LANDFIRE 2024 Forest Canopy Height (CH) HI

LANDFIRE's 2024 Update (LF 2024) Forest Canopy Height (CH) describes the average height of the top of the canopy for a stand. CH is used in the calculation of Forest Canopy Bulk Density (CBD) and Base Height (CBH). CH supplies information for fire behavior models, such as FARSITE (Finney 1998), that can determine the starting point of embers in the spotting model, wind reductions, and the volume of crown fuels. To create CH, LANDFIRE’s Existing Vegetation Height (EVH) product must be produced first. EVH is a continuous scaled product which assigns height to all life forms in the LF data. CH is then derived from EVH by assigning bins of 13 height classes for fuel production and use in fire behavior software. In LF 2024, fuel products are created with LF 2016 Remap vegetation in areas that were un-disturbed in the last twenty years. To designate disturbed areas where CH is modified, the aggregated Annual Disturbance products from 2015 to 2024 in the LF Fuel Disturbance (FDist) product are used. All existing disturbances between 2015-2024are represented in LF 2024, and the products are intended to be used in 2025 (the year of release). When using any product from the LF 2024 fuel product suite, users should consider adjusting fuel layers for disturbances that occurred after the end of the 2024 fiscal year (after October 1st, 2024). Disturbances that occurred after the end of the 2024 fiscal year are not accounted for within LF 2024 fuel products.