Forest Fuel Treatment and Fire Risk Assessment

Dear Colleagues,

Forest fires resulting from natural or human causes have harmful and destructive effects directly or indirectly on human societies. It is of great significance to use scientific forest fire prevention measures to reduce the economic loss and environmental damage caused by fire. Forest fuels are the material basis of fire occurrence. Fuel type, loading, fuel moisture content and characteristics of spatial distribution are closely related to forest fire behavior. As one of the three elements of forest burning, compared with the other two elements (fire source, fire environment), forest fuel are easier to be controlled by human, and the effectiveness of forest fire prevention can be reasonably evaluated quantitatively. The effective fuel treatment and reduction can reduce the risk of fires occurrence, and increase the stability of forest ecosystem and improve forest health. Nowadays, forest fire management is facing new challenges in the context of global warming and serious damage of forest ecosystem. Scientific forest fuel treatment is of great significance for fire prevention and forest management.

Forest fire risk assessment is also an important part of forest fire prevention. Reasonable classification of fire risk and targeted preventive measures can reduce fire occurrence and loss. Through the risk assessment to determine the high fire risk location and estimater its impact areas, to provide decision support for forest fire prevention and firefighting. The results of forest fire risk assessment have important reference value for the improvement and enhancement of current forest fire prevention measures，as well as the policy making.

This Special Issue aims to explore forest fuel treatment and fire risk assessment, giving particular attention but not exclusively to:

• Methods of forest fuel treatment and reduction
• Effect of fuel treatment（ie. thinning, prescribed burning）on fuel loading and fire behavior
• Quantitative model of estimation for fuel loading
• Fuel characteristics and flammability evaluation
• Effect of fuel treatment on plant diversity
• Climate change and forest fires
• Forest fire danger prediction
• Forest fire risk assessment
• Evaluation of fire control capacity
• Estimation for fire carbon emission
• Effects of fire severity on forest ecosystems

Dr. Xiaodong Liu
Dr. Mingyu Wang
Dr. Feng Chen
Dr. Jili Zhang
Guest Editors

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