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Fire Ecology and Fire Management

Module description

Wildland fires pose a great tension between man, ecosystems and the balance of our planet, not least because large, dangerous, uncontainable wildfires are becoming more frequent. Many of these fires burn at the wildland-urban-interface, leading to loss of life, homes and infrastructure. However, this picture is set against the need for fire to maintain the health of many ecosystems, which provides those researching and managing fires with a huge challenge. As we look to change our ecosystems via rewilding, ecosystem restoration and use the natural landscape in carbon capture towards meeting NetZero we alter wildfire risk. How do we balance the natural requirement of wildland fire with the need to preserve life infrastructure and maintain functioning healthy ecosystems?

This module will provide a fascinating overview of the ecology of fire and its role in maintaining ecosystems, how weather and fuel types interact to determine the nature and behaviour of fire and will be your essential guide to current fire management challenges.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module you will:

• be shown that wildfires have two faces - they create and destroy, but are an essential part of the Earth system;
• taught what controls variations in fire behaviour, where you will learn how to make predictions of fire behaviour for different weather conditions and different fuel (vegetation) types;
• learn about current management challenges for different countries (including the UK) and gain the ability to consider how you might approach managing fires when confronted with different fire behaviour (fire suppression versus prescribed fire requirements);
• learn to critique and consider the challenges of managing fire for healthy ecosystems and also safe communities.

In this module I aim to enhance your employability by challenging you to learn and assess information in a range of ways. You will be introduced and guided through the current state-of-the-art in a series of lectures, you will be able to explore how a simple computer model can inform you about fire behaviour and how to use these data to determine actions you might take, enhancing your analytical and decision-making skills. You will visit a fire prone area in the UK and learn about assessing the landscape for fire risk. You will learn critical thinking that applies to policy-making decisions by considering the usage of fire to control fuel loads in key UK ecosystems that is a huge topic of ongoing debate at present in UK politics and land management.

You will be taught by Professor Claire Belcher one of the UKs leading wildFIRE scientists and director of the multi-million euro University of Exeter wildFIRE Lab. My research addresses new challenges in fire sciences where I work with members of the UK Forestry Commission, Natural England, GWCT and the Moorland Association to better understand the effects of fire on ecosystems. My team and I utilise the state-of-the-art experimental fire lab to explore the flammability of fuels and also undertake field scale prescribed and experimental fires in both the UK and USA. As such this module will provide you with information taken from the forefront of the field and is the only module of its kind in the UK that can put you in touch with research frontiers in the field of wildland fire.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Explain in detail the ecology of fire (fire effects on ecosystem and how ecosystems themselves determine fire activity
• 2. Describe and explain the different types of fire and the differences in their likely effects
• 3. Critically evaluate what it means to fight fire and be capable of making fire behaviour predictions
• 4. Discuss the range of challenges in managing wildland fires, including use of prescribed fire

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Describe the debates surrounding fire in the management of ecosystems
• 6. Generate your own knowledge and gain understanding from a range of disciplinary practices, including self-study, laboratory classes and professional presentation skills

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Consider the importance of making management decisions that may act at the policy-driving level
• 8. Convey complex information in simple terms and use this to debate and guide future decision-making

Syllabus plan

Until you have seen and experienced a wildfire it is hard to appreciate the challenges that land managers and fire fighters face.  ‘Fire Ecology and Fire Management’ will combine a mixture of lectures, that seek to introduce to a large range of wildfire challenges, with laboratory practical classes and a visit to a burned area that will allow you to understand the factors that influence fire behaviour and provide the skills you need to make fire behaviour predictions (using software used by real fire managers). These practical classes will provide you the key skills with which to undertake part of the coursework for GEO3241.

You will learn about:

• The ecology of fire.
• The distribution of wildfires across the globe, the different types of fire and how to understand fire behaviour.
• What is it like to be on the fireline and how fire can be managed with fire.
• How historical land management practices have influenced wildfires for good and bad over the long term.
• Debates surrounding the use of prescribed fire for fire risk versus ecosystem health.
• The current and future challenge for fire management in the UK in regard to biodiversity, restoration and Net Zero challenges

In your coursework you will be challenged to:

• Learn how to view fuel in the landscape and assess a landscape for its fire risk during the field trip.
• Create a fire risk and fire management analysis for a projected land management project using your fire behaviour modelling skills and make a short ARC GiS story map about it.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to sit a further examination or submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading: Mainly through directed and other reading of primary science literature and relevant wildland fire management data sources. Details will be provided during lectures and practicals.

The following may also be useful (but should not be considered the module texts):

• Belcher, C (Ed) (2013) Fire Phenomena and the Earth System an Interdisciplinary Guide to Fire Science. Wiley-Blackwell
• Belcher et al., (2021) UK wildfires and their climate challenges. Expert Led Report Prepared for the third Climate Change Risk Assessment
• https://www.ukclimaterisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/UK-Wildfires-and-their-Climate-Challenges.pdf
• Natural England - The causes and prevention of wildfire on heathlands and peatlands in England http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/4741162353295360

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page

Key words search

Wildfire, fire management, prescribed fire, fire behaviour, fire ecology