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Project ID: 10-1-02-14

Year: 2010

Date Started: 07/01/2010

Ending Date:  06/30/2013

Title: A Validated Framework for Assessing Canopy Fuels Across Heterogeneous Landscapes Using LIDAR

Project Proposal Abstract: Our proposed research will improve canopy fuel estimates for Pitch pine, and will provide a transportable framework for the quantification of canopy fuels in three dimensions across large, heterogeneous landscapes. We will address Task #2, Conifer canopy fuels estimation, in JFSP-RFA # FA-RFA010-0001. We will first extend the range of existing allometric relationships used to estimate canopy fuel characteristics for Pitch Pine, using sequential destructive harvest of plots, coupled with an upward sensing light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system, standard forest census techniques, and optical techniques for assessing canopy fuels. We and others have demonstrated the ability to link LIDAR data to tree- and plot-based models of 3-dimensional canopy fuel distributions to produce calibrated, grid-based maps that do not simply characterize maximum canopy bulk density (CBD), but describe the entire canopy height profile in terms of fuel density in 1-meter layers. Thus, by linking LIDAR-derived canopy height profiles to actual distributions of CBD derived from destructive harvests, we will eliminate inaccuracies in the prediction of 3-dimensional canopy fuel loading. We will then use downward sensing scanning LIDAR datasets to scale 1-meter layer canopy bulk density estimates across much larger, heterogeneous areas. The relationships between upward and downward LIDAR systems are well-characterized, and because these scaled metrics provide accurate estimates of crown bulk density (CBD) and other canopy fuel characteristics, they will be appropriate for current fire behavior models such as the FVS-Fire and Fuels Extension, and for the next-generation of canopy fuel models such as WFDS, which require high resolution canopy fuel loading information. We will then evaluate the accuracy of these 3-dimensional crown fuel estimates with further field sampling, using both destructive harvest and non-destructive sampling techniques in a second set of plots distributed across our study landscape. Our proposed project will assist state and federal wildland fire managers map and model canopy fuels in and near wildland-urban interface, and evaluate the efficiency of mechanical canopy fuel reduction treatments.

Principal Investigator: Kenneth L. Clark

Agency/Organization: Forest Service

Branch or Dept: NRS-Silas Little Experimental Forest

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Nicholas S. Skowronski	Forest Service	NRS-Silas Little Experimental Forest
Federal Cooperator	Kenneth L. Clark	Forest Service	NRS-Silas Little Experimental Forest
Federal Fiscal Representative	David G Garrison	Forest Service	NRS-Northern Research Station

Project Locations

Consortium

Lake States

Level	State	Agency	Unit
STATE	NJ	FED	ALL

Project Deliverables

There is no final report available for this project.

	ID	Type	Title
	9346	Refereed Publication	Three-Dimensional Canopy Fuel Loading Predicted Using Upward and Downward Sensing LiDAR Systems
	10340	Poster	Assessing Canopy Fuels Across Heterogeneous Landscapes Using LiDAR

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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