LANDFIRE disturbance products are developed to provide temporal and spatial information related to landscape change. In the LF 2023 Update (LF 2023) Fuel Disturbance (FDist) uses the latest Annual Disturbance products from the effective disturbance years of 2014 to 2023. FDist is created from LF 2023 Historical Disturbance (HDist) which in turn aggregates the Annual Disturbance products. FDist groups similar disturbance types, severities, and time since disturbance categories which represent disturbance scenarios within the fuel environment. FDist is used in conjunction with Fuel Vegetation Type (FVT), Cover (FVC), and Height (FVH) to calculate Forest Canopy Cover (CC), Height (CH), Bulk Density (CBD), Base Height (CBH), 13 Anderson Fire Behavior Fuel Models (FBFM13) and 40 Scott and Burgan (FBFM40). FDist is developed using the most current aggregated Annual Disturbance products from 2014 to 2023. All existing disturbances between 2014-2023 are represented in LF 2023, and the products are intended to be used in 2024 (the year of release).
When using any product from the LF 2023 fuel product suite, users should consider adjusting fuel layers for disturbances that occurred after the end of the 2023 fiscal year (after October 1st, 2023). Disturbances that occurred after the end of the 2023 fiscal year are not accounted for within LF 2023 fuel products. Learn more about LF 2023 at https://landfire.gov/data/lf2023.