TRG Chapter 8: Outputs

Owned by James Walker
Last updated: May 13, 2020
5 min read

Download the whole TRG as a PDF

Table of contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Development philosophy of PHOENIX
  3. The Fire Grid
  4. Inputs
  5. Fire Behaviour
  6. Fire Perimeter Propagation
  7. Asset Impact
  8. Outputs

8. Outputs

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PHOENIX produces a wide range of outputs. Vector perimeter isochrones are a standard output, produced both as ESRI Shapefiles and Google Earth KMZ files. In addition, a wide range of gridded cell values about fire characteristics can be outputted in various formats. A sample is provided in Table 10. These can be presented as means, maximums or ranges for each Fire Grid cell. This information is provided over a range of file formats including:

  • Shapefiles containing ignition points and incremental fire perimeter isochrones as well as StaticGrid;
  • Image formats (PNG and PGW files) of fire perimeter;
  • ASCII text files viewable in text editors and in GIS;
  • XML files containing state-wide summary data viewable in MS-Excel or MS-Access; and
  • CSV files containing gridded data viewable in MS-Excel or MS-Access.


Table 10. Gridded PHOENIX RapidFire outputs

Attribute

Definition

Time Burnt (hours since the fire started)

Time of first impact

Effective Rate of Spread

Rate of spread perpendicular to the fire perimeter

Effective Intensity (kW/m)

Intensity based on the Effective Rate of Spread

FDI

Fire Danger Index

Spotting Distance (m)

Spotting distance travelled

Spotting Time (hours since the fire started)

Time that spot fire was initiated

Time Suppressed (hours since the fire started)

Time the fire in the cell was suppressed

Suppression Rate (m/h)

Suppression rate

Suppression Efficiency (%)

Suppression efficiency achieved

Went Out (hours since the fire started)

Time the fire in the cell went out

The input variables relating to each grid cell (i.e. fuel load, weather at the time of burning, slope, aspect) are also provided as standard gridded outputs. KMZ files are time-stamped, providing for progression animation within Google Earth. In addition, an animated visualisation of the fire plume is generated in KMZ format, with values derived from the ember convection module. All outputs are spatially referenced and can be displayed in standards software packages. Alternative run modes of PHOENIX produce additional outputs not described here.

Refer to the PHOENIX user guide for more information.


There are five (5) simulation types (Figure 37): General, Batch, Grid Analysis, Batch All Cells and Batch Ascii Grids. There is also a Static Grid mode where every cell is assumed to burn simultaneously, but this does not include aspects of dynamic fire behaviour, such as ember density and convective strength, included in the simulations. The outputs from each simulation type differ.

Figure 37. Simulation types

  • General: run a single fire or multiple fires at the same time
  • Batch: is designed to run combinations of a set of fires, under a set of fire histories, with a set of fire suppression scenarios and a set of road and firebreak scenarios. These conditions are specified in the 'Advanced' > 'Batch Parameters' table.
  • Grid Analysis: is used to do an asset impact analysis of a single or grid of fires in the landscape. Only cells with an asset impact are saved for further analysis outside PHOENIX and only summary statistics are saved.
  • Batch_All Cells: is similar to the Grid Analysis process except all cells from all fires are saved in CSV files for further analysis (can be massive amounts of data).
  • Batch_AsciiGrids: as for Grid Analysis except ASCII grids for flame height and intensity are produced for each fire (can be massive amounts of data).
  • Static Grid: fire, fuel, weather and terrain characteristics for each cell within a specified area are calculated without including the dynamic aspects of fire behaviour. This mode is similar to a lot of older bushfire risk analyses undertaken with GIS analysis.

Broadly speaking, PHOENIX provides four types of output:

  • Perimeter information as isochrones (isochrones are representations of the fire perimeter at a specified time);
  • Grid cell values (provided in various file formats) recorded against the Fire Grid for a single fire event ('General' and 'Batch' simulation types);
  • Grid cell values recorded against the Fire Grid resulting from a grid of ignition points; and
  • 'Fire Impact' values recorded against each unique ignition point and time.

