5th Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology and the 2nd International Wildland Fire Ecology and Fire Management Congress

Monday, 17 November 2003
BehavePlus fire modeling system, version 2: Overview
Patricia L. Andrews, USDA Forest Service Research, Missoula, MT; and C. D. Bevins
Poster PDF (264.2 kB)
The BehavePlus fire modeling system, version 2, is described. BehavePlus is used for training, predicting the growth of active fires, prescribed fire planning, and fuel hazard assessment. Primary fire modeling capabilities include surface fire spread and intensity, safety zone size, point source fire size and shape, fire containment, spotting distance, crown scorch height, tree mortality, and ignition probability. A dynamic palmetto-gallberry fuel model and three methods for weighting fire behavior in two fuel models are available. In addition to table and graph output, simple diagrams can be produced for fire size, containment, wind/slope/fire directions, and the fire characteristics chart. A new user’s guide serves as both a printed document and as online help for program operation. Supporting material includes a web site (www.fire.org) and a set of self-study tutorials covering operation of the program. Plans for continuing development of the BehavePlus program and supporting material are described.

Supplementary URL: http://www.fire.org