LANDFIRE Remap Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) American Samoa

The LANDFIRE 2016 Remap (LF Remap) Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) calculates fuelbed characteristics and their potential fire behavior and effects. LF defines fuelbed as: the inherent physical characteristics of fuel that contribute to fire behavior and effects (Riccardi et al. 2007). FCCS represents the composition of fuels, and features six horizontal fuel layers called stratums (canopy, shrubs, herbs, downed wood, litter and duff). FCCS can be used for predicting surface fire behavior, crown fire potential, and fuel availability. FCCS fuelbeds are included preloaded in the US Forest Service (USFS) Fuel and Fire Tools (FFT) application. LF collaborated with the Fire and Environmental Research Applications (FERA) team of the USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station for creation of the FCCS product. Rule-based methods for crosswalks and mapping FCCS fuelbeds are constructed from the LF Remap Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) product. The EVT-to-fuelbed crosswalk rules often allow for several possibilities for fuelbeds; expert opinion is used to assign the most representative fuelbed and to determine where additional fuelbed development is necessary. FCCS fuelbed mapping should be considered a starting point and customized to represent sampled fuels within a project area. FCCS is a capable fuels product, capable fuels calculate TSD assignments for disturbed areas using an effective year. For example, year 2020 fuels may be calculated for the year 2020. the new process considers all the existing disturbances included in LF Remap and adjusts the TSD for these to the effective year (2020 in the example), making the products "2020 capable fuels." More information about capable fuels can be found at https://www.landfire.gov/lf_remap.php. See the FCCS product page on the LF website for additional details https://www.landfire.gov/fccs.php.