Wildland Fire Engineering
Wildland fires are both a natural part of Earth’s ecosystem and a destructive force that devastates people and the environment. This course will present an introduction to the global problem of wildland fire starting with the drivers of destructive wildfire: fire exclusion, expansion in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), and climate change. The basic phenomena that control wildland fires including, ignition, fire spread, suppression, crown fires, smoke generation, hazard and risk analysis, the interplay with fire ecology, etc. will be covered. A specific focus of the course will be on the science, technology and applications engineers use to predict, prevent, detect, and suppress wildland fires.
Topics
- The course objectives are to provide students with the knowledge necessary to work within the highly interdisciplinary field of wildland fire, including a broad understanding of the social, ecological, and economic factors influencing wildland fire, a firm understanding of the underlying mechanisms affecting wildland fire spread, and an ability to apply the tools necessary to predict the spread rate and intensity of wildland fires and assess protection of WUI communities.
- After completing this course, students will have an entirely new perspective on the problem of wildland fire and a new breadth of tools to apply to risk analyses, suppression, and to mitigate the effect of wildfires on communities. Knowing the major problems affecting the field of wildland fire Know some environmental, ecological, social, economic and political factors affecting the field Understand the underlying mechanisms driving wildland fires Predict the spread rate and intensity of wildland fires Assess protection of WUI communities
Official catalogue course objectives and student learning outcomes
Prerequisites & course information
{'preRequisiteCourse': '1144961', 'concurrentPrerequisit': False}; {'preRequisiteCourse': '1144962', 'concurrentPrerequisit': False}; {'preRequisiteCourse': '1145002', 'concurrentPrerequisit': False}; {'preRequisiteCourse': '1147021', 'concurrentPrerequisit': False}; {'preRequisiteCourse': '1145001', 'concurrentPrerequisit': False}
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027