bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Two Worlds Combined: How Cleverman (2016-2017) Reimagines Indigenous Storytelling
Authors: Courchesne Jade
Published: October 2022

This article discusses the Australian television drama, Cleverman, a show that blends together science fiction, conventions of the superhero genre, and influences from Indigenous storytelling to yield an honest critique of modern Australian politics. Tackling Australia’s documented history of Indigenous maltreatment while weaving in elements of the Dreaming, the article dissects how Cleverman depicts the legacy of intercultural and intergenerational trauma inflicted upon Indigenous populations, provoking a discourse on how government initiatives continue to have serious, negative repercussions on marginalized communities.
A Crushing Weight: Examining Disney’s Family Dynamics in Encanto
Authors: Potter Katie
Published: October 2022

The 2021 release of Disney’s Encanto was a magical surprise for viewers worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. The memorable songs and engaging animation helped the film solidify its place as one of the most popular animated films in Disney’s prestigious library. This article discusses Encanto’s divergence from the all too familiar themes in Disney narratives, allowing the film to explore anxieties that can arise under the weight of familial expectations. Through comparison to the equally popular Disney film Frozen, this piece analyzes the power behind the lyrics of Encanto’s music that offers its audiences a mindful and refreshing experience.
Herstories on Screen: Feminist Subversions of Frontier Myths, Kathleen Cummins (2020)
Authors: Chand Ashlynn
Published: October 2022

Review of: Herstories on Screen: Feminist Subversions of Frontier Myths, Kathleen Cummins (2020)

New York: Columbia University Press, 336 pp., ISBN: 9780231189514 (pbk), $30, ISBN: 9780231189507 (hbk), $95
Esteve Materraren Do(c)trina Christiana (1617 & 1623). Edizioa eta azterketa
Authors: Krajewska Dorota , Zuloaga San Roman Eneko , Santazilia Ekaitz , Ariztimuño López Borja , Uribe-Etxebarria Oxel , Reguero Ugarte Urtzi
Published: October 2022

Lapurtera klasikoa da, seguru asko, xx. mendea baino lehenagoko euskarazko literaturaren agerpenik ezagunena, ezagutza hori oro har azalekoa edo nahi baino azalekoagoa bada ere: xvii. mendearen lehenengo hiruzpalau hamarkadetan Lapurdiko kostaldeko eta barnealdeko idazleak, nolabaiteko homogeneotasuna duen multzo zabalean sailkatu ohi dira. Izendapenak izendapen, sasoi hartako lapurtar idazle gehienek helburu ideologiko eta agindu bertsuei jarraituta prestatu zituzten euren lanak: kontrarreforma katoliko ortodoxoaren mesedetan eta burgesia ekonomikoaren babespean.
Euskal literaturaren edozein historia esku artean, erraz ikus daiteke, XVIIi. mendeko egileen loraldia aipatu arren, nolabaiteko mailakatzea egiten dela egileen artean; hain zuzen ere, euskal literaturaren historiografia-lanek norabide bertsuan epaitu izan dituzte lapurtar klasikoak, batzuk ezin gehiago goratuz eta beste batzuk bigarren mailan (oro har, lehenengo mailakoen itzalpean) utziz.
Materra eta bere Do(c)trina christiana esandakoaren adibide paregabeak ditugu: aipatu izan da, jakina, Lapurdiko klasikoetan aitzindaria izan zela, eta halako sinpatia batez azaldu izan da euskal literaturaren historian lehenbiziko egile euskaldun berria izan zela.
Le verbe basque ancien: étude philologique et diachronique
Authors: Mounole Hiriart-Urruty Céline
Published: October 2022

Un des bouleversements les plus importants qu'ait connu le basque historique est celui de son système verbal. En effet, des premiers longs textes (15ème et 16ème siècles) jusqu'à nos jours, il a fait l'objet de nombreuses modifications au niveau des temps, aspect, mode et valence. Cependant, malgré les exposés de Lafon (1943), Zulaika (1999) et Aldai (2002), notre connaissance des différentes synchronies du système verbal, mais aussi de son évolution diachronique demeure imparfaite.Le propos de ce livre, qui est une version remodelée de notre thèse doctorale, est de pallier cette insuffisance. Plus précisément, il a pour objectifs de décrire la structure et le fonctionnement du système verbal des basques archaïque et ancien, d'une part, et d'autre part, de retracer son évolution diachronique entre ces deux périodes.
Local response to extreme wildfire events in populated areas: practices and lessons learned from the Mati/Attica (2018) and North Evia (2021) fires, Greece
Authors: Varela Vassiliki , Eftychidis George , Papageorgiou Sofia , Legaki Georgia
Published: October 2022

