Efficacité des coupures de combustible dans la prévention des feux de forêts

A stochastic model is applied to predict fire propagation through forest landscapes with fuelbreaks. The efficiency criterion for a totally cleared fuelbreak is analytically obtained for a homogeneous system. For partially cleared fuelbreaks the efficiency depends on its tree density. It is found that, even for a density smaller than the percolation threshold, the fuelbreak is efficient when its width is large compared with the fire impact characteristic length. On the other hand, percolating paths of fire appear. This phenomenon is all the more pronounced as the fuelbreak width is close to the impact characteristic length. When the fire spreads by brand spotting, a totally cleared fuelbreak slows down the rate of fire spread. This effect is evaluated for different characteristic spotting distances. To cite this article: A. Kaiss et al., C. R. Physique 8 (2007).