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Factors influencing fire suppression success in the province of Quebec (Canada)
- Source :
- Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 49:531-542
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Canadian Science Publishing, 2019.
-
Abstract
- In the managed forest of Canada, forest fires are actively suppressed through efficient initial attack capability; however, the impact of different factors on the suppression success remains to be understood. The aim of this paper was to analyze the influence of operational suppression objectives (fire detection, initial attack, and fire control) along with fire intensity, fuel type, fire ignition cause, year, workload, and homogeneous fire regime zones on the achievement of the fire suppression objective (fire < 3 ha) using the Forest Fire Protection Agency of Quebec (SOPFEU) as a case study. The overall success of the suppression objective was very high (88%) over the study period (1994–2015). Both detection and control had significant effects on the suppression success through their interaction with fuel type, ignition cause, fire intensity, and zone variables. When the suppression objective was not achieved, final fire size was influenced by control, fuel type, fire intensity, and zone. The paper highlights the importance of the operational objectives and of regional differences for both fire suppression success and final fire size. Our results can help forest fire protection agencies to better understand their wildland fire suppression systems for a better adaptation to the upcoming fire regime changes. We gratefully acknowledge the Société de protection des forêts contre le feu (SOPFEU) and Mélanie Desrochers for providing the databases for the study. We thank Yan Boulanger and Steve Cumming for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this paper. The authors are thankful to Isabelle Lamarre for improving the quality of the English text. Research funding was provided by the New Forests European project to A. Cardil and by a postdoctoral research scholarship from the FRQNT (Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies) to M. Lorente.
- Subjects :
- Suppression objective
040101 forestry
Global and Planetary Change
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Ecology
Agroforestry
Quebec (Canada)
Fire management
Forestry
04 agricultural and veterinary sciences
Forest Fire Protection Agency
01 natural sciences
Incendis--Prevenció
Geography
Foc
Fire protection
0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
Wildland fire
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 12086037 and 00455067
- Volume :
- 49
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Canadian Journal of Forest Research
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e8db47bbdaf1b56db9f638d8c627cf7c