Fuel and Fire Tools (FFT)

Internal Tool Developers: Ottmar, Roger D.

External Tool Developers: Prichard, Susan J.; Paige, Eagle; Drye, Brian, University of Washington, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences

Description

FFT is a software application that integrates several fire management tools, including the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS – version 4.0), Consume (version 5.0), Fire Emission Production Simulator (FEPS – version 2.0), Pile Calculator, and Digital Photo Series (DPS) into a single user interface.

Fuelbeds differ widely in their physical attributes, potential fire behavior, and fire effects. The FFT suite of tools uses fuels data classified into fuelbeds to predict a suite of outputs related to prescribed and wildland fire. These outputs include several variables relevant to carbon accounting and quantification, such as estimations of carbon stores for different fuelbeds, carbon flux from fire (before/after carbon estimations), and carbon emissions. It also predicts fire behavior attributes that can be used to evaluate fuel treatment effectiveness. The fuelbeds are designed to represent the diversity of fuels found throughout the United States.

Purpose and Scope

Classification and estimation of fuelbed variables.

Use

Assist fire and fuel planners.

Installation Instructions:

For Internet Explorer users, right click the link and select "Save As". Specify a folder location to save the FFT installation file.

Locate the downloaded executable file (named using the convention: FuelFireTools_yyyy_mm_ddv#.exe) and double-click to run the installation/extraction utility. The default installation is C:\FuelFireTools. You can change the location or name of the folder, but it is not advisable to do so because there may be potential write privilege issues.

Installation notes:

FFT runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems (version 7 or higher), and requires Microsoft .NET libraries (version 4 or higher, generally included in Windows installation) and Java (version 1.6 / 6 or higher).
If you already have FFT installed, refer to the version number given in the upper right-hand corner of the Fuelbed Selector screen to see if you need to update to the current version, 2.0.2003. If your version is out of date, we recommend that you either save FFT to a new folder location or delete your existing FuelFireTools folder before installing the new version. Before deleting your old FuelFireTools folder, consider saving copies of any custom fuelbeds, burn units and environmental inputs. Existing custom fuelbeds, burn units (.bu) and environmental inputs (.ev files) can be copied into the FuelFireTools\UserFiles folder.
Java is needed to run the calculators in FFT. The most common runtime errors are that a Java is missing, needs to be updated, or is installed in an unusual file location. You can check your Java version and download a free update at Java website.

Documentation:

• Factsheet
• Quick Start Guide
• Online Help
• Workshop presentations:
  • Introduction to fuel characterization and smoke management tools including theFFT, Digital Photo Series, Piled Biomass Calculator, and BlueSky Playground. This presentation was given as part of a workshop, "Smoke Modeling from Forest to Plume" at the Association of Fire Ecology's 8th international fire conference in Tuscon, Arizona, in December 2019.
  • A basic exercise demonstrating how existing fuelbeds in FFT can be customized to represent a stand-replacement burn in mixed conifer forests.
  • An exercise to demonstrate how FFT can be used to evaluate fire behavior and consumption for different management activities including thinning and thinning followed by prescribed burning.
  • Evaluation of fuelbeds within FFT that represent insect damage in white spruce forests of Canada and Alaska.
  • A simple way to calculate greenhouse gas and carbon fluxes from wildland fire events using FFT
     

How to get it

Website: Download FFT

Tool Restrictions and Limitations

FFT runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems (version 7 or higher), and requires Microsoft .NET libraries (version 4 or higher, generally included in Windows installation) and Java (version 1.6 / 6 or higher).

Release Notes

FFT contains the following updates:

1. A fully supported version of the Fire Emissions Production Simulator (FEPS) including:
   • Reports and graphs
   • Up to 3-day burn events
   • Ability to specify custom fire growth and daily meteorology (FEPS with files option)
2. Improvements to the FFT user interface, including:
   • Refinements to ecoregion, vegetation form and structural class selection from maps and images
   • Tooltip fuelbed descriptions for listed FCCS fuelbeds
   • Minor changes to saving and managing burn units
   • Assignment of consumption equation by ecoregion

Citation

Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team (FERA). Fuel and Fire Tools (FFT). https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/pnw/products/dataandtools/tools/fuel-and-fire-tools-fft

Outputs: 

• Estimates of combustible biomass (fuel loading), aboveground carbon accounting, predicted surface fire behavior, FCCS fire potentials, and wildland fire emissions (total and hourly rate).

Partners: National Fire Plan; Joint Fire Science Program; University of Washington, College of Environmental and Forest Resources