A review of wildland fire spread modelling, 1990-present 2: Empirical and quasi-empirical models

In recent years, advances in computational power and spatial data analysis (GIS, remote sensing, etc) have led to an increase in attempts to model the spread and behaviour of wildland fires across the landscape. This series of review papers endeavours to critically and comprehensively review all types of surface fire spread models developed since 1990. This paper reviews models of an empirical or quasi-empirical nature. These models are based solely on the statistical analysis of experimentally obtained data with or without some physical framework for the basis of the relations. Other papers in the series review models of a physical or quasi-physical nature, and mathematical analogues and simulation models. The main relations of empirical models are that of wind speed and fuel moisture content with rate of forward spread. Comparisons are made of the different functional relationships selected by various authors for these variables.Comment: 22 pages + 7 pages references + 2 pages tables + 2 pages figures. Submitted to International Journal of Wildland Fir

A review of wildland fire spread modelling, 1990-present, 1: Physical and quasi-physical models

In recent years, advances in computational power and spatial data analysis (GIS, remote sensing, etc) have led to an increase in attempts to model the spread and behaviour of wildland fires across the landscape. This series of review papers endeavours to critically and comprehensively review all types of surface fire spread models developed since 1990. This paper reviews models of a physical or quasi-physical nature. These models are based on the fundamental chemistry and/or physics of combustion and fire spread. Other papers in the series review models of an empirical or quasi-empirical nature, and mathematical analogues and simulation models. Many models are extensions or refinements of models developed before 1990. Where this is the case, these models are also discussed but much less comprehensively.Comment: 31 pages + 8 pages references + 2 figures + 5 tables. Submitted to International Journal of Wildland Fir

Determination of Normal Fire Danger

Every forest executive responsible for the protection of forest lands is confronted with the task of planning fire control facilities and action adequate for his area. These facilities and actions will be greatly different in Vermont-the state without a drought-from those required in some other parts of the country where nearly every summer brings a two-month or longer drought. In the various sections o£ the United States the fire control facilities and action justifiable will vary according to what might be called the normal fire danger of that section. As the cost of these facilities and action may vary from a few mills to several cents per acre per year, it behooves the forest executive to plan carefully. I£ he underestimates fire danger, he is likely to get burned out. I£ he overestimates, and overspends, his boss will very likely burn him up.\u27\u2

Sociological Shackles on Forestry

Few people, even foresters, think of forestry as influenced by sociological knowledge, principles, or activity. Actually, the practice of forestry is not only for the development of society; it is also being retarded by a lack of sociological concepts which the sociologists, not foresters, should enunciate

Quantificational variability and the genesis of English headed wh-relatives

English headed wh-relatives developed from Old English free hw-relatives, but many descriptive grammars associate free hw-relatives primarily with generalizing interpretations quite unlike the standard semantics for headed relatives. We demonstrate that these generalizing interpretations are reducible to factors external to the free relative itself, and that these external factors are less common with clause-final free hw-relatives. Clause-final free hw-relatives are more likely to be interpreted as definite, which brings them closer to typical interpretation of headed relatives

Constructions, Word Grammar, and grammaticalization

Abstract In this paper, I explore the hypothesis that constructions — here understood primarily as the dependencies of Word Grammar — can undergo systematic change, sometimes partly due to the effects of the grammaticalization of a lexical item or class of lexical items. I argue that the development of will as a future tense marker in English involves the development of a new construction where two separate syntactic items are associated with a single event in the semantics. I also look at the loss of the impersonal construction in English, where it has been argued that the change is driven by an increase in the schematicity of the Transitive Construction, as well as having been argued that dative experiencers have been reclassified as subjects. I observe that it has also been noted that dative experiencers could function as subjects in earlier varieties of English, and suggest that this is an example of category strengthening.</jats:p