Extreme wildfires management requires a more holistic approach where proactive governance, citizens and local communities play a central role. Two recent devastating wildfires, in Greece in July 2018 in Mati/Attica and in August 2021 in North Euboea which had a high impact on society and at a political level, demonstrated to a large extent the gaps in the Civil Protection mechanism, as well as the inadequate preparedness of the local population to deal with such fires. Both fires burned under extreme weather conditions (i.e., extreme winds in Mati and prolonged heatwave in Euboea) and in parallel with other major fires in the country. However, they were characterized by quite different fire regimes, ecosystem and landscape features, and the local communitiesâ€™ type that they affected. This paper studies and analyses the combined response of the civil protection authorities and the local communities during these major fire events. Focused surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and round tables with citizens, first responders, and representatives of the touched communities were organized to collect information on identified problems, challenges and dangers faced and also practices that proved effective during the response phase. The aim of this work is to identify lessons learned for suggesting a revision of current practices and policies to bridge the gap among the efforts of the actors involved in wildfire management and to facilitate the development of local adaptation plans to increase the resilience of the local communities to wildfire risk.
Measuring fire risk perception of residents before and after a fire
Authors: Christ Sven , Schwarz Nina , Sliuzas Richard
Published: October 2022

Residentsâ€™ responses to wildfires are largely dictated by their perceptions of risk and coping strategies. Few studies have yet had the opportunity to investigate these perceptions both before and after a fire event. Here we study the impact a settlement fire has on the perceptions of residents in an informal settlement in South Africa, in relation to wildfires and settlement fires. We conclude that any fire event raises the perception of all fire risks in an area. Residents respond differently whether they are directly impacted by the fire or not, with some being more concerned about personal risk than community risk. Other studies found that a fire event raises the likelihood of residents enacting risk reduction efforts, this was disputed in our study with residents less likely to commit to personal risk reduction efforts. Finally, a fire event appears to lower the likelihood of residents leaving a settlement due to perception of wildfire or settlement fire risk.
Using fuzzy logic to evaluate fire vulnerability of dwellings located at the wildland-urban interface
Authors: Àgueda Alba , Vacca Pascale , Planas Eulàlia , Pastor Elsa
Published: October 2022

WUI fires are posing great challenges to firefighting services, which are overwhelmed by the need to not only suppress the fire, but also protect the community. The need for self-protection is therefore growing, as is the need for the creation of fire-adapted communities. A tool that can aid homeowners and residents of the WUI is therefore created, so that they can identify the vulnerabilities present on their properties and consequently reduce them in order to diminish the risk of damage due to a wildfire. This Vulnerability Assessment Tool is based on a fault tree analysis that includes possible structural vulnerabilities as well as the different ways a fire could spread on a property to finally enter and damage the building. The identification of the probabilities of the different events in the fault tree is obtained through the use of fuzzy logic, for which inputs, outputs and rules are identified. A questionnaire targeted to homeowners and based on the fault tree and linked to the probability identified with fuzzy logic is then developed. By filling in this questionnaire, homeowners at the WUI will be able to know what the probability of a fire entering their house is. The result of the questionnaire also indicates which are the issues on the property that need to be addressed in order to lower this probability. Finally, the tool is validated with a case study of several houses affected by a fire in Spain.
Vulnerability analysis to wildland-urban interface fires in metropolitan areas: an integrated approach
Authors: Pastor Elsa , Caballero David , Rodríguez Israel , Arenas Miriam , Morán Pepa , Canaleta Guillem , Vacca Pascale , Àgueda Alba , Planas Eulàlia
Published: October 2022

Wildfires pose a growing threat to populated areas around the world and especially in the Mediterranean Basin. Numerous Mediterranean cities have typically developed neighbourhoods that expand into forest land in which basic aspects for an efficient WUI fire management have not been considered. In this paper, we present a holistic approach to analyse threats to metropolitan areas due to WUI fires, accounting for infrastructural, societal and ecosystems vulnerability at settlement scale. Based on design fires and the key parameters responsible of fire impact and percolation through communities of most probable WUI fire events, we define key indicators to describe how vulnerable structures are in WUI metropolitan areas. Following, urban and societal indicators are selected to account for populationâ€™s vulnerability and, finally, ecosystems potential losses are accounted by ecosystem vulnerability indicators such as ecosystem sensitivity and adaptability. We have implemented this methodology to analyse vulnerability in Barcelona WUI areas and identified those that can be more threatened in case of wildfire. Results of this study will be key to inform risk-reduction public policies, as they provide particular insights on those WUI areas within Barcelona municipality that should be prioritized along with the specific issues that should be tackled.
Demographic processes and fire regimes interact to influence plant population trajectories under changing climates
Authors: McColl-Gausden Sarah , Bennett Lauren , Penman Trent
Published: October 2022

