Register      Login
International Journal of Wildland Fire International Journal of Wildland Fire Society
Journal of the International Association of Wildland Fire
Table of Contents
International Journal of Wildland Fire

International Journal of Wildland Fire

Volume 33 Number 1 2024

We developed empirical relationships linking fireline intensity and flame length, based on a compilation of data collected in field head fires, conducted worldwide in forest, shrubland and grassland. Two relationships emerged, respectively for forest and shrublands and for grasslands, and were deemed suitable for scientific and operational application.

WF23129Factors influencing wildfire management decisions after the 2009 US federal policy update

Stephen D. Fillmore 0000-0003-0032-0795, Sarah McCaffrey, Rachel Bean, Alexander M. Evans, Jose Iniguez, Andrea Thode, Alistair M. S. Smith and Matthew P. Thompson

This research expands on previous work exploring the decision making of US Forest Service wildfire managers, using social science methods to elucidate the factors that help drive their decisions to suppress or manage wildfires. We found a complex network of factors that show increasing ambiguity in the wildfire decision environment.

Citizen science provides an important opportunity for the wildfire community, enabling data collection at broad spatio-temporal scales. Direct fuel moisture measurement campaigns can maximise these benefits by accounting for natural differences in measurements between individuals. We quantify the magnitude and variability of differences during an intensive fuel moisture measurement campaign.

This paper describes a method to monitor forest fire progress using dual-polarisation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images combined with multi-scale segmentation and unsupervised classification. We aimed to take full advantage of the many different dimensions of feature parameter changes caused by forest fires, relying on time-series dual-polarised SAR imagery to achieve burned area extraction and forest fire progress monitoring.


Diagram showing fire condition changes phosphorus chemistry and speciation from plant biomass to fire residue.

Soil phosphorus (P) availability in natural ecosystems relies on the returning of P in plant biomass. This study shows how fire conditions and plant species and their parts interact in determining the physical and chemical forms and solubility of P that control its post-fire cycling in the environment.

We tested a lightweight architecture called LEF-YOLO for detecting four extreme wildfires. We found improved detection accuracy through multi-scale fusion and attention mechanism, and constructed four extreme wildfire datasets and compared these with multiple object detection models and lightweight feature extraction networks. This method is beneficial for the development of extreme wildfire field robots.

This study analyses fire regimes in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park and Lupande Game Management Area. It examines the influence of climate and human activities on burned areas. Findings show differences in burned areas and highlight the significance of soil moisture and rainfall in shaping fire regimes in African savannas.

WF23060Associations between Australian climate drivers and extreme weekly fire danger

Rachel Taylor, Andrew G. Marshall, Steven Crimp, Geoffrey J. Cary, Sarah Harris and Samuel Sauvage

This paper explores the relationships between the major forces influencing Australian weather and climate, and the chance of severe fire seasons. The findings could be valuable in decision making and preparation for upcoming fire seasons to avoid more seasons with devastating outcomes such as the 2019–2020 Black Summer.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire and Climate.

WF23073Exploring the influence of the Keetch–Byram Drought Index and McArthur’s Drought Factor on wildfire incidence in Victoria, Australia

M. P. Plucinski 0000-0002-0965-9229, E. Tartaglia 0000-0003-0227-8391, C. Huston 0000-0002-7855-1123, A. G. Stephenson, S. Dunstall 0000-0002-9518-7474, N. F. McCarthy 0000-0003-3893-0433 and S. Deutsch

McArthur’s Drought Factor and the Keetch–Byram Drought Index are higher than normal on days with fires in Victoria, Australia. These metrics provide a more reliable indication of fire potential in high-rainfall areas than in lower-rainfall areas.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire and Climate.

WF23046The effect of fuel bed structure on Rothermel model performance

Zakary Campbell-Lochrie 0000-0001-8055-0405, Michael Gallagher, Nicholas Skowronski and Rory M. Hadden

Rothermel’s model continues to underpin many operational fire models. However, a possible oversensitivity to fuel depth has previously been observed. An existing dataset of flame spread experiments in pine needle beds is used to evaluate the effect of fuel structure on predictions of spread rate and reaction intensity.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire and Climate.

Australia and the United States have experienced repeated, catastrophic fires in recent years, triggering state-level law and policy reforms to promote prescribed burning, including on private land. We highlight important themes in recent legislation and recommend that both countries learn from reform efforts elsewhere as fire regimes continue to change.

This article belongs to the Collection Fire and Climate.

Committee on Publication Ethics

Call for Papers

We are seeking contributions for the following Special Issues. More information

IJWF Content Free to IAWF Members

All non-OA journal content published prior to 2024 can be accessed by IAWF members through the IAWF Members-Only site.

Advertisement