Fuel moisture content of vegetation in the UK, 2021-2023, measured as part of UK Fire Danger Rating System
These datasets contain sampled fuel moisture content data for vegetation, organic soil and leaf litter as part of the UK Fire Danger Rating System project funded by NERC (NE/T003553/1). The sampled vegetation comprises both live and dead heather, gorse, bracken, moor grass and moss. Where relevant, the canopy/leaves and stem were sampled separately. The datasets also contain associated information about the sample site characteristics (land cover class, elevation, slope and aspect) and meteorological variables (temperature, relative humidity and wind speed at the time of sampling). There are three datasets included which represent three separate studies: (i) UK-wide dataset which contains samples from sites across the UK from 2021-2023; (ii) North Yorkshire Moors dataset which contains samples from the North Yorkshire Moors, where sites were chosen to represent a combination of landscape characteristics, from five days in 2021; (iii) West Midlands dataset which contains samples from multiple volunteers on one day only across two sites. Full details about this dataset can be found at
https://doi.org/10.5285/9334118f-3389-4a13-89a1-d75ec6fcc43a
Simple
- Date (Publication)
- 2025-11-17
- Identifier
- doi: / 10.5285/9334118f-3389-4a13-89a1-d75ec6fcc43a
- Other citation details
- Ivison, K., Belcher, C.M., Clay, G.D., Crawford, A.J., Doerr, S.H., Elliott, A., Graham, L.J., Lewis, C., Little, K., Morison, J.I.L., Nikonovas, T., Orpin, A., Stoll, E., Kettridge, N. (2025). Fuel moisture content of vegetation in the UK, 2021-2023, measured as part of UK Fire Danger Rating System. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre 10.5285/9334118f-3389-4a13-89a1-d75ec6fcc43a
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
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- Environmental Monitoring Facilities
- Access constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- no limitations
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- If you reuse this data, you should cite: Ivison, K., Belcher, C.M., Clay, G.D., Crawford, A.J., Doerr, S.H., Elliott, A., Graham, L.J., Lewis, C., Little, K., Morison, J.I.L., Nikonovas, T., Orpin, A., Stoll, E., Kettridge, N. (2025). Fuel moisture content of vegetation in the UK, 2021-2023, measured as part of UK Fire Danger Rating System. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/9334118f-3389-4a13-89a1-d75ec6fcc43a
- Spatial representation type
- textTable Text, table
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Character