Modifying Fuel Moisture (FSPro)

When needed, Fire Behavior Specialists modify fuel moistures in FSPro as part of the overall calibration process. ERC values are used as a surrogate for fuel moistures in FSPro and each ERC bin is assigned both dead and live fuel moisture values. In most instances, you will not need to make changes to the NFDRS calculated dead fuel moistures but the values should always be verified and adjusted if needed or another station investigated for use. Live fuel moistures are calculated using the Growing Season Index (GSI). Though GSI generally produces  live fuel moistures that are fairly close to reality, they too should be evaluated and adjusted as necessary. 

You can obtain current live herbaceous and live woody fuel moisture values from field-sampled data, WFAS greenness maps, the national fuel moisture sampling database, or other methods. Default GSI live fuel moistures values may need to be updated on the ERC classes page to reflect current seasonal values. You will input the most current live fuel moisture values in the bin that contains the current ERC for the selected weather station and you will redistribute the values in the bins above to generally be lower values and the bins below to generally be higher values.

FSPro is a long term modeling system and its important to remember that a long term analysis may cross multiple stages of plant development. As a result, select fuel moistures with care. No fuel moisture conditioning occurs with the FSPro simulation model therefore, fuel moistures are static for all fuel models and aspects for each iteration of the simulation, based on the ERC bin being modeled.

See also Modifying Fuel Moistures for Fire Behavior Analysis

To modify fuel moisture (FSPro)

1. Navigate to the Analysis for which you want to modify fuel moistures and select it from the Analysis List.
2. Click View Information > select the ERC Classes from the left window pane.
3. Locate the ERC bin (%ile row) that contains the current ERC value for the selected RAWS station (the current ERC value is found on the ERC Stream menu option after Generating ERC Classes and clicking Save on the ERC Classes menu option).
4. Modify the dead (1 Hour, 10 Hour, 100 Hour), live herbaceous (Herb FM), and live woody (Woody FM) fuel moisture values in this ERC bin using current information such as field-sampled data, WFAS greenness maps, the national fuel moisture sampling database, or other methods.
5. Adjust the remaining ERC bins up or down from the ERC bin you identified and modified with known values. For ERC bins above the one you modified with current information, you will generally lower the fuel moistures. For ERC bins below the one you modified, you will generally increase the fuel moistures.
6. Click Save.

Note: Keep in mind the length of your analysis and how realistically these values might change over that time period. Use information from local experts to create an acceptable range among the ERC bins.

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   Last updated on 6/25/2019 1:33:41 PM.

In This Section Modifying Fuel Moistures for Fire Behavior Analysts

See Also Modifying Foliar Moisture Content (BFB & STFB, NTFB) Modifying Initial Fuel Moisture (BFB & STFB, NTFB)

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