Site Parameters - UVAFME/UVAFME_model GitHub Wiki
The UVAFME site parameters are read into the model via the UVAFME2018_site.csv and the UVAFME2018_sitelist.csv.
Sitelist file
The sitelist file sets up the sites to be run in a simulation, as well as site-specific parameters that you may want to change on the fly. This setup allows the sites to be parameterized with "base" conditions in the site file, and then run with different conditions via the sitelist file. You can also run the same site multiple times with different altered parameters via the sitelist file.
The sitelist file must have the site IDs of each site to be run present in the site column (first column). All other columns may be left blank to use the default/base parameters in the site file.
Note: make sure you set the blank columns as blank, not 'NA' or some other NA-signifying value as UVAFME will not be able to read this, and you will get an I/O Syntax Error.
Site file
The site file contains site-specific parameters for each site. The site column must match those set up in the sitelist file and in all other input files.
The current parameters are as follows:
| Column Number | Parameter Name | Description | Units | Potential Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | site | unique site ID | integer | user-defined |
| 2 | latitude | latitude of site | decimal degrees | site description; grid |
| 3 | longitude | longitude of site | decimal degrees | site description; grid |
| 4 | name | site name | character | site description; user-defined |
| 5 | region | site region (e.g. state, country, etc.) | character | site description; user-defined; map |
| 6 | elevation | elevation of site | meters | digital elevation model; site description |
| 7 | slope | slope of site | degrees | digital elevation model; site description |
| 8 | aspect | aspect of site | degrees | digital elevation model; site description |
| 9 | a_sat | saturation capacity of mineral (A) layer | volumetric (0 to 1) | site description; soil maps |
| 10 | a_fc | field capacity of mineral (A) layer | volumetric (0 to 1) | site description; soil maps |
| 11 | fire_prob | number of fires in 1000 years | 1000/FRI | fire history maps; literature; site descriptions |
| 12 | wind_prob | number of windthrow events in 1000 years | 1000/WRI | literature; site descriptions |
| 13 | gcm_year | year to start climate change | years | literature; site descriptions; fire history polygons |
Note that these columns must be in the correct order as shown above as UVAFME does not use column names to read in parameters, only column order. This also means that you can rename the columns as you see fit.
How To Parameterize??
There are a variety of sources you could use to acquire data for these parameters. As stated above I recommend using a digital elevation model (DEM) for the topographic characteristics (i.e. elevation, slope, aspect). The quality and spatial resolution of the chosen DEM should be considered. If you are trying to simulate a very specific location, then a smaller spatial resolution DEM might be more beneficial. Otherwise if you are running the model at specific sites (e.g. inventory locations) were these topographic characteristics were measured, it might make more sense to use those values.
As for the soil characteristics (a_sat, a_fc, and itxt), I recommend either using site descriptions or soil maps (see Soil Grids, for example) if those are available, or developing rules based on topographic characteristics (e.g. TPI, HAND, etc.). The Supplementary Material to Foster et al. 2019 Ecological Modeling provides the methods used to parameterize site characteristics for the sites run in that study.
As for the fire and wind probability metrics - often maps to derive these values are not available, so general values must be chosen based on literature surveys or site description. For example if a paper states that an area has a fire return interval (FRI) of about 300 years, one might pick 1000/300 = 3.33 as the fire_prob value.
As always these parameters may need calibrating as you test the model in your locations.