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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 16(5)

Estimating direct carbon emissions from Canadian wildland fires1

William J. de Groot A E , Robert Landry B , Werner A. Kurz C , Kerry R. Anderson A , Peter Englefield A , Robert H. Fraser B , Ronald J. Hall A , Ed Banfield A , Donald A. Raymond B , Vincent Decker B , Tim J. Lynham D and Janet M. Pritchard A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Northern Forestry Centre, 5320 – 122nd Street, Edmonton, AB T6H 3S5 Canada.

B Natural Resources Canada, Earth Sciences Sector, Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, 588 Booth Street, Ottawa, ON K1A 0Y7 Canada.

C Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre, 506 West Burnside Road, Victoria, BC V8Z 1M5 Canada.

D Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, 1219 Queen Street East, Sault Ste. Marie, ON P6A 2E5 Canada.

E Corresponding author. Email: bill.degroot@nrcan.gc.ca

International Journal of Wildland Fire 16(5) 593-606 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF06150
Submitted: 7 November 2006  Accepted: 2 May 2007   Published: 26 October 2007

Abstract

In support of Canada’s National Forest Carbon Monitoring, Accounting and Reporting System, a project was initiated to develop and test procedures for estimating direct carbon emissions from fires. The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS) provides the infrastructure for these procedures. Area burned and daily fire spread estimates are derived from satellite products. Spatially and temporally explicit indices of burning conditions for each fire are calculated by CWFIS using fire weather data. The Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) provides detailed forest type and leading species information, as well as pre-fire fuel load data. The Boreal Fire Effects Model calculates fuel consumption for different live biomass and dead organic matter pools in each burned cell according to fuel type, fuel load, burning conditions, and resulting fire behaviour. Carbon emissions are calculated from fuel consumption. CWFIS summarises the data in the form of disturbance matrices and provides spatially explicit estimates of area burned for national reporting. CBM-CFS3 integrates, at the national scale, these fire data with data on forest management and other disturbances. The methodology for estimating fire emissions was tested using a large-fire pilot study. A framework to implement the procedures at the national scale is described.

Additional keywords: fire behaviour, fuel consumption, remote sensing.


Acknowledgements

Contributions to the project by the following people are greatly appreciated: Richard Carr, Heather Dickenson, Caren Dymond, Mike Gartrell, Dave Jacques, Jin Ji-zhong, Bryan Lee, John Little, Vern Peters, Brian Simpson, Rod Suddaby, Andrew Trebble, and Joost van der Sanden. Funding for this project was provided by the Government Related Initiatives Program (GRIP) of the Canadian Space Agency, the Program of Energy Research and Development (PERD), and the federal government of Canada.


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1 A paper presented in session 020, ‘Global Fire Trends and Climate Change,’ at the XXII International Union of Forest Research Organizations World Congress in Brisbane, Australia, 8–13 August 2005.

2 Fuel types include: C-1 (spruce-lichen woodland), C-2 (boreal spruce), C-3 and C-4 combined (mature and immature jack or lodgepole pine), C-5 (red and white pine), C-6 (conifer plantation), C-7 (ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir), D-1 (leafless aspen), M-1 and M-2 (boreal mixedwood), O-1 (grass).

3 An operational-scale version of the model, user’s guide, and tutorials are freely available at http://carbon.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/, accessed 20 September 2007.