Fire intensity, fire severity and burn severity
A brief review and suggested usage
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23315218 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jon E Keeley (0000-0002-4564-6521, AUS Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, Sequoia – Kings Canyon Field Station, 47050 Generals Highway, Three Rivers, CA 93271, USA., corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 116-126 |
| Publication date | 2009-02-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Wildland Fire (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1049-8001 • E-ISSN: 1448-5516 |
| Publisher | CSIRO Publishing (PUBLISHER • AU) |
| DOI | 10.1071/wf07049 |
| OpenAlex | W2110306174 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 78 |
Several recent papers have suggested replacing the terminology of fire intensity and fire severity. Part of the problem with fire intensity is that it is sometimes used incorrectly to describe fire effects, when in fact it is justifiably restricted to measures of energy output. Increasingly, the term has created confusion because some authors have restricted its usage to a single measure of energy output referred to as fireline intensity. This metric is most useful in understanding fire behavior in forests, but is too narrow to fully capture the multitude of ways fire energy affects ecosystems. Fire intensity represents the energy released during various phases of a fire, and different metrics such as reaction intensity, fireline intensity, temperature, heating duration and radiant energy are useful for different purposes. Fire severity, and the related term burn severity, have created considerable confusion because of recent changes in their usage. Some authors have justified this by contending that fire severity is defined broadly as ecosystem impacts from fire and thus is open to individual interpretation. However, empirical studies have defined fire severity operationally as the loss of or change in organic matter aboveground and belowground, although the precise metric varies with management needs. Confusion arises because fire or burn severity is sometimes defined so that it also includes ecosystem responses. Ecosystem responses include soil erosion, vegetation regeneration, restoration of community structure, faunal recolonization, and a plethora of related response variables. Although some ecosystem responses are correlated with measures of fire or burn severity, many important ecosystem processes have either not been demonstrated to be predicted by severity indices or have been shown in some vegetation types to be unrelated to severity. This is a critical issue because fire or burn severity are readily measurable parameters, both on the ground and with remote sensing, yet ecosystem responses are of most interest to resource managers.
Biology · Boreal · Civil engineering · Climate change · Confusion · Ecosystem · Environmental resource management · Fire history · Fire protection · Fire regime · Terminology · Vegetation (pathology) · Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics · Ecology · Engineering · Environmental Science · Fire dynamics and safety research · Fire effects on ecosystems · Psychology
Fire severity shapes asynchronous herbaceous and shrub recovery along contrasting soil-recovery pathways in a subtropical Pinus massoniana plantation
Using Complementary Drought Proxies Improves Interpretations of Fire Histories in Montane Forests
Paleofire severity and vegetation change in the Cascade Range, Oregon, USA
Incendios en el humedal Ramsar Los Pantanos de Villa (Lima-Perú)
Spatial distribution of wildfire risk in the Monte biome (Patagonia, Argentina)
Soil pH and Soluble Organic Matter Shifts Exerted by Heating Affect Microbial Response
Fire Hazards
Human exposure and sensitivity to globally extreme wildfire events
Landscape – wildfire interactions in southern Europe
Global and Regional Trends and Drivers of Fire Under Climate Change
Vegetation fires in the Anthropocene
Fire disturbance and climate change
Distribution and frequency of wildfire in California riparian ecosystems
Global environmental controls on wildfire burnt area, size, and intensity
Climate-induced fire regime amplification in Alberta, Canada
Evenness peaks in fire-resilient vegetation preceded ecosystem shifts in East Africa
Snowpack properties vary in response to burn severity gradients in montane forests
Linking repeat lidar with Landsat products for large scale quantification of fire-induced permafrost thaw settlement in interior Alaska
The 2019/2020 mega-fires exposed Australian ecosystems to an unprecedented extent of high-severity fire
Fire severity and the legacy of mountain pine beetle outbreak
Intensified burn severity in California’s northern coastal mountains by drier climatic condition
Landscape-scale experimental proof that tall wet Eucalyptus regrowth burns more severely than mature forest
Is proportion burned severely related to daily area burned
