A bottom–up savanna fire fuel consumption inventory and its application to savanna burning in Kafue National Park, Zambia
Tom Eames A , Adrian Kaluka B , Roland Vernooij C , Cameron Yates D * , Jeremy Russell-Smith D and Guido R. van der Werf CA
B
C
D
Abstract
Tropical savannas are the most extensively and frequently burned biome worldwide. To establish accurate emissions inventories for burning in tropical savannas, detailed biomass information is required. Available pan-tropical or global biomass maps currently focus on standing vegetation and largely ignore surface layers, a key component of fuel consumption in the tropics.
In this paper, we propose a methodology for building a high-resolution regional bottom–up fuel inventory, and examine the effectiveness thereof in a local scale case study in Kafue National Park, Zambia.
We scaled up fuel measurements using drone-mounted cameras and Sentinel-2 imagery. We examined inter-annual fire variability’s effects on emissions.
The fuel model performs well for surface level fuel, with an error margin of ~±27%. Accuracy is reduced when mapping more stochastic fuel layers such as coarse woody debris, or fuel layers with a structural component.
Current pyrogenic emissions models underestimate emissions from Kafue National Park.
Timing of burning is an important factor for total burned area as well as for emissions.
Keywords: biomass, burning, emissions, fire, fire management, fuel load, prescribed fire, remote sensing, savanna.
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