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Forest Canopy Cover Appears High: External review has suggested that LANDFIRE forest canopy cover estimates are too high.

Background:

Some external review suggests LANDFIRE forest canopy cover (CC) estimates are too high. This is difficult to verify given the lack of reliable field-based canopy cover observations in forest systems, but the effect on potential fire behavior can be substantial.

Advice:

Reduction in LANDFIRE forest canopy cover should be performed on a case-by-case basis. In general, we recommend reducing canopy cover more intensely on the higher end than on the lower of the potential range in an area. One option is to reduce canopy cover by 30% between 95 - 55% and by 15% between 25 – 45%. This can be easily implemented in Spatial Analyst, an ArcGis extension, using the following syntax; using Mapping Zone 10 (Z10) as an example:

where Z10_CCred is the output reduced canopy cover grid, and z10_CCorig is the original LANDFIRE canopy cover layer

Z10_CCred = int(ceil(con([z10_CCorig] >= 25 & [z10_CCorig] <= 45, [z10_CCorig] * 0.85, con([z10_CCorig] > 45, [z10_CCorig] * 0.7, [z10_CCorig]))))

NOTE: Regardless of the technique used, be sure to not alter the values of 0 percent canopy cover. If this value is altered, unintended fire behavior may result when using the LANDFIRE fuel data suite.

Conditions vary and data should be evaluated prior to use for fire behavior analyses in new situations.

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