Introduction - Wildland Fuel Fundamentals and Applications - page 7

Fig. 1.3 Examples of various fuelbeds named for the disturbances or vegetation that created them:
a activity fuelbed (fuel treatment unit in northwestern Montana, USA), b hurricane (Shortleaf
Pine, Texas USA; courtesy of the Fire and Environmental Rsearch Team, US Forest Service),
c mountain pine beetle (lodgepole pine central Idaho), and d maquis fuel (Sardinia, Italy; photo
courtesy of Valentina Bacciu)

2008 ). Mountain pine beetles, for example, alter both canopy and surface fuels,
by killing pines and facilitating canopy growth of surviving competitors (Chap. 6;
Fig. 1.3c ). However, most fuelbeds are named for those vegetation types that cre-
ated them; shrub fuel complexes, for example, are sometimes called brush, scrub,
maquis, heathlands, and chaparral fuelbeds, depending on the geographical area
(Dimitrakopoulos 2002 ; Keeley et al. 2008 ; Fig. 1.3d , Chap. 3).

1.2.3 Wildland Fire

Several fire science terms must also be defined to avoid ambiguity when describing
fuels (Chap. 2). Fire behavior is a general term used to describe physical aspects of
the combustion process such as speed and direction of fire spread. Other definitions
of fire behavior include “the manner in which fire interacts with topography, fuels,
and weather” (NWCG 2006 ). Fire spread is how fast a fire moves in a given direc-
tion, while fire growth is how large the fire gets in an area over time. Fire intensity
is the combustion energy released from the burning of organic matter during a fire