Fire regimes are changing around the world raising important questions about the risks to biodiversity. Fire seasons are lengthening, high-severity fires are occurring more often and in unexpected places. Extensive research examines some of the fire related risks to life and property. However, in the fire risk research space there is often limited or simplified inclusion of ecological values. Future fire regimes, alongside climatic change, could have profound impacts on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem function. For example, plant population trajectories can be influenced by demographic traits, disturbance regimes and environmental variables such as climate. Climate change can affect all three and is likely to impact on plant populations through altering natural fire regimes as well as influencing species demographic traits. These changes are unlikely to be unidirectional with some plant types benefiting and others being disadvantaged. Here, we examine the impacts of climate change both on the shifts in fire regimes alone and combined with predicted climate-induced demographic shifts. We use two functional plant types (obligate seeder, facultative resprouter) in a number of case-study areas representing woodland-dominated landscapes of south-eastern Australia. We link a fire regime simulation tool with a spatially explicit population viability analysis model. We simulate fire regimes under six different future climates representing different temperature and precipitation shifts, and 16 demographic change scenarios, characterised by changes to individual or multiple plant demographic processes. Obligate seeder species were predicted to be less resilient to changes in demographic parameters. However, both resprouter and seeder species were found to be negatively affected by the combined impacts of changes to multiple demographic parameters or to a combination of a shifting fire regime and changes to demographic traits, particularly through simulated reductions in adult survival. To our knowledge this is the first study to integrate fire regime simulations with spatially explicit population viability analyses. Such an approach significantly increases our ability to identify which functional types are most at risk of population extinction under predicted fire regime and demographic changes. This flexible framework is an important first step in exploring the complex interactions that determine plant viability under a changing climate and will increase our ability to prioritise research and fire management for biodiversity into the future.
Fire cause classification of undetermined fires in southeastern France
Authors: Bountzouklis Christos , Fox Dennis Michael , Bernardino Elena Di
Published: October 2022

Knowledge on fire ignition causes and their spatiotemporal patterns can greatly enhance the efficiency of fire management and fire strategies. In France, the majority of forest fire research is based on a 2x2 km gridded database that provides amongst other information, the cause of fire ignition. According to the same database however, approximately 75% of all fires between 1973 and 2020 were recorded without a cause of ignition. Therefore, information on fire causes for a very large part of the fires that were recorded in the last 50 years is not taken into consideration and can potentially provide significant evidence on patterns of different fire ignition causes. In the current study, we used for the first time a point geodatabase in order to predict the cause of fire ignition by applying several machine learning methodologies and modelling multiple environmental and anthropogenic drivers. As arson fires are of particular interest in SE France since they are the most frequent and cause the largest volume of burned area, we plan to analyse their spatiotemporal evolution over the last decades.
Forest fire history of Poland
Authors: Kaczmarowski Jan , Kędziora Wojciech
Published: October 2022

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) covers around 60% of Poland's forests. Pine stands are considered as fire prone, which exposes a large area of forests to the risk of fire ignition and spread. This is confirmed by the statistics, among which Poland belongs to the group of European countries where forest fires occur most often. In addition, the most common cause of fires is deliberate arson. The contemporary fire pattern in lowland forests in Poland is characterised by a large number of fires with a small burnt area. Understanding historical fire regime is important for the correct assessment of contemporary phenomena. However, compared to boreal or Mediterranean biomes, the characteristics of historical forest fires in Poland are not well researched. To fill this knowledge gap, a review of national thematic literature and historical documents was carried out. There is a limited literature describing a historical fire situation and just few studies have quantified the historical frequency of forest fires. Documentary records are often incomplete, both in time and space. In our research, to better understand the forest fire history paradigm, we took a holistic approach, integrating data from archives, historical sources (research literature and handbooks), press reports, scientific papers, and existing fire databases. An attempt to reconstruct the history of forest fires was carried out for Poland, considering that the modern borders were established in 1945. The reconstruction of fire event chronology and statistics (annual number of fires and burnt area) is presented, which will give a picture of this phenomenon in its various aspects, including periodisation in the decades, with particular emphasis on the 20th and 21st centuries. This research allowed for the reconstruction of fire statistics in the period from 1920 to the present day. Due to historical conditions, the data for the period 1920-1945 are incomplete, mainly the information on the number of fires is unavailable. The available data show that at least 210,000 ha of forests were burnt during this period. In the years 1946-2020 in Polish forests 342,204 fires occurred, as a result of which 407,093 ha were burnt. The largest number of forest fires (17,088) was recorded in 2003, while the largest area was burnt in 1992 (43,755 ha). On an annual average, in the years 1946-2020 there were 4,562 fires on an area of 5,428 ha, and the area of a single fire was 1.19 ha. In the analysed period, it was observed that the largest number of fires occurred in the decade of 2001-2010 (approx. 9.4 thousand per year), and the largest area of fires in the decade of 1991-2000 (approx. 11 thousand ha per year). The average area of a single fire decreased from 2.35 ha in the decade of 1951-1960 to 0.44 in the last decade. It is the first such complete study of the history of fires in Poland and it may establish the basis for further work on understanding the fire regime of Central European lowland forests.
Comparative Analysis of Multisensor Burned Area Products for the Brazilian Amazon – Region of the APA Triunfo do Xingu
Authors: Tamasauskas Carlos , Pacheco Abilio Pereira , Tedim Fantina
Published: October 2022

