Preliminary results of statistical analysis focused on the dependence between forest litter moisture and relative air humidity

Abstract

The results of the dependence of forest litter moisture on relative air humidity are presented in this paper. The dependence was studied applying the data obtained during a field survey in research plots situated in the Low Tatras Mountains territory. To process the statistical analysis the Statistica 8 software was applied. As a result of this analysis we expected to find the conversion index that can be used to calculate the fine fuel moisture based on the actual relative air humidity. The information on litter moisture (fine fuel component) is essential for the software for modelling fire behaviour. Results of analyses confirmed that the conversion coefficient between relative air humidity and forest litter moisture cannot be established, because the input data are highly variable. Therefore, the expected conversion factor confirming a significant dependence of litter moisture on air humidity was not obtained. On the contrary, the value of correlation coefficient was so low in all the measurements that it can be neglected.

Keywords

• fine fuel moisture
• statistica 8
• correlation coefficient
• fire modelling