EGU General Assembly 2008
Session Programme Meeting Programme Personal Programme Search
 
Quick Search
Programme Groups
Union Symposia
Interdivision Sessions
Educational Symposia
Atmospheric Sciences
Biogeosciences
Climate: Past, Present, Future
Cryospheric Sciences
Earth & Space Science Informatics
Energy, Resources & the Environment
Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology
Geodesy
Geodynamics
Geomorphology
Geosciences Instrumentation & Data Systems
Hydrological Sciences
Isotopes in Geosciences: Instrumentation and Applications
Magnetism, Palaeomagnetism, Rock Physics & Geomaterials
Natural Hazards
Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics
Ocean Sciences
Planetary & Solar System Sciences
Seismology
Soil System Sciences
Solar-Terrestrial Sciences
Stratigraphy, Sedimentology & Palaeontology
Tectonics & Structural Geology
Medal Lectures
Great Debates in Geosciences
Short Courses
Keynote Lectures
Townhall Meetings
Division Business Meetings
Editorial Board Meetings
Union Meetings
Splinter Meetings
  Information - IS34 - NH8.4/BG2.16 Spatial and temporal patterns of wildfires: models, theory, and reality (co-organized by NH & BG; co-listed in SSS)

Event Information
Wildfires are the result of a large variety and number of interacting components, producing patterns that vary significantly both spatially and temporally. This session will examine models, theory, and empirical studies in wildfire research. We encourage submissions in any one or combination of these three main areas, and envision bringing together wildfire hazard managers, applied researchers, and theoreticians. Posters are also very much encouraged, as we plan to have both lively oral and poster sessions.

Preliminary List of Solicited Speakers
Wildfire Statistics: Implications for Ecology, Risk and Government Agency Reporting

Bruce D. Malamud
Department of Geography, King’s College London, UK

There is increasing evidence that wildfire burned areas satisfy power-law or other heavy-tailed frequency-size statistics. Although many in the academic communities are accepting heavy-tailed statistics, many government agencies still assume a thinner-tailed distributions (e.g. Gaussian) to describe the frequency-size distribution of burned areas. The choice of the statistical distribution used or assumed has many implications to both wildfire research (including wildfire models) and the reporting of wildfire statistics (e.g. ’average area’, number of fires burned) by government agencies.
In this paper we will present the frequency-size distributions for wildfires in
several regions worldwide, found to be robust power-laws, and the implications of these statistics to ecology, risk and the reporting of wildfire summary statistics by government agencies.

Co-Sponsorship

General Statement
The information contained hereafter has been compiled and uploaded by the Session Organizers via the "Organizer Session Form". The Session Organizers have therefore the sole responsibility that this information is true and accurate at the date of publication, and the conference organizer cannot accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made, and he makes no warranty, expressed or implied, with regard to the material published.



Back to Session Programme

 
 
 
 


©2002-2008 Copernicus Systems + Technology GmbH