Wildfires are not natural phenomena of the Amazon rainforest; therefore, they occur due to human activities, and their occurrences have increased in recent years. This situation requires continuous monitoring of this vast region, especially in areas where agricultural, livestock, mining, and infrastructure activities are located near protected areas (indigenous lands and nature conservation units). One of the conservation units that has recorded the highest increases in deforestation and fire rates is the Triunfo do Xingu Environmental Protection Area (APA Triunfo do Xingu), which since 2018 has registered the highest rates among other conservation units in the Amazon. The present study aims to develop two databases of burned areas from optical and microwave images for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 for the APA Triunfo do Xingu using Google Earth Engine; then the results are compared with the DETER, MAPBIOMAS and MCD64A1 burned area bases to estimate existing similarities and divergences. This research uses the images of the Sentinel-2/S-2 and Landsat-8/L-8 optical satellites for the month of August of the years 2018, 2019, and 2020, a period of increased occurrences of active fires in the APA Triunfo do Xingu, to generate the burned area database that will serve as a reference for comparison with other burned area databases. Thus, images with spatial resolution, S-2 with 10 meters and L-8 with 30 meters and spectral (red, near, and medium infrared bands), are suitable for generating information with geometric and thematic quality, as the GEE allows the production of pixel mosaics excluding pixels with cloud and cloud shadows. The Sentinel-1/S-1 images used correspond to the VH cross-polarization, which is the most suitable polarization to map burned area than the VV polarization (Prasasti et al., 2020), having 10 meters of spatial resolution, being with speckle noise filter and with backscatter (DB) values. It is noteworthy that the S-1 images correspond to Band C, the wavelength of 5 cm, which reduces the interference of clouds when imaging the surface. In general, the BA-S1, BA-DETER, BA-MAPBIOMAS, and BA-MCD64A1 datasets obtained discrepant values concerning the reference dataset, which reveals that a consolidated base with values consistent with the reality of the fire regime of the study area is still to be achieved, as the discrepancies found reveal that the data and methodologies followed are not generating consistent quantitative information. Regarding the overlaps between the datasets, the spatial similarity between the datasets have a higher rate with polygons above 20 hectares, which allowed an average overlap of 63%, 69%, and 78% for the BA-S1, BA-MAPBIOMAS, and BA-MCD64A1. The BA-DETER dataset was below 20%, as it presents the lowest values of the number of polygons for the three years.
From the probability density function of the rate of spread to that of the corresponding burned area
Authors: Crespo-Santiago Alvaro , Pagnini Gianni
Published: October 2022

We show that the probability density function (PDF) of a burned area enclosed by a random fire-perimeter is driven by the PDF of the bounding-box sides. In particular, the random value of the area emerges to be proportional to the random position of the bounding-box sides times an averaged coefficient dependent on the geometry of the burned area. Therefore, the two PDFs are functionally equal. This means that the PDF of the burned area is driven and functionally equal to the PDF of the position of the head of the fire. The displacement of the head of the fire is given by the rate of spread (ROS), thus the PDF of the burned area results to be driven and equal to the PDF of the ROS. This result holds in general whenever the fire exhibits an advancement along a main direction. The main theoretical result has been tested by different families of stochastic processes. This study can be understood as a start for the development of a theory of stochastic dynamics of wildfire propagation with the aim, for example, to provide physically-grounded initial perturbations of wildfire perimeters for ensemble forecasting.
Modelling sorption processes of 10-hour dead Pinus pinaster branches
Authors: Lopes Sérgio , Pinho Paulo , Santos Sandra , Rodrigues Nuno , Raposo Jorge , Viegas Domingos Xavier
Published: October 2022

