Wildfire disturbance matrix development

Wildfires are a major disturbance in the Canadian landscape with a significant impact on the national forest carbon balance.  Greenhouse gas emissions from wildfires are a function of fire behaviour, which is a function of fuel type, weather and topography.  Under this project, the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS) is being used to obtain the most accurate information possible to develop wildfire disturbance matrices for use in the CBM-CFS3.  Information from the CWFIS and forest inventory (i.e., fuel type) are modeled using Borfire, a fuel consumption model. Resulting output is converted to a CBM-CFS3 disturbance matrix format that is used to estimate regional fire emissions.