1. Application of Fuel Characteristic Classification System to Ph II EI (add-on task to Inter RPO project) Fire Emissions Joint Forum Meeting Spokane, WA Day 1 – 1015a Part B Dave Randall Air Sciences Inc.

2. Outline What is FCCS? How does it work? Review FCC-based calculation method Compare results to Phase II data Potential Benefits of WRAP adopting FCC- based fuel loading calculation

3. Application of FCCS for WRAP FCCS = Fuel Characteristic Classification System Assigns fuel loading to applicable events in the WRAP historic Phase II 2002 wildfire, WFU and prescribed burning activity databases FCC fuel loading (tons) compared to Phase II fuel loading Analysis focuses on fuel loadings rather than emissions

4. Phase II Emission Inventory Emissions = Acres x Fuel Loading x Emission Factor The analysis & the results of this report are quantified in “tons” & “tons/acre” of fuel loading

5. FCC Map & Loadings FCC map of the West developed by USDA – Forest Service Pacific NW Research Station (PNRS) Covers WRAP region (except AK, HI, & portions of ND & SD) 1-km resolution grid specifying a single FCC code per grid cell Table of fuel loadings (tons biomass/fuel layer) for each FCC code

6. FCC Map

7. PNRS FCC Fuel Layers Total Trees, shrub, duff (inches) nonwoody-live, nonwoody-dead (1,10,100,1K, 10K, 10K+) hour-sound (1K, 10K, 10K+) hour-rotten 8 tons/inch/acre of duff Sum all layers for each FCC to obtain total tons fuel loading per acre for each FCC

8. Rules for FCC Application to Phase II FCC fuel loadings only replaced Phase II fuel loadings for events that obtained fuel loading from GIS overlay Generally, these were events that had no quantifiable fuel loading indicated in the Phase II activity data.

9. FCC Application Rules Fuel Loading data availabilityAction Event subject to “large fire” fuel refinement in Phase II – fuel loading from site-level info Use refined Phase II tons Loading (tons or tons/acre) supplied in raw activity data Use Phase II raw tons directly NFDRS code supplied in raw activity data Look up tons from Phase II NFDRS fuel loading table No fuel loading supplied in raw or refined activity data Assign fuel loading using FCC map

10. FCC Assignment Steps Mappable point for fire from its Lat/Lon Fire point converted to FCC map projection coordinates Fire point “dropped” on FCC map (ID intersecting grid cell) ID fuel model at that point (as a coded #) Save fuel model code to newly created FCC field in activity database FCC fuel loading in tons/acre assigned to event

11. Effect of Applying FCC Fuel Loadings Applied FCC rules to wildfire, wildland fire use & prescribed burning events in the Phase II inventory Based on previous rules, not all events were overwritten with FCC-based values. –When FCC loadings were not applied, fuel loading did not change for that event. Now we’ll take a look at the comparison of FCC fuel loading to previous NFDRS-based value.

12. FCC Affected Acres of Activity & Differences in Fuel Loading Fuel Loading by Data Source (% Acres) Source Type (Acres in EI) FCC (GIS NFDRS in raw) Tons (Reported in raw) QC’d refined NFDRS (in raw) Total Wildfire (5.3M)13%44%18%25%100% WFU (200K)19%79%0%2%100% Prescribed Burning (650K) 42%53%0%5%100%

13. Phase II & FCC Fuel Consumption

14. Change in Fuel Loading Due to FCCS Application

15. Review Results Most states: incr in fuel consumption WRAP-wide 68% incr in fuel loading Notable incr in OR & NM. Oregon: –92 Fire days & 385K acres were involved. –Increase in Fuel Loading from 10M tons to 27.6M tons consumed New Mexico: –62 Fire days & 75K acres were involved. –Increase in Fuel Loading from 0.35M tons to 2.7M tons consumed

16. Benefits of Applying FCC Fuel Loadings Current Science: –PNRS’s FCCS considered more recent, up to date & specific for wildland biomass characterization. –accuracy of FCC loadings was not examined Precision of Fuels Data: –Applying FCCS resulted in more variety of fuel models in EI. NFDRS has 1 assignment per state. Number of FCC assignments ranged up to 22. –Average of 4 assignments/state –FCC captures more diversity & spatial specifics in fuels distribution across state.

17. Benefits of Applying FCC Fuel Loadings (cont...) System Compatibility: –FCC map & fuel loading table utilizes same processing methods as current WRAP system. –FCCS compatible with Phase II: including overlay of fire event coordinates in GIS to acquire fuel loading including calculating final emissions based on ton/acre fuel loadings –FCC map can be substituted for NFDRS map for event-level QC. Eg. fire perimeters can be overlaid on FCC map to compute weighted fuel loading for a specific event.