The UK routinely experiences wildfires, typically with spring and mid/late summer peak occurrences, though winter wildfires do occur (e.g. Marsden Moor, Feb 2019). In recent years, large-scale wildfire events in the UK have led to heightened concern in their behaviour and impacts.

Overarching project aim: to establish and test the scientific underpinning and key components required to build an effective, tailored UK fire danger rating system for use in establishing the likelihood and impact of current and future fire regimes.

The core objectives of the project are:
1) Produce UK fuel (i.e. flammable biomass) maps at the national, landscape and site-level, and to develop a site-level understanding of fuel structure;
2) Assess the moisture regimes in key fuel types across UK landscapes;
3) Determine flammability, energy content and ignitability of UK fuels to establish UK fuel models;
4) Determine the ranges of UK fire behaviour for key fuel types based on outputs from (1) – (3);
5) Identify impact hotspots and to model exemplar fire events using (4) and with consideration of assets and communities at risk under current and future climate scenarios.
6) Incorporate stakeholder knowledge and resources as an integral part of research delivery and impact generation.