Automated BFB - What it needs (inputs)

Like BEHAVE and BehavePlus, WFDSS Basic Fire Behavior (BFB) requires the following information to perform fire behavior calculations:

• fuels
• weather (winds and fuel moisture values)
• topography 

WFDSS BFB automatically provides nearly all of the necessary information to perform fire behavior calculations.

Caution: The quality of the output from the analysis is only as good as the data input into the model. Before using the output results to support wildland fire decision-making, be sure that you understand the inputs: fuels data being used, the appropriateness of the RAWS from which fuel moistures are calculated, and the validity of the weather forecast data.

The following table lists the inputs required for the automated WFDSS Basic Fire Behavior model:

Input	Source	Editable Value
Landscape data	WFDSS	Can choose to use the default LANDFIRE 2010 1.2.0 landscape data source or choose a different data source from the Incident Information page (HOWEVER you may NOT edit).
Foliar Moisture Content	WFDSS default (100%)	Not Editable
Live fuel moistures	From the WFDSS-selected RAWS and based on the standard NFDRS algorithms	Not Editable
Weather observations (for 7-day fuel moisture conditioning of dead fuels)	Nearby RAWS*	Not Editable
Weather forecast information for fire behavior predictions	National Digital Forecast Data (NDFD) based on the RAWS location	Not Editable
Wind speed and direction forecast information for fire behavior predictions (wind speed and direction values are used as inputs to generate gridded winds)	National Digital Forecast Data (NDFD) based on the center of the user-defined landscape extent	Can change: wind speed wind direction
Landscape extent (extent of analysis area)	User-defined	Draw the landscape extent (normally no more than 5-6 miles per side)
Name of analysis	User-defined	Name the analysis
Analysis Date and Time	User-defined	Enter the analysis date and time

 * WFDSS chooses the nearby RAWS in the following way:  The center of the analysis area is used as a starting point.  Then, a horizontal/vertical distance algorithm sorts the RAWS stations within a given area.  Next, WFDSS iterates through the list until the first station is found with the requisite fuel moisture / weather information (continuous hourly observations).

In This Section WFDSS Automated Basic Fire Behavior (BFB)

See Also Automated BFB - What it is Automated BFB - What it does (outputs) Automated BFB - What it means (interpretation) Automated BFB - Why use it - (potential uses) Automated BFB - Assumptions and Limitations

Reference Field Descriptions Glossary Resources Spatial Data Reference Landscape Data Source Reference Relative Risk Reference Organization Assessment Reference Fire Behavior Reference About the WFDSS Decision Editors