The unit covers and emphasizes on: Physical and biological process of fire and the role of fire in the ecology and management of forest systems. Current issues in fire management for forests in Fiji and areas from around the world, understand the fundamentals behind forest fire ignition and spread, and concepts of fire ecology to predict the effects of fire on the diversity of ecosystems. Basic aspects of combustion in forest fires, temperature, velocity, species concentration, and flame height, premixed and diffusion flames, extinction flames & scaling flames, spreading flames, structure of flame base combustion chemistry & smoke; fuel chemistry & combustion, smoke production, minimizing smoke production, water relations of forest fuels; forest fuels, fuel moisture relationships, moisture relationships, moisture content estimation, wild land fire spread models; head fire rate of spread, smoldering, whole fire shape, fire spread model, fire plumes, plumes above fires in a cross wind, coupling atmospheric & fire models; vorticity dynamics in a fire, coupling between atmosphere & fire, elements of fire modeling, wild fire behavior forest fire in Fiji; studying the forest fire operations in Fiji Pine Limited, activities and behavior of fire in the Western division’s pine plantation climate, weather, & area burned; weather and area burned, future warning and area burnt, lightning and forest fires; lightening, interaction between lightning & fuels, how ignition occurs, smoke, lightning, and cloud microphysics, duff consumption; characteristics of duff, flaming combustion, smoldering combustion, fire effects on trees; effects of fire on the tree bole, effects of fire on canopy components, Root necrosis due to fire, Tree mortality due to fire, forest fire control; relationships between fire & forest growth, assessing fire impacts, forest fire control organization, level of fire protection planning. Evaluation methods include assignments, short tests, quizzes, presentations, and class participation.
- Teacher: Joshua Young