Forest fuel moisture content is an important parameter that determines fire risk and fire behaviour. An accurate prediction of moisture content is therefore of great importance in fire management. In the fire risk period, dead forest fuel moisture content changes mainly by water vapour sorption processes so its knowledge enables the development of predictive fire risk models. In the present work, the adsorption and desorption processes and equilibrium moisture content of 10-hour dead Pinus pinaster branches (diameter between 0.6 cm and 2.5 cm) were described in order to develop a moisture content prediction model for this type of fuels. Laboratorial tests were used to determine sorption curves, timelag and equilibrium moisture content for different sets of air temperature (range between 20Â°C and 40Â°C) and relative humidity (range between 10% and 90%). The sorption curves and equilibrium moisture were also modelled with forest fuels and agricultural and food products existing models. Field tests were used to evaluate the sorption and equilibrium moisture content models performance. Dead Pinus pinaster branches were collected in central Portugal through the year 2020 and 2021 on the Portuguese fire risk period (15th May to 15th October) between 12:00h and 13:00h LST. Samples with 0.6 cm to 2.5 cm diameter were collected and transported to laboratory to determine moisture content. The laboratorial drying and wetting curves of dead Pinus pinaster branches (0.6 cm to 2.5 cm diameter) show that they are not pure exponential functions, but with different timelag values until equilibrium is reached. Additionally, the results suggest no significant relationship of the timelag periods with air relative humidity but a dependence with air temperature, showing an increase in the sorption rates with temperature. In terms of sorption curves, Modified Henderson and Pabis model provide the best fitting. For this type of fuels, the representation of EMC values as a function of air relative humidity at constant temperature allowed to obtain a typical sigmoid curve. The EMC values obtained were higher for desorption process than for adsorption process, indicated the typical hysteresis effect in these processes. It was found that, besides the models used in forest fires, other EMC models are also suitable to predict fuel moisture content of dead Pinus pinaster branches, as the ones used in agricultural and food analysis.
Observed Wind Vector Change Across New Zealand’s National Network of Fire-Weather Stations in Predicting Fire Risk
Authors: Brody-Heine Siena , Katurji Marwan , Zhang Jiawei
Published: October 2022

Wildfire spread is influenced significantly by weather fluctuations. Specifically, wind speed and direction (wind vector) change can drastically alter fire intensity and spread. Wind vector change can result from synoptic or mesoscale weather systems and small-scale meteorological processes, such as thermal circulations and low-level wind shear in complex terrain. These small-scale processes are usually underrepresented in numerical weather forecasting models, usually needing to be resolved by more expensive sub-kilometre grid resolution simulations. Recent New Zealand wildfires, such as 2017 Port Hills and 2019 Pigeon Valley wildfires, experienced wind change due to local sea breezes and strong nocturnal downslopes flows, exacerbating fire behaviour. The aim of this research is to investigate if vector wind change (VWC) can be a metric to better represent the effect of mesoscale and microscale weather and the subsequent impact in extreme fire behavior. This was achieved utilizing hourly VWC, or the difference in magnitude of the hourly wind vectors, from the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) national network of more than 200 weather monitoring stations. An additional variable, wind direction change (WDC), was also calculated to include the degree change of wind direction. To identify high-risk stations, the top 20% of stations for VWC and WDC were calculated and investigated spatially across the New Zealand landscape. The high-risk stations are located primarily on the South Island, inland and in areas of complex terrain. There is little to no variation of these stations when mapped in each synoptic type, suggesting that the main factor in determining high VWC and WDC is meso and microscale terrain driven meteorology as opposed to larger synoptic regimes. Critically, the current fire risk metric, the Fire Weather Index, does not include wind direction changes at high windspeeds. Therefore, the inclusion of VWC and WDC as additional metrics in fire risk calculations could increase operational understanding of high-risk locations and terrain impacts on extreme and unpredictable fire behavior.
Creating a forest disturbance dataset for continental Portugal
Authors: Fernandes Eduardo , Damásio Carlos Viegas , Pires João Moura
Published: October 2022

Quality data is of the utmost importance to effectively evaluate any classification technique. In the realm of remote sensing, more precisely forest disturbance, different studies use different custom datasets. This short paper shows the methodology used to create a forest disturbance dataset for continental Portugal. The dataset contains 664 forest points generated from a stratified random sampling based on the tree species and climate zone that cover continental Portugal. Every point contains the auxiliary data used and a thorough list of all years where a disturbance occurs and the respective reason for the disturbance; the years span from 1986 until 2019. The analysis was done with the Google Earth Engine platform for a fast and flexible solution, tailored to the datasets needs. To complement the satellite time series, four auxiliary datasets were used to understand the cause of the disturbances and increase confidence. The resulting dataset shows known difference among various parts of the county. The south has a higher concentration of rejected data points due to its low-density forests. While the north area of the study contains a bigger number of points with multiple disturbances, the south is exactly the opposite with and abundance of undisturbed points. These asymmetries are also reflected on the species present in these different regions. This dataset may be of interest for studies that need to evaluate forest disturbance techniques, or even changepoint detection techniques, finally it may also be useful in studying that focus on differentiating types of forest recovery. The dataset is available in GitHub at https://github.com/EduardoFAFernandes/portuguese-forest-disturbance-dataset/ This work has been partially supported by project Floresta Limpa (PCIF/MOG/0161/2019).
Quick assessment of burn area and burn severity on black locust stands using Sentinel 2 imagery in South-West Romania
Authors: Lorenț Adrian , Petrila Marius , Gancz Vladimir , Capalb Florin , Apostol Bogdan , Badea Nicolae-Ovidiu
Published: October 2022

