Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team

Developing FCCS Fuelbeds For Mexico

FCCS fuelbeds for Mexico will be developed in this highly collaborative project.

• Vegetation data for initial development of FCCS fuelbeds across Mexico will come from LANDSAT data, forest inventory data, and ground data collection.
• Over 100 fuelbeds will be built from using the natural fuels photo series (Mexico, Borderlands, California, Brazil, and others) by University of Guadalajara in cooperation with others.
• Fifteen new photo sites are being developed for tropical forests
• Additional data will be culled from a variety of studies of fuels conducted in or near Mexico.
• A companion project, Development of Decision Products for Spatial Quantification of Carbon Emissions from Wildfire for North America, will take these fuelbeds and map them across Mexico.

Fuelbeds will be reviewed by both FERA and the University of Guadalajara. They can then be used

• As a tool for fire management planning and implementing new fire
  policies
• As a comprehensive fuel and fire characteristics database and GIS layer, specific to Mexico's ecosystems, to improve the xxx of the current fire risk system.
• To improved accounting of carbon fluxes from forest practices and forest fires
• For ecological assessment of Mexico's Natural Protected Areas
• To assist local fire managers in designing fire management plans

Estimated Completion Date: December 2009

Project Lead: Ernesto Alvarado

Collaborators: University of Guadalajara, Mexican Forest Service, and Mexico's Natural Protected Areas