Fuel Characteristic Classification System

Status

Completed

Start Date

September, 1998

A person in an orange vest on their stomach with their head in some dead or dormant brush.

The Fuel Characteristic Classification System predicts surface fire behavior, including reaction intensity, flame length, and rate of spread, based on benchmark and user-specified environmental conditions.

Overview
People
Resources

Project Description

The Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) calculates and classifies fuelbed characteristics and their potential fire behavior. Users may access fuelbeds from a fuelbed library or create their own custom fuelbeds. FCCS fuelbeds represent fuels throughout much of North America and were compiled from published literature, fuels photo series, other fuels datasets and expert opinion. FCCS fuelbeds have been mapped in LANDFIRE and are preloaded in the Fuel and Fire Tools application. Regional fuelbed datasets representing a range of vegetation types and management scenarios for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest (Washington state), central Oregon, northeastern Oregon and Lake Tahoe (California) are available. Users can customize FCCS fuelbeds to create a set of fuelbeds representing any scale of interest.

When a user has completed editing fuelbed data, FCCS reports input and calculated fuel characteristics for each existing fuelbed component, from canopy fuels to ground fuels. Outputs are available in U.S. or metric units. FCCS also calculates the relative fire hazard of each fuelbed, including surface fire behavior, crown fire, and available fuel potentials, scaled on an index from 0 to 9. These FCCS fire potentials facilitate communication of fire hazard among users and provide an index of the intrinsic capacity of each fuelbed for surface fire behavior, crown fire and available consumption of fuels under dry benchmark environmental conditions (no slope, 4 mph midflame wind speed, and dry fuel moistures).

The FCCS predicts surface fire behavior, including reaction intensity (BTU ft-1 min-1), flame length (ft), and rate of spread (ft min-1) based on benchmark and user-specified environmental conditions. By comparing predicted flame length and rate of spread, FCCS provides a crosswalk to one of the original 13 Fire Behavior Prediction System fuel models and one of the 40 standard fuel models. FCCS also reports carbon storage by fuelbed category and subcategory. FCCS version 3.0 has been recoded as a calculator module that can be run as a batch mode or as an option within the Fuel and Fire Tools application.

Purpose and Scope

The FCCS allows users to build fuelbeds and assess them for their relative fire hazard, surface fire behavior, and potential carbon stores.

Key Personnel

Project Contact/Investigator

Person

Roger D. Ottmar

Research Forester-Emeritus Scientist

https://research.fs.usda.gov/about/people/roger.ottmar

Collaborators

Co-Investigator:
- Susan J. Prichard, University of Washington (sprich@uw.edu)
Partners:
- University of Washington, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
- Joint Fire Science Program
- National Park Service
- National Fire Plan
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- U.S. Bureau of Land Management

Publications

Joe H. Scott, Robert E. Burgan. 2005. Standard fire behavior fuel models: a comprehensive set for use with Rothermel's surface fire spread model
Jessica E. Halofsky, Stephanie K. Hart, Miles Hemstrom, Joshua S. Halofsky, Morris C. Johnson. 2014. Chapter 3: Simulating fire hazard across landscapes through time: integrating state-and-transition models with the Fuel Characteristic Classification System
Susan J. Prichard, David V. Sandberg, Roger D. Ottmar, Ellen Eberhardt, Anne Andreu, Paige Eagle, Kjell Swedin. 2013. Fuel Characteristic Classification System version 3.0: technical documentation
Roger D. Ottmar, Clinton Wright, Susan J. Prichard. 2009. A suite of fire, fuels, and smoke management tools
Roger D. Ottmar, David V. Sandberg, Cynthia L. Riccardi, Susan J. Prichard. 2007. An overview of the fuel characteristic classification system—quantifying, classifying, and creating fuelbeds for resource planning.
Cynthia L. Riccardi, Roger D. Ottmar, David V. Sandberg, Anne Andreu, Ella Elman, Karen Kopper, Jennifer Long. 2007. The fuelbed: a key element of the Fuel Characteristic Classification System.
David V. Sandberg, Cynthia L. Riccardi, Mark D. Schaff. 2007. Fire potential rating for wildland fuelbeds using the Fuel Characteristic Classification System.
Cynthia L. Riccardi, Susan J. Prichard, David V. Sandberg, Roger D. Ottmar. 2007. Quantifying physical characteristics of wildland fuels using the fuel characteristic classification system.
Donald McKenzie, C.L. Raymond, L.-K.B. Kellogg, R.A. Norheim, A.G. Andreu, A.C. Bayard, K.E. Kopper, E. Elman. 2007. Mapping fuels at multiple scales: landscape application of the fuel characteristic classification system.

Last updated January 18, 2024