think of each 30 m pixel as being attributed with fuel model, fuel moisture, aspect, slope, and other variables describing it.  

A potential problem with the raw LANDFIRE data is that they are downloaded in ArcGRID format.  We stated earlier that Flammap requires ascii grids.  One possible solution is to convert the ArcGRID to an ascii grid in arctoolbox.

Another workaround is to download pre-made lcp files from the national map website.  

A final approach that you did in the prework and will do in the exercise, is to build the .lcp in the flammap program.  

## Preparing Input Data

- Converting ArcGRIDs to ASCII format:

**Notes:**
The “worst case scenario” is having ArcGRID data which needs to be converted to an ASCII grid.  Do this in ARCMAP, navigating to ARCtoolbox, then to conversion tools.  Specify the source file, new ascii filename and location, and click OK.  This will perform the conversion for you.

## At National Map website, under “download” and “FARSITE” tabs, select “landscape file”

**At National Map website, under “download” and “FARSITE” tabs, select “landscape file”**

**Notes:**
Another scenario is to download a pre-made LCP file from the national map website.  This is the USGS web service location where landfire data can be downloaded.  Naviate to download, farsite, and click on “landscape file”.  

## Getting Started:building the landscape (lcp) file

**ASCII file inputs**

**Notes:**
There are five required themes to build an LCP file.  Navigate to them and select the correct landfire units for these layers.  These five are elevation, slope, aspect, fuel model, and canopy cover.  If you are modeling crown fire activity in timber fuel models, you will need to integrate additional layers to the landscape file.  Select “include crown fuels” and designate the file locations and units for the stand height, canopy base height, and canopy bulk density layers.  Be aware of the units of the landfire fuels data. 

## Selecting Input Parameters

- Weather/Fuels
- Parameters

**Notes:**
Now that you have a landscape file, you need to open the “run” dialogue box, and provide the user defined inputs.  First, give a run name.  Next, provide the file path for the .fms file.  For winds, you will select either “wind blowing uphill”, or “wind direction”.  In the latter, you specify an azimuth for the constant wind direction.  Specify the 20’ wind speed.  

If you’re modeling fire behavior for timber fuel models, you’ll need to specify the foliar moisture content, which we said we’d leave at a default value of 100%.  Under fuel moisture settings, always select “use fixed fuel moisture settings from fuel moisture file”.  

When this is completed, click apply.  You can now move on to the fire behavior outputs tab.

## Selecting Fuel Moisture & Wind Parameters

- Dependent upon your analysis objectives:
- Worst case potential wildland fire behavior?
- Comparing outcomes of multiple burning  prescriptions?

**Notes:**
Bear in mind that your analysis objectives should drive your decisions for specifying fuel moisture and wind values.  For example, your FlamMap run may want to depict a one in 100 year fire event having 75 mph winds.  Another Flammap application would involve comparing unique combinations of fuel moisture and winds to spatially depict the type of fire behavior that you’d like see during prescribed burning.    

## Building the Fuel Moisture File

-   FM  1-hr  10-hr  100-hr   LH  LW

-   Text file
-   Acquire from Fuels
- Specialist, NFDRS
-   Potential Editors
-  Note Pad
-  Word Pad

**Notes:**
The fuel moisture file contains all the fuel moisture values for surface fuels, by fuel model.  The first column corresponds to the fuel model.  The next three columns correspond to the 1, 10, and 100 hour dead fuel moistures (0-1/4”, 1⁄4-1”, and 1-3” fuel diameter classes).  The final two columns are the live herbaceous and live woody fuel moistures, respectively.  This file should be specific to your analysis area, and will generally be available from your unit fuels specialist.  Note that you can customize your fuel moisture file by changing specific values within fuel models of interest.    

## Selecting Outputs

**Notes:**
Once the inputs tab of the run dialogue box is completed, you need to specify the fire behavior outputs you want to view.  Always select “create outputs in memory”, which increases the processing speed of the run.  Under output grids, select ROS, FL, and Crown Fire Activity for the output grids.  Under options, select “relative spread direction from maximum” to model unconstrained, free-ranging fire behavior.  Selecting the other radio button will model flanking or backing fire behavior, rather than the fire behavior under the natural wind and slope vectors.  When these fields are completed, you can click apply.  At this point, the launch button will become available, and you can select “launch” to run flammap.  

## FlamMap Demo and Exercise

**FlamMap Demo and Exercise**

**Notes:**
Please lower your laptop screens.  Go ahead and watch the demo, where we will get to the point of running flammap.  After viewing the demo, you can start at step 1 of the exercise, run flammap, and answer the exercise questions.  You have 45 minutes to do this, and then we’ll reconvene and discuss the answers.    

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## Exercise Review

-   When is flame length the overriding concern?
-   When is rate of spread the most important consideration?
-   Does one layer have more relevance to:
- Firefighter safety?
- CWPP or WUI planning?
- Selective thinning followed by burning?
- Fire effects modeling?

## Exercise Review

**20 mph windspeed, general wind **

**50 mph windspeed, cold front passage**

**  ****What are obvious limitations to FlamMap?**
**  ****Would it be helpful to have the outputs classified into key thresholds (e.g., Hauling chart, nomograms, etc.)?**

## FBAT 

**(Fire Behavior **
**Assessment Tool)**** **
**FlamMap**

**FRCC **
**Mapping **
**Tool**

**MRIT **
**(Multi-scale **
**Resource**
**Integration **
**Tool)**

**ACT **
**(Area Change Tool)**

**FOR-438 Tool & Data Flow Overview**

- Data re-runs