Learning to Use FOFEM 5:

1
Learning to Use FOFEM 5Volume I Basic Lesson

• Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory
• Systems for Environmental Management

2
In the Basic Lesson

• Background information
• Discussion of FOFEM modules, inputs and outputs
• Step-by-step exercises
• Saving a FOFEM project and FOFEM outputs

3
In the Advanced Lesson

• Advanced use of soil heating and Burnup modules
• Batch mode making many runs at once
• Linking FOFEM to GIS

4
What is a first-order effect?

• First-order fire effects are the immediate
  consequences of a fire, whether direct or
  indirect.
• FOFEM 5 predicts
• Fuel consumption
• Smoke production
• Tree mortality
• Soil heating
• Second-order effects?
• Longer term effects and effects involving
  interaction with other agents, like erosion,
  vegetation dynamics, insect-caused mortality, and
  climate change.
• Modeled with VDDT, LANDSUM, SIMPPLE, TELSA,
  FFE-FVS and other models

5
How FOFEM works

• FOFEM 5 is a compendium of models for predicting
  fire effects
• FOFEM 5 helps the user generate inputs for those
  models from
• Detailed fuel and stand inventory data
• General forest type information
• A combination of these two sources
• FOFEM 5 automatically uses the best available
  equation or model

6
FOFEM 5 modules

• Mortality
• Fuel consumption
• Smoke
• Soil heating

7
Tree mortality inputs
8
Tree mortality outputs

• Chart and text report of mortality over a range
  of fire intensity for each tree in the list

9
Tree mortality exercise

• In Windows Explorer, open the file
  FOFEM5tutorials.chm
• Navigate to the Tree Mortality exercise
• Use Alt-Tab or the task bar to switch between the
  tutorial and FOFEM as needed

10
Fuel Consumption inputs

• Fuel load by size class and component
• Direct input

OR,
11
Fuel Consumption inputs

• Fuel load by size class and component
• Based on fuel or vegetation type classification
  (SAF/SRM, NVCS, FCC), fuel or cover type, region,
  fuel type (natural, slash or piles), and
  adjustment.

12
Fuel Consumption inputs

• Fuel load by size class and component
• In both cases,

13
Fuel Consumption inputs

• Fuel load by size class and component
• Log loading distribution

even
Left
right
ends
center
14
Fuel Consumption inputs

• Fuel moisture
• Moisture condition (very dry, dry, moderate, wet)

OR,
15
Fuel Consumption inputs

• Fuel moisture
• Direct input (10-hr, 1000-hr, duff moisture)

16
Fuel Consumption inputs

• Duff moisture method
• entire duff profile, lower duff only, NFDR,
  Adjusted NFDR

17
Fuel Consumption outputs

• Chart and report of pre-burn and post-burn fuel
  load and fuel consumption by size class and
  component.

18
Fuel Consumption exercise

• In Windows Explorer, open the file
  FOFEM5tutorials.chm
• Navigate to the Fuel Consumption exercise
• Use Alt-Tab or the task bar to switch between the
  tutorial and FOFEM as needed

19
Smoke emissions inputs

• Smoke inputs are the same as fuel consumption

20
Smoke emissions outputs

• Graph and tabular report of smoke production by
  component.

21
Smoke emissions outputs

• Can save emissions and intensity history for use
  in smoke dispersion model (NFS-PUFF, SASEM, SIS).

22
Smoke emissions exercise

• In Windows Explorer, open the file
  FOFEM5tutorials.chm
• Navigate to the Smoke Emissions exercise
• Use Alt-Tab or the task bar to switch between the
  tutorial and FOFEM as needed

23
Soil heating inputs

• Soil heating inputs are the same as fuel
  consumption, with two additions

24
Soil heating outputs

• Graph and tabular report of soil heating by
  depth.

25
Soil heating exercise

• In Windows Explorer, open the file
  FOFEM5tutorials.chm
• Navigate to the Soil Heating exercise
• Use Alt-Tab or the task bar to switch between the
  tutorial and FOFEM as needed

26
Basic lesson conclusion

• FOFEM 5 combines well-tested physical and
  empirical models with expert knowledge to predict
  the immediate effects of fire on
• Tree mortality
• Fuel consumption
• Smoke emissions
• Soil heating
• FOFEM 5 creates reports, graphs and data tables
  that can be incorporated into other documents