In Romania forest fires have a strong annual and seasonal variability, having a distribution pattern correlated with human activities like stubble burning practices. The most fire affected region is located in the southwest of Romania, in the counties of MehedinÈ›i and Gorj with mosaic landscapes of forests with agricultural land and human settlements. Although the year 2021 was generally a mild fire season at national level, almost 60% of the forests burned area occurred in MehedinÈ›i, county whose surface covers 2.06% of the national territory. The affected area is determined by measurements with GPS receivers or by an approximate estimate of the percentage of affected area in a forest parcel. The accuracy of those determinations is not being verified through other procedures like remote sensing-based methods, thus there is a need for independent evaluation of the reported fire impact. The aim of this research is to perform a quick robust enough assessment of the areas affected by forest fires in August 2021 and their severity in a forested area covered mostly by black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), located in the southwestern part of MehedinÈ›i county, using Sentinel 2 imagery and in field validation. In order to assess the degree of damage of the forest stands, Sentinel 2 satellite images were used, before, during and after the fire events. Additionally, official RGB and CIR aerial orthophoto images with a spatial resolution of 0.5 m from 2015 were used together with ultra-high resolution orthoimages obtained by processing RGB aerial photographs taken post-fire event with an UAV. Several remote sensing-based indices mostly used in forest fire-science literature were tested in order to extract the affected burn area and burn severity, among which the Difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) proved to give the best estimates. A field inspection was carried out in order to verify whether the burn severity classes are corresponding to the ground truth impact of the fires. By comparing the dNBR mapping with terrain observations, we found that burn severity is corelated with canopy density and height of the trees, at least in black locust stands, who naturally have lower canopy density than other deciduous tree species. The correlation between dNBR and the density of the trees is negative, that means low density shows a false high severity on dNBR map and vice versa because the burnt grass and understory layer is more visible from above and denser in sparse forest stands. Also, low height of the trees induces high severity on the dNBR, the flames and heat produced by the burnt understory reaching easily to the canopy level. These observations were afterwards used to adjust the burn severity map.
Spatial wildfire hazard patterns in the Eastern Mediterranean: perspectives from a harmonised approach
Authors: Trucchia Andrea , Meschi Giorgio , Fiorucci Paolo , Provenzale Antonello , Tonini Marj , Pernice Umberto
Published: October 2022

Wildfires are a menace which is growing in intensity and spreading in range across all planetâ€™s ecosystems causing devastation on the environment, wildlife, human health, and infrastructure. Most of the damage caused by forest fires is related to extreme wildfire events (EWEs). To foster prevention activities, a thorough understanding of territorial features determining EWEs is crucial in Civil Protection and fire management activities. An approach which learns from past wildfire events providing susceptibility, intensity and hazard maps is presented. This mapping approach leads to the individuation of the main drivers of EWEs and in the zonation of the areas more prone to hazardous and impactful wildfire events. The case study where the mapping approach is applied encompasses thirteen countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and Southern Black Sea basins. The presented results focus on wildfire susceptibility. A Machine Learning approach is pursued, by adopting open data layers as both predisposing factors and past wildfire events. In particular, the role of vegetation continuity in determining the occurrence of EWEs is assessed.
A long-term satellite-based burned area database for the Northern Boreal Region (1982-2020)
Authors: García-Lázaro José R. , Moreno-Ruíz José A. , Arbelo Manuel , Hernández-Leal Pedro A.
Published: October 2022

Burned Area (BA) is an essential variable to study the Earthâ€™s climate evolution. The boreal forest is one of the largest biomes in the world, spanning North America and Eurasia. For North America, two record fire occurrence databases since the 1950s are available: Alaska Fire Service (AFS) database and the Canadian National Fire Database (CNFDB). However, there are currently no reliable burned area data for the boreal region of Eurasia, mainly Siberia, for the 1980s and 1990s. This work describes the application and technical validation of a Bayesian network algorithm to the Long-Term Data Record version 5, to generate a burned area product at a resolution of 0.05 degrees for the entire boreal region above 60Â°N from 1982 to 2020. The burned area estimates have been evaluated using high-resolution satellite images, official reference data and the MCD64A1 MODIS global burned area product (when were available). The results show a high correlation with all the reference burned area datasets (95% with AFS-CNFDB, 93% and 95% with MCD64A1 in North America and Eurasia, respectively). The derived database constitutes a unique long-term burned area information for studies of fire and carbon dynamics in the Northern Boreal Region, as well as their effects on the climate system.
Crowdsourcing Holistic Deep Approach for Fire Identification
Authors: Silva Catarina , Madeira Ana , Cardoso Alberto , Ribeiro Bernardete
Published: October 2022

