Assessing predictors for fuel moisture content in Central European forests

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F86652079%3A_____%2F25%3A00635763" target="_blank" >RIV/86652079:_____/25:00635763 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/62156489:43210/25:43927041

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168192325002102" target="_blank" >https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168192325002102</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110590" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110590</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Assessing predictors for fuel moisture content in Central European forests

Original language description

The moisture content of litter, woody debris and living vegetation controls the ignition and spread of fires and the composition of fire emissions. Since many forests in Central Europe were not considered fire-prone, very few observations and knowledge about fuel moisture content (FMC) are available. In this study, we aim to evaluate the representativeness of (i) continuous FMC measurements from in situ fuel sticks, (ii) a model of litter fuel moisture (Koba model) and (iii) a vapour pressure deficit based model for FMC of litter and woody debris across four temperate forest sites in Germany. Following this, we investigate fire weather indices from in situ meteorological or large-scale models and satellite products as potential predictors of live and dead FMC in a correlation analysis and using univariate generalised additive models (GAM). Our results suggest that continuous 10-hour fuel stick measurements are predominantly in agreement with litter FMC in coniferous and deciduous stands. The Koba model shows a very high correlation with dead-FMC. Among the components of the fire weather index, the fine fuel moisture code emerged as the best predictor of fuel stick measurements (GAM performance: R2=0.87, RMSE=4.1%), reflecting the expected relationship to destructively measured in situ FMC of litter and fine woody debris. FMC of live fuels is not or only weakly correlated with meteorological variables but moderate correlation was achieved with live-FMC retrievals from the Sentinel-1 radar satellite. The fire weather index from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) underestimates the variability of locally measured fire weather and FMC. In summary, our results demonstrate the potential of local fire nweather, fuel moisture measurements and of the litter fuel moisture model to enhance an accurate assessment of forest fire danger in Central European forests.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

40102 - Forestry

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

ISSN

0168-1923

e-ISSN

1873-2240

Volume of the periodical

371

Issue of the periodical within the volume

AUG

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

13

Pages from-to

110590

UT code for WoS article

001493228300002

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105004816105