Data Products ›› LANDFIRE Fuel Product Descriptions

Forest Canopy Base Height

The Forest Canopy Base Height (CBH) layer describes the average height from the ground to a forest stand's canopy bottom. Specifically, it is the lowest height in a stand at which there is a sufficient amount of forest canopy fuel to propagate fire vertically into the canopy. Geospatial data describing canopy base height provides information for fire behavior models, such as FARSITE (Finney 1998), to determine areas in which a surface fire is likely to transition to a crown fire (Van Wagner 1977, 1993). These data are provided for forested areas only. The units of measurement for the LANDFIRE Canopy Base Height layer are meters * 10.

LF_1.1.0 (Refresh 2008) – LF_1.1.0 used LF_1.0.5 (Refresh 2001) data as a launching point to incorporate disturbance and its severity, both managed and natural, which occurred on the landscape after 2001. Specific examples of disturbance are: fire, vegetation management, weather, and insect and disease. The final disturbance data used in LF_1.1.0 are the result of several efforts that include data derived in part from remotely sensed land change methods, Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS), and the LANDFIRE Refresh events data call. Vegetation growth was modeled where both disturbance and non-disturbance occurred.

Refer to LF_1.1.0 CBH metadata to learn about new methods used to create the CBH layer for LF_1.1.0.

LF_1.0.5 (Refresh 2001) – Imagery used in LF_1.0.0 (LANDFIRE National) covered a span of years, and because of this, several large wildland fires are not represented in the data. LF_1.0.5 data ensure wildland fires through 2001 are represented.

Additional improvements found in LF_1.0.5 include resolving inconsistencies along the international borders and updating aspects of the following: riparian and wetlands areas, agricultural and urban vegetation types as burnable, and adjusting the extent of barren and water land cover types.

Refer to LF_1.0.5 CBH metadata to learn about new methods used to create the CBH layer for LF_1.0.5.

LF_1.0.2 (Improvements) – With the release of LANDFIRE National data products, several areas of improvements were identified. In 2009, leadership direction and funding were provided to implement these improvements for the conterminous states. Improvements included resolving inconsistencies along the international borders and updating aspects of the following: riparian and wetlands areas, agricultural and urban vegetation types as burnable, and adjusting the extent of barren and water land cover types. Change to the LANDFIRE data products occurred only in areas affected by the improvements listed above. Surface and canopy fuel assignments were derived for all of the new existing vegetation types using existing fuel model mapping rules. Final fuel layers were created using a hierarchical merge process, which imbedded updated pixels over the existing values.

LF_1.0.1 (Rapid Refresh) – These data were refined for western zones based upon comments obtained from fuel and fire behavior specialists. Moreover, these data were updated to reflect the effects from recent (1999 to 2007) wildland fires. (Obtain LF_1.0.1 Fire Perimeter Data.)

LF_1.0.0 (National) – CBH is generated using a predictive modeling approach that relates Landsat imagery and spatially explicit biophysical gradients to calculated values of CBH from field training sites.

Metadata:
LF_1.1.0 (Refresh 2008)
LF_1.0.5 (Refresh 2001)
LF_1.0.2 (Improvements)
LF_1.0.1 (Rapid Refresh)
LF_1.0.0 (National)
LF_1.0.0 (National Alaska)


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Finney, M. A. 1998. FARSITE: Fire Area Simulator-model development and evaluation. Res. Pap. RMRS-RP-4, Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 47 p.

Van Wagner, C. E. 1977. Conditions for the start and spread of crownfire. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 7:23-24.

Van Wagner, C. E. 1993. Prediction of crown fire behavior in two stands of jack pine. Canadian Journal Forest Research 23:442-449.