Title: Analysis of fire behaviour simulations over Spain with WRF-FIRE

Authors: Roberto San José; Juan Luis Pérez; Rosa M. González; J. Pecci; Marino Palacios

Addresses: Environmental Software and Modelling Group, Computer Science School, Technical University of Madrid (UPM), Campus de Montegancedo, Boadilla del Monte, 28660 Madrid, Spain ' Environmental Software and Modelling Group, Computer Science School, Technical University of Madrid (UPM), Campus de Montegancedo, Boadilla del Monte, 28660 Madrid, Spain ' Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, Faculty of Physics, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain ' Indra S.A., C/ Mar Egeo, 4, Pol. Industrial 1, 28830 San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, Spain ' Indra S.A., C/ Mar Egeo, 4, Pol. Industrial 1, 28830 San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, Spain

Abstract: Wildland fire spread and behaviour are complex phenomena owing to both the number of involved physico-chemical factors, and the non-linear relationship between variables. Spain is plagued by forest and brush fires every summer, when the extremely dry weather sets in along with high temperatures. The use of fire behaviour models requires the availability of high resolution environmental and fuel data; in the absence of real data, errors on the simulated fire spread can be compounded to affect the spatial and temporal accuracy of predicted data. The effect of input values on the accuracy of WRF-FIRE simulations was evaluated to assess the capabilities of the new system for wildland fire in accurately forecasting fire behaviour. The results confirm that the use of accurate meteorological data and a custom fuel moisture content model is crucial to obtain precise simulations of fire behaviour.

Keywords: WRF-FIRE; fire behaviour modelling; fuel moisture content; FMC; fuel models; wildland fires; Spain; simulation; forest fires; brush fires; meteorological data; wildfires.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2014.065919

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2014 Vol.55 No.1/2/3/4, pp.148 - 156

Published online: 17 Dec 2014 *

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