Harmonized dataset of surface fuels under Alpine, temperate and Mediterranean conditions in Italy. A synthesis supporting fire management

Surface biomass characterization plays a key role in wildfire management. Itallows classifying vegetation fuels flammability for fire risk analysis, to definesilvicultural prescriptions for fire hazard reduction, to plan prescribed burn-ing, or to model fire behavior and its effects, such as greenhouse gas and pol-lutant emissions. To facilitate fuel classification and analysis of potential firebehavior and effects in Italy, we harmonized 634 measurements of surfacewildland fuels from Alpine, temperate and Mediterranean environments. Thedataset provides quantitative data for duff, fine dead fuels and downed woodymaterial, live grasses and shrubs fuel components. Surface fuel data were har-monized by subdividing loads (Mg ha-1) to standard size classes for dead (0-6,6-25 and 25-75 mm) and live (0-6, 6-25 mm) fuels, collecting percent coverand depth/height (cm) of the various fuel components, and classifying observa-tions into 19 fuelbed categories. To ensure comparability with existing vegeta-tion classification systems, we classified each observation according to the Eu-ropean Fuel Map, the Corine Land Cover classes (level IV), the European ForestTypes, and the forest categories of the Italian National Forest Inventory. Thedataset and a photo description of each fuelbed category are available as Sup-plementary material. This dataset is the first step to develop several productsat the national scale such as: (i) fuel type classification and mapping; (ii) car-bon stock and wildfire emission estimates; (iii) calibration of fuel models forthe simulation of fire behavior and effects