Austrian Forest Fire Research Initiative
- Boden und Landökosysteme
- Wasser - Atmosphäre - Umwelt
- Lebensraum und Landschaft
- Nachwachsende Rohstoffe und neue Technologien
- Forschungscluster "Globaler Wandel"
- Forschungscluster "Nachhaltigkeit"
Abstract
Austrian forests do not fulfil the characteristics of fire prone ecosystems, nor were they heavily fire-impacted so far. Due to the debate on likely climate change it is hypothesized, that the risk of forest fires as potential disturbance agent will increase in coming years and decades here too. In this context the study design of this Austrian Forest Fire Research Initiative (AFFRI) encompasses two major objectives (i) to identify Forest Fire “hot spots” in Austria in dependence of vegetation, climate and location, and (ii) to develop a fire-vegetation simulator for Austrian conditions. It is planned to find out where and why there exist potential forest fire “hot spots” in Austria, and if there is an increase of the probability for expansion under the consideration of the effects of global warming. This includes the consideration of fire weather options and topo-climatological aspects, as well as the classification of forest fuels for both, the more fire-sensitive forest types and for more fire-endangered railway sections, especially in the Alps and its foothills. In order to describe forest behaviour we will do a comparative assessment of two contrasting fire modelling approaches. The hybrid 3D-patch model PICUS v1.41, which has been particularly developed for Austrian forest conditions will be extended by a fire risk and fire spread module and compared with Fire-BGC, a model successfully tested for North-American conditions. We aim at capturing the driving factors for fire behaviour in mountain forests in order to evaluate the fire-vegetation simulator with selected fire cases. In that context a scenario analysis will be done to explore the interaction of management and a changing climate according to (i) the effects of different management regimes on fire behaviour and (ii) the effects of climate change scenarios on fire behaviour.
- Forest Fire
- disturbances
- Globaler Wandel
Project staff
Harald Vacik
Ao.Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Harald Vacik
harald.vacik@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-91312
BOKU Project Leader
05.05.2008 - 04.11.2012
Hartmut Gossow
Em.Univ.Prof. Dr.rer.nat. Hartmut Gossow
hartmut.gossow@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-83216
Project Staff
05.05.2008 - 04.11.2012
Hubert Hasenauer
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. DDr.h.c. Hubert Hasenauer
hubert.hasenauer@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-91301, 91311
Sub Projectleader
05.05.2008 - 04.11.2012
Manfred Josef Lexer
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Manfred Josef Lexer
mj.lexer@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-91316
Sub Projectleader
05.05.2008 - 04.11.2012
Werner Schneider
Univ.-Prof. i.R. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Werner Schneider
werner.schneider@boku.ac.at
Sub Projectleader
05.05.2008 - 04.11.2012
Christopher Stuart Eastaugh
Dr. Christopher Stuart Eastaugh MSc.
Project Staff
05.05.2008 - 04.11.2012
Herbert Formayer
Assoc. Prof. Priv.-Doz. Mag. Dr. Herbert Formayer
herbert.formayer@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81415
Project Staff
05.05.2008 - 04.11.2012
Mortimer Müller
Dipl.-Ing. Dr.rer.nat. Mortimer Müller
mortimer.mueller@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-91318
Project Staff
05.05.2008 - 04.11.2012
Stephan Pietsch
Mag. Dr. Stephan Pietsch
stephan.pietsch@boku.ac.at
Project Staff
05.05.2008 - 04.11.2012
Rupert Seidl
Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Rupert Seidl
rupert.seidl@boku.ac.at
Project Staff
05.05.2008 - 04.11.2012
BOKU partners
External partners
Oesterreichische Bundesforste AG
Dr. Susanne Langmair-Kovács
partner