Full Project Title: Rapid development and demonstration of advanced modeling tools for prescribed fire

Project Identification Number: PLD5

Prescribed fire is key to resilient landscapes, and there is wide acceptance that more prescribed fire is needed. Unfortunately, there are barriers. Concerns include weather variability, air quality, resource availability, and safety in the wildland-urban interface.  

In collaboration with Los Alamos National Lab, Forest Service researchers are leading a project designed to address such challenges. The work builds on a long history of partnerships that advance the science of prescribed fire management.  

The researchers are developing a new modeling framework – along with new tools. The framework will illuminate connections between: 

• Fuels,  
• Ignition methods,  
• Fire behavior,  
• Fire effects, and  
• Smoke management.  

A physics-based model is at the core of the framework. This model integrates many aspects of the prescribed fire planning process and links ignition patterns with fire behavior, fire effects, and smoke management.  

The goal of the framework is to provide managers with a unified interface for assessing fuels, fire behavior, smoke emissions and dispersion, and fire effects that can account for a variety of complex ignition patterns. 

The research is expected to lead to new tools that will allow practitioners to assess the safety and effectiveness of prescribed fire prescriptions. The research is also expected to strengthen the scientific foundations of prescribed fire programs, safely increase prescribed fire capacity nationwide, and help increase social license to use fire at broad scales.

This project was funded in FY22 by the 40803(c)(13) provision of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This research supports the agency's Wildfire Crisis Strategy.