FETM -- Fire Emissions Tradeoff Model

DESCRIPTION

The Fire Emissions Tradeoff Model (FETM) modeled and determined policy trade-offs associated with broadscale prescribed fire activities.   It has been superceded by the TOM/FETM Programmatic Fuels Management Trade-off Model (formerly Fire Emissions Trade-off Model) .

As described in "A Risk Based Comparison of Potential Fuel Treatment Tradeoff Models", TOM/FETM is a stochastic, dynamic, non spatial model designed to simulate the expected trade-off between wildland fire and prescribed fire emissions, acreage burned, and fire intensity levels under different fire weather conditions, land management strategies, and wildland fire protection policies. The results are assessed by fuel condition classes (FCC) without regard to how those FCCs are distributed in space.

The model links the user automatically to the appropriate PCHA and IIAA database files containing the weather station information, fire management zone (FMZ) breakpoint spread table data, and other Administrative unit- and FMZ-specific information needed to run the model. The FCCs may be characterized in terms of four qualitative descriptors: predominant vegetation type, age class, fuel loading class, and activity class. The current version of the model contains 206 default FCCs and their associated fuel profiles. Transition matrices describing the probabilities of moving from one FCC to another must be developed for each disturbance type and natural succession. The model computes changes in the acreage distribution over time as a function of the various transition matrices.

SCALE AND AREAS OF APPLICATION

SURVEY COMMENTS

No survey respondents mentioned using FETM.

BENEFITS (PROS)

COSTS (CONS)

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