Forest fires have become a global problem that affects large areas of the globe, and has received contributions from citizen science, namely the reporting of fire sighting by citizens with location and images, often using smartphones, which is becoming a frequent source of information to firefighting teams. Nevertheless, such contributions need validation before resources are deployed and that is the focus of this work. This paper describes a novel approach to identify forest fires in real crowdsourced images using a deep learning (DL) approach. The approach is based on YOLO networks to train optimized models that identify the real cases that need to be addressed, using a holistic methodology that considers all objects detected in each image before producing a decision. For our experiments, we used benchmark and real datasets of fire and smoke. In the experiments, the performance is compared under different experimental setups. Our approach results show that the proposed crowdsourcing holistic deep approach for fire identification can be successfully used in real scenarios.
The effects of fuel moisture on fire spread in shrub vegetation typical of upland heath systems in northern latitudes
Authors: Hadden Rory M. , Campbell-Lochrie Zakary , Koutsomarkos Vasileios , Walker-Ravena Carlos , Mueller Eric V. , Taylor Andy F. S. , Owen I. Jason
Published: October 2022

Shrubs are the dominant fuel for wildfires in heathland systems. Despite this, there are relatively few studies which explore the processes of flame spread in shrub fuels. A series of laboratory flame spread experiments are used to identify the relationships between the fuel moisture content of the fuel components present in typical UK upland heath and the resulting fire spread dynamics. Measurements of energy release, flame spread rate and mass loss are made to characterise the burning of 2 m x 0.75 m fuel beds and heat flux measurements are made to record the magnitude of the propagating flux. Fuel moisture thresholds for fine and coarse fuel types required for fire spread are identified, and the magnitude of the in-bed heat fluxes are reported. From the observations, it is suggested that the leading edge of the flame front is driven by the moisture content of the fine dead material suspended in the heather canopy while the trailing edge is dominated by the burning of coarser fuels which supports the burning of fine green fuels. These findings allow further targeted experimental study and can be used to aid in determining fire effects.
Atmospheric turbulent structures during shrub fires and implications for flaming zone behavior
Authors: Katurji Marwan , Noonan Bob , Zhang Jiawei , Valencia Andres , Shumcher Benjamin , Kerr Jessica , Strand Tara , Pearce Grant , Zawar-Reza Peyman
Published: October 2022

Wildfires propagate across vegetated canopies exhibiting complex spread patterns. Wind gusts at the fire-front extend/intensify flames and direct convective heating towards unburnt fuels resulting in rapid acceleration of spread. This behavior could be modulated by ambient atmospheric boundary layer wind turbulence. Our aim is to characterize ambient turbulence over gorse shrub experimental burns and explore how this contributes to fire behavior. Developing coupled fire-atmosphere numerical models capable of resolving most turbulent energy scales is important for understanding rapid and small-scale dynamics. However, it is equally as important to design fire-burn experiments that allow for simultaneous measurements of fire behavior and atmospheric turbulence covering a range of the turbulent spectra. We have completed six experimental burns (24-hectares) in Rakaia, New Zealand under varying wind speed and direction and atmospheric stability regimes. The ignition process ensured a fire-line propagating through dense gorse bush (1m high). Two 30m high sonic anemometer towers measured turbulent wind velocity (20Hz) at six different height levels. Visible imagery was captured for all burns by cameras mounted on Un-crewed Aerial Vehicles (UAV) at 200m AGL. Using wavelet decomposition, we identified different turbulent scales that varied relative to height above vegetation and boundary layer thermal regimes. Quadrant analysis identified statistical distribution of atmospheric sweeps (downbursts of turbulence towards vegetation) and ejections (detachment of turbulence from vegetation). Discrete analysis of sweep/ejection events revealed their temporal and spatial scales and tracked their progression as the flaming zone approached the towers. Undergoing work aims to discern these interactions with observed fire sweeps from aerial imagery by applying image velocimetry techniques and sweep structure tracking
Canopy fuel modelling in Mediterranean forest stands with airborne LiDAR data at regional scale: preliminary results
Authors: Marino Eva , Arellano-Pérez Stefano , Martín-Alcón Santiago , Tomé José Luis
Published: October 2022

Canopy fuel characterization is highly relevant for wildfire prevention, especially in the context of extreme events involving crown fires. Airborne laser scanning has been proven very useful to retrieve 3D forest structure at large scales, becoming freely available in many countries in the recent years which provide an opportunity to map fuel parameters that are critical for fire behaviour simulation. Previous studies on canopy fuel modelling predict canopy base height (CBH), fuel load (CFL) and bulk density (CBD) mainly in tree species from temperate conifer forest, with specific models still lacking for the main Mediterranean forest stands and especially deciduous species. This work presents preliminary results of models obtained from low density airborne LiDAR data (1.5 p/m2) for canopy fuel characterization of critical structural variables (CBH, CFL and CBD) in the main Mediterranean forest stands existing in Andalusia region, including Pinus sp, Quercus sp and Eucalyptus sp tree species. A set of 750 plots are used to characterize canopy fuels in 15 different forest stands representative of Mediterranean tree species, with a samplig design that consider structural heterogeneity in a wide study area (29000 km2). Different modelling techniques are tested to selected the best formulation and input LiDAR metrics to be included in the final models for each fuel parameter, that are used to generate high resolution maps of canopy fuels at regional scale.
Effect of Spatiotemporally Varying Fuel Moisture Content on Turbulence Statistics During Fire Propagation
Authors: Dubey Ritambhara , Yaghoobian Neda
Published: October 2022

