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Canadian Large Fire Database (LFDB)

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Version 02, released 13 May 2002

Fires greater than 200 ha for all of Canada for the period 1959–1999, inclusive.

Introduction

The Large Fire Database (LFDB) is a compilation of forest fire data from all Canadian agencies, including provinces, territories, and Parks Canada. The data set includes only fires greater than 200 hectares in final size; these represent only a few percent of all fires but account for most of the area burned (usually more than 97%). Therefore, the LFDB can be used for spatial and temporal analyses of landscape-scale fire impacts. For information on smaller fires (up to 200 ha in final size), please contact individual fire agencies.

Collaborations

We strongly suggest that users of this database work with one of the agencies. For Canada-wide analyses, contact members of the Fire Research Group at the Canadian Forest Service:

• Mike Flannigan
• John Little

For analyses for a single province or territory or for Parks Canada, contact the appropriate agency. Links to these can be found through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

There are many caveats for this data set, and collaboration with the agencies will help avoid difficulties in interpretation. Previously published analyses are listed in the Reference section below.

Data Format

The data file is comma-delimited ASCII, with each row representing a record for a given fire.

The first row is a header row:

• Year, Month, Day, Province, Fire_ID, Latitude, Longitude, Start_Date, Detect_Date, Cause, Size, Fire_Region, Fire_Zone, EcoZone, EcoRegion, EcoDistrict

The field format is given in the following table.

Acknowledgements

The database is a large collaborative effort by all Canadian fire agencies. We thank the many individuals who contributed to this effort, including fire crews, field personnel, photo interpreters, pilots, digitizers, and analysts. Compilation of the Canada-wide database was partially supported by the Canadian government programs of ENFOR (ENergy from the FORest),the Program on Energy Research and Development, the Climate Change Action Fund, and Action Plan 2000.

References

The following papers present analyses of this database. We encourage users to read these before attempting further analyses.

• Amiro, B.D.; Todd, J.B.; Wotton, B.M.; Logan, K.A.; Flannigan, M.D.; Stocks, B.J.; Mason, J.A.; Martell, D.L.; Hirsch, K.G. 2001. Direct carbon emissions from Canadian forest fires, 1959 to 1999. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 31:512–525.
  
• Stocks, B.J.; Mason, J.A.; Todd, J.B.; Bosch, E.M.; Wotton, B.M.; Amiro, B.D.; Flannigan, M.D.;Hirsch, K.G.; Logan, K.A.; Martell, D.L.; Skinner, W.R. 2002. Large forest fires in Canada, 1959–1997. Journal of Geophysical Research (107,8149,doi:10.1029/2001 JD000484).