Rising forest exposure and fire severity from climate warming amplify tree cover losses from wildfire in California
A transdisciplinary approach to understanding the health effects of wildfire and prescribed fire smoke regimes
How well do multi-fire danger rating indices represent China forest fire variations across multi-time scales
Comparing High Accuracy t-LiDAR and UAV-SfM Derived Point Clouds for Geomorphological Change Detection
Effectiveness of Sentinel-2 in Multi-Temporal Post-Fire Monitoring When Compared with UAV Imagery
Burned Area Mapping over the Southern Cape Forestry Region, South Africa Using Sentinel Data within GEE Cloud Platform
Probabilistic Wildfire risk assessment methodology and evaluation of a supply chain network
Wildfire recovery as a “hot moment” for creating fire-adapted communities
Interpretable machine learning insights into wildfire damage drivers in California, USA
The changing risk of fire to human and environmental assets under climate induced altered fire regimes in south-east Australia
A survival guide for assessing global fire risks to natural and human systems
Spatio-temporal variability of landslides as indicator of climate change impact
Comparing the impacts of wildfire and meteorological variability on hydrological and erosion responses in a Mediterranean catchment
Post‐fire soil extracellular enzyme activities in subtropical–warm temperate climate transitional forests
Informal camping on the margin of wild country
Moderate Fire Temperatures Affect the Structure of Clayey Oxisol Aggregates
Influence of Vegetation Structure on Lemur Recolonization of Post‐Fire Habitats in Northwestern Madagascar
Building patterns and fuel features drive wildfire severity in wildland-urban interfaces in Southern Europe
The role of fuel treatments in mitigating wildfire risk
Mapping the research history, collaborations and trends of remote sensing in fire ecology
Is reporting “significant damage” transparent? Assessing fire and explosion risk at oil and gas operations in the United States
Ancient Conflagration
Widely used charcoal analysis method in paleo studies involving NaOCl results in loss of charcoal formed below 400°C
The impact of recent land-use change in the Araucaria araucana forest in northern Patagonia
Modern pollen from small hollows reflects Athrotaxis cupressoides density across a wildfire gradient in subalpine forests of the Central Plateau, Tasmania, Australia
Gradually increasing forest fire activity during the Holocene in the northern Ural region (Komi Republic, Russia)
Inherited age of floating charcoal fragments in a sand-bed stream, Macdonald River, NSW, Australia
Integrating fire-scar, charcoal and fungal spore data to study fire events in the boreal forest of northern Europe
A late-Holocene multiproxy fire record from a tropical savanna, eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia
The reconstruction of burned area and fire severity using charcoal from boreal lake sediments
Informing sedimentary charcoal-based fire reconstructions with a kinematic transport model
Fires and human activities as key factors in the high diversity of Corsican vegetation
Identifying natural and anthropogenic drivers of prehistoric fire regimes through simulated charcoal records
On the effects of wildfires on poverty in Bolivia
Conservation implications of limited Native American impacts in pre-contact New England
Decoding ancient charcoal formation and post-deposition
Heat, hydroclimate and herbivory
Shrubland or Pasture? Restoration of Degraded Meadows in the Mountains of Bhutan
Rapid changes in the chemistry of ash and underlying soil layers after pile burning in a subalpine forest
Impact of forest fire severity on soil physical and chemical properties in pine and scrub forests in high Andean zones of Peru
Oxygen isotope values of charred tree bark as an indicator of forest fire severity
Tree survival and resprouting after wildfire in tropical dry and subhumid ecosystems of Chiquitania, Bolivia
Temporal variations in burn severity among various vegetation layers in subtropical Pinus Roxburghii (Chir Pine) forest of Hindu Kush mountain range
Fire Risk in Urban Bangladesh
Climate Change Constrains the Efficiency Frontier When Managing Forests to Reduce Fire Severity and Maximize Carbon Storage
Wildfire, protected areas and forest ownership
Tending to Yosemite
Land sharing complements land sparing in the conservation of disturbance-dependent species
What is a fire resilient landscape? Towards an integrated definition
Departing from the Colonial Path
What we Don't see
Taking Fire Science and Practice to the Next Level
Geochemical changes of peat swamp sediments following fire in Southeastern Australia
Human Pyrogeography
Social Science/Natural Science Perspectives on Wildfire and Climate Change
| Unique citing works | 78 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5,2 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2026 (16) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 72 |