Effects of wind and tree density on forest fire patterns in a mixed-tree species forest
2017
Song, Hark-Soo | Lee, Sang-Hee
It is well known that global climate change causes an increase in forest fire frequency and severity. Thus, understanding fire dynamics is necessary to comprehend the mitigation of the negative effects of forest fires. Our objective was to inform how fire spreads in a simulated two-species forest with varying wind strengths. The forest in this study was comprised of two different tree species with varying probabilities of transferring fire that was randomly distributed in space at densities (C ₜₒₜ) ranging from 0.0 (low) to 1.0 (high). We studied the distribution pattern of burnt trees by using local rules of the two-dimensional model. This model incorporated wind blowing from south to north with strength (P w) ranging from 0.0 (low) to 1.0 (high). Simulation results showed that when C ₜₒₜ > 0.45 the fire covered the entire forest, but when C ₜₒₜ ≤ 0.45 the fire did not spread. The wind effect on the variation of the amount of the burnt tree was maximized at the critical density and dramatically decreased with increasing C ₜₒₜ. Additionally, we found that the term of C ₜₒₜ and P w plays an important role in determining the distribution.
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