Prescribed burns are valuable tools utilized for land management. They serve the purpose of reducing the risk of wildfires by lowering the build-up of dry fuels, improving forest health, and controlling the growth of plants and insects. One of the crucial components that affects the execution of prescribed burns and controls the fire behaviour and smoke dispersal thereafter is the fuel moisture content, which needs to be considered when planning prescribed burns. The fuel moisture content variation is dependent on the meteorological variables, fuel properties, and the local turbulent fire dynamics, and so varies spatially and temporally over the land area before and during the fire advancement. In previous studies, the fuel moisture content was treated based on average properties, independent of the effect of local turbulence. In this study, the spatiotemporally varying fuel moisture content is obtained by a physics-based model that considers the coupled energy and moisture balance dynamics inside the fuel layers. This moisture model is implemented into the Wildland-urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator (WFDS) by means of a two-way coupling. Along with the local fuel properties, the model uses the instantaneous solar radiation and relative humidity, together with the instantaneous turbulent wind velocity and ambient air temperature at the boundary of each fuel sub-surface (grid) in the simulation domain. The coupled model is employed to study the effect of the dynamic variations of the fuel moisture on the turbulent evolution of the fire plume during a line fire propagation over a flat grassland. The findings of the study will provide insights into the effect of the fuel moisture content on the plume dynamics and smoke dispersal during prescribed burns and will assist in planning these burns.
Experimental and numerical characterisation of the smouldering combustion of peat
Authors: Hakes Raquel S.P. , Allan Hamish , Ke Da , McAllister Sara S. , Kury Matthew W. , Scott Sarah N. , Hadden Rory M.
Published: October 2022

Smouldering peat fires are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. As the climate warms, the frequency and severity of peat fires will continue to increase, with a single large fire event contributing as much CO2 to the atmosphere per day as an industrialized country. Estimates of the amount of CO2 released by peat fires contain large uncertainties, driven by overwhelming uncertainty in the mass of peat consumed in these fires. The present work addresses uncertainties in peat fire dynamics and smouldering through an iterative experimental and modelling process. Presented here is a first step towards predicting greenhouse gas emissions. Experiments focus on capturing the mass burnt in a smouldering peat fire and describing the smoulderingâ€”pyrolysis and oxidationâ€”process. Mass loss rate is found to vary as a sample is tested in lateral spread vs downward spread configurations. A one-dimensional model of peat smouldering is implemented, with initial qualitative results presented here, showing the drying of wet peat and the pyrolysis front. These results represent the current work in progress on this effort. Further work will compare experimental and simulation results for additional parameters of interest, and simulations will be used to inform which soil parameters to explore experimentally.
Flame spread and combustion dynamics in pine litter under unsteady wind conditions
Authors: Mueller Eric V , Campbell-Lochrie Zakary , Walker-Ravena Carlos , Patterson Matt , Cole Jason , Gallagher Michael R. , Clark Kenneth L , Skowronski Nicholas S. , Hadden Rory M.
Published: October 2022

Understanding flame spread and combustion dynamics in surface fuels is important for both planning and evaluating the impact of prescribed fires. However, prescribed fires tend to be conducted under light and unsteady wind conditions as compared with those which have been well studied for wildfire scenarios. To improve this understanding and provide data for next-generation fire models, it is therefore necessary to collect detailed time-resolved observations of these processes. To accomplish this, we conducted a series of small-scale field experiments in pine needle litter. 10 m x 10 m plots were constructed with fuel loads of either 0.5 kg/m2, 1.0 kg/m2, or 1.5 kg/m2. Wind was measured with an array of 17 anemometers and flame spread and combustion mode were monitored with an overhead infrared camera and thermocouple arrays. The light and gusty wind conditions resulted in unsteady fire behavior and a single relationship between wind speed and spread rate is unable to capture the range of behavior observed. A novel technique is introduced for identifying regions of flaming versus smoldering combustion in the infrared imagery. This approach indicates that flaming and smoldering times can be related directly to fuel loads, rather than wind conditions, though more work is required to link these times to burning rates. The implication is that dynamic flame spread in these conditions is difficult to predict without models that account for fire-atmosphere interactions. However, fuel consumption, and therefore prescribed fire effects, may be more straightforward to predict. This work has also resulted in a uniquely detailed dataset for testing fire models.