Canadian Fire Effects Model

The Canadian Fire Effects Model (CanFIRE) is a stand-level model that integrates fire behaviour and fire ecology to calculate the physical and ecological effects of wildland fire on Canadian forests stand characteristics. It is an extension of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System. CanFIRE also enhances our knowledge about how wildland fires:

• impact the landscape
• will change with a warming climate
• contribute to Canada’s carbon and greenhouse gases emissions

CanFIRE is also used to study the impacts of fire regimes altered by climate change on future wildland fire activity and forest carbon storage. It provides information that is essential for international reporting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

What CanFIRE does

CanFIRE calculates wildland fire behaviour and fire effects for multiple forest stands or plots of land. The model runs many scenarios such as prescribed burn planning or expected fire behaviour and impacts questions.

CanFIRE simulates fuel conditions at the stand level for grass, slash and six major boreal tree species:

• jack pine (Pinus banksiana)
• black spruce (Picea mariana)
• white spruce (Picea glauca)
• trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides)
• balsam fir (Abies balsamea)
• white birch (Betula papyrifera).

It can also simulate the resulting ecological impacts of wildland fire on forest stand composition. Forest stands can be pure or mixed in any combination and proportion of species.

How CanFIRE works

Inputs to CanFIRE are based on the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System and fuel data.

• FWI system parameters include the Duff Moisture Code, Drought Code, Buildup Index and Initial Spread Index
• Fuel load values for trees, grass or slash from direct measures (e.g., prescribed burn data) or from estimations of forest inventory
• Forest floor and dead woody debris fuel data as estimated from field surveys or databases

Estimates of fuel consumption, fire behaviour, future stand composition, carbon emissions, particulate matter and other gases are calculated once all values are inputted into the model.

• Rate of spread uses Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction (FBP) System equations and related procedures (e.g., foliar moisture content, Buildup Index (BUI) effect, season of burn, etc.)
• Fuel consumption is calculated using Canadian fuel consumption models
• Fire intensity is calculated using data from Canadian fuel consumption models and Byram's (1959) equation [I=Hwr]
• Ecological effects are simulated using species-based fire ecology traits and mortality models
• Fuel consumption is divided into consumption of forest floor layers and of tree crowns, by species and whether the fire is flaming or smouldering.
  • A fire behaviour summary provides information on the rate of spread, depth of burn, scorch height and head fire intensity
  • Future stand composition is predicted in terms of number of stems per hectare by species and size

Find out more

• Forest fires in Canada
• Wildland fire monitoring and reporting tools
• Forest carbon accounting tools

Canadian Forest Service publications

• CANFIRE model (2012)
• Estimating direct carbon emissions from Canadian wildland fires (2007)
• Modelling Canadian wildland fire carbon emissions with the Boreal Fire Effects (BORFIRE) model (2006)
• Simulating the impacts of future fire regimes and fire management strategies on vegetation and fuel dynamics in western Canada using a boreal fire effects model (BORFIRE) (2002)