General simulation outputs for each Fire Grid cell are:

  • Cell ID;
  • Slope (degrees);
  • Elevation (m);
  • Aspect (degrees);
  • Grassland equivalent fuel load (t/ha);
  • Combined equivalent surface fine fuel load (t/ha);
  • Equivalent bark fine fuel load (t/ha);
  • Equivalent elevated fine fuel load (t/ha);
  • Total equivalent fine fuel load (t/ha);
  • Road Proximity (m);
  • Effective disruption width (m);
  • Time burnt relative to ignition time (hrs);
  • Fire rate of spread (m/h);
  • Fireline intensity (kW/m);
  • Time when spotting occurred in cell relative to ignition time (hrs);
  • Maximum potential distance of spotting from cell (m);
  • Ember density (#/m2);
  • Time from ignition before fire was suppressed in this cell (hrs);
  • Time fire self-extinguished in this cell relative to ignition time (hrs);
  • Average flame length in cell (m);
  • Average flame depth in cell (m);
  • Maximum convective strength in cell (MW);
  • Fine Fuel Moisture Content (% ODW);
  • Drought Factor (equivalent to fine fuel availability factor) (0-10);
  • Maximum Forest Fire Danger Index when fire in cell (0-200+);
  • Highest value asset type in cell (1-99);
  • Wind speed while fire was in cell (km/h);
  • Wind direction while fire was in cell (degrees);
  • Direction of fire spread in cell as it impacted assets (degrees);
  • Theoretical house loss probability in cell (0-1); and
  • X and Y map coordinate of cell centre.

Grid Analysis outputs for each Fire Grid cell are:

  • Cell ID;
  • Times Burnt;
  • Times Impacted;
  • Average Fire Intensity (kW/m);
  • Average Flame Height (m);
  • Times Impacted by Embers;
  • Times Impacted by Convection;
  • Average Convective Strength (MW);
  • Average House Loss Probability;
  • Asset Type 1 loss;
  • Asset Type 2 loss;
  • Asset Type 3 loss;
  • Asset Type x loss (depending on the number of different asset types impacted); and
  • X and Y map coordinate of cell centroid.

Grid Analysis outputs for each Fire are:

  • Fire ID;
  • Fire Scenario ID;
  • Start Time (ignition);
  • End Time (extinction or end of simulation);
  • Self-Extinction time;
  • Peak FFDI (Forest Fire Danger Index);
  • Fire Area (ha);
  • Data Extent Exceeded (True/False);
  • Cumulative Asset Type 1 loss;
  • Cumulative Asset Type 2 loss;
  • Cumulative Asset Type 3 loss; and
  • Cumulative Asset Type x loss (depending on the number of different asset types impacted by the fire up to 99).

Static Grid outputs for Fire Grid cells are:

  • Cell ID;
  • Slope (degrees);
  • Elevation (m);
  • Aspect (degrees);
  • Grassland equivalent fuel load (t/ha);
  • Combined equivalent surface fine fuel load (t/ha);
  • Equivalent bark fine fuel load (t/ha);
  • Equivalent elevated fine fuel load (t/ha);
  • Total equivalent fine fuel load (t/ha);
  • Road Proximity (m);
  • Fire rate of spread (m/h);
  • Fireline intensity (kW/m);
  • Maximum potential distance of spotting from cell (m);
  • Average flame length in cell (m);
  • Average flame depth in cell (m);
  • Fine Fuel Moisture Content (% ODW);
  • Drought Factor (equivalent to fine fuel availability factor) (0-10);
  • Maximum Forest Fire Danger Index when fire in cell (0-200+);
  • Highest value asset type in cell (1-99);
  • Wind speed while fire was in cell (km/h);
  • Wind direction while fire was in cell (degrees);
  • Direction of fire spread in cell as it impacted assets (degrees) = wind direction in Static Grid;
  • Theoretical house loss probability in cell (0-1) (excludes the effect of ember density and convective strength in Static Grid); and
  • Time of modelled fire.