Abstract
The cause of fire ignition and spread, the surface fuel load on the forest floor, should be evaluated for forest fire risk assessment. Fire risk assessment was conducted via unit and total surface fuel in a forest dominated by Dicranopteris linearis in secondary forests in a dry and warm climate region in Japan. Forests with no fire history were ranked with the highest risk of fire via the assessment of unit and total surface fuel. However, the risk assessment results of forests with fire history were completely different. The risk by unit of surface fuel increased across forest age, but the risk by total surface fuel was higher in younger forests that had regenerated after recent fire due to their larger areas. The importance of landscape structure on fire risk assessment was suggested.
