11.B - Forest Fires

Last updated on 09 Oct 2018 06:49 (cf. Authors)

Short Description

NFR-Code	Name of category	Method	AD	EF	Key Category
11.B	Forest Fires	CS, T2	CS	D	not included in key category analysis

Category 11.B – Forest fires include emissions from forest fires occurring naturally or caused by humans.

In Germany’s forests prescribed burning is not applied. Therefore, all forest fires are categorized as wildfires. - Note that emissions reported here are not accounted for the national totals.

Methods

For calculating the emissions of wildfires a country specific Tier2 approach was used. The mass of carbon emitted M(C) was calculated using the adapted equation follows the methodology of Seiler and Crutzen (1980) [4].

(1)

\begin{equation} M(C) = 0.45 * A * B * β \end{equation}

where:
0.45 = average fraction of carbon in fuel wood;
A = forest area burnt in [m²];
B = mean above-ground biomass of fuel material per unit area in [kg/m²];
β = burning efficiency (fraction burnt) of the above-ground biomass.

The data on forest areas burnt for the period 1990 to 2016 have been taken from the German forest fire statistic (BLE, 2017) [1] managed by the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food. The mean above-ground biomass was derived for each year by linear extrapolation and interpolation between the German National Forest Inventorys of 1987, 2002, 2012 (Bundeswaldinventuren 1987, 2002, 2012) and the inventory study 2008 (Inventurstudie 2008). Pursuant to König (2007) [3], 80% of the forest fires in Germany are surface fires and 20% crown fires. In accordance to the IPCC Good Practice Guidance for LULUCF (2003) a burning efficiency of 0.15 was used for surface fires and an efficiency of 0.45 was used for crown fires.

The emissions for the pollutants were calculated by multiplying the mass of carbon with the respective emission factors from table 3-3 (EMEP/EEA, 2013) [2].

For the calculation of particulate emissions (TSP, PM₁₀ and PM_2.5) the burnt biomass was multiplied with the respective emission factors from table 3-5 (EMEP/EEA, 2013). Those particulate emission factors have been estimated by averaging the emission factors from the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA, 1996) [5] methodology, since no better information is available. Those emission factors are assumed to be the same for all types of forest.

Black carbon is currently not measured in Germany and is therefore indicated with "NE".

Activity data

The data on forest areas burnt for the period 1990 to 2016 are based on the German forest fire statistic (BLE, 2017) managed by the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food.

Table 1: Area of forest burnt, in [ha]

1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
1,606	920	4,908	1,493	1,114	592	1,381	599	397	415	581	122	122	1,315
2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
274	183	482	256	539	757	522	214	269	199	120	526	283

Emission factors

For the year 2016 the estimated emission factors from table 2 were applied.

Table 2: Emission factors applied for 2016

Pollutant	EF2016 [kg/ha forest area burnt]
NOx	144.2
CO	5,142.0
NMVOC	454.0
SOx	34.6
NH3	38.9
TSP	817.0
PM10	528.6
PM2.5	432.5

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Bibliography

1. BLE (Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung), 2017: Waldbrandstatistik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland für das Jahr 2016, Bonn: 21 S.

2. EMEP/EEA, 2013: EMEP/EEA air pollutant emission inventory guidebook – 2013. 11.B Forest Fires.

3. König, H.-C., 2007. Waldbrandschutz - Kompendium für Forst und Feuerwehr. 1. Fachverlag Matthias Grimm, Berlin, 197 S.

4. Seiler, W., Crutzen P.J.: Estimates of gross and net fluxes of carbon between the biosphere and the atmosphere from biomass burning. Climate Change. 1980

5. USEPA, 1996: Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors Vol.1. Stationary, Point and Area Sources. Report AP-42 (fifth edition).