@article {bnh-6993, title = {Case study: use of remote sensing data to derive spatial and temporal explicit fuel accumulation curves across defence lands}, number = {579}, year = {2020}, month = {06/2020}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Fuel loads are a main driver of fire rate of spread. Therefore, a spatially explicit estimation of fuel loads, coupled with their variation through time may improve wildland fuel management and contribute to the design of more efficient active fire response strategies. However, the high frequency of planned and unplanned fires in large wild areas linked to varying fire severity levels that affect the rate at which fuels re-accumulate, make the continuous monitoring of wildland fuels challenging with field-based survey methods. Here we propose the use of satellite remote sensing to map fuel loads with a revisit time of 16 days. Fuel load maps are produced for five Defence Lands using Landsat and Sentinel-2 optical remote sensing data available at Digital Earth Australia and the National Computation Infrastructure. The fuel load maps are obtained by calculating the time series of the Vegetation Structure Perpendicular Index, an index that measures post-fire disturbance, and fitting these to fuel accumulation curves derived from literature.

}, keywords = {data analysis, defence lands, fuel accumulation, remote sensing}, issn = {579}, author = {Andrea Massetti and Marta Yebra and James Hilton and Christoph R{\"u}diger} } @article {bnh-7311, title = {Seasonal fine fuel and coarse woody debris dynamics in north Australian savannas}, journal = {International Journal of Wildland Fire}, year = {2020}, month = {09/2020}, abstract = {

Several studies have separately explored accumulation of the dominant fuels (grass, fine litter (\<6 mm diameter) and coarse woody debris (CWD, 6{\textendash}50 mm diameter)) in north Australian savannas. We report an analysis of two longitudinal datasets describing how these three fuel components covary in abundance throughout the year in eucalypt-dominated savanna over a rainfall gradient of 700{\textendash}1700 mm mean annual rainfall (MAR). Our observations concur generally with previous observations that litter accumulation results in a late dry season (LDS) peak in biomass, whereas cured grassy fuels typically are seasonally invariant, and CWD inputs are associated with stochastic severe wet season storms and dry season fires. The distinct LDS litter peak contributes significantly to the potential for LDS fires to be of higher intensity, burn more fuel per unit area and produce greater emissions relative to early dry season (EDS) fires. However, Australia{\textquoteright}s current (2018) formal savanna burning emissions avoidance methodology erroneously deems greater EDS fine fuel (grass and fine litter) biomass in four of nine designated vegetation fuel types. The study highlights the need to develop seasonally dynamic modelling approaches that better account for significant seasonal variation in fine fuel inputs and decomposition.

}, keywords = {emissions abatement, fire management, fire regime, fire seasonality, foliage projective cover, fuel accumulation, litter fuels, tropical savanna}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1071/WF20073}, url = {https://www.publish.csiro.au/wf/WF20073}, author = {Yates, Cameron P. and Harry MacDermott and Jay Evans and Murphy, Brett P. and Jeremy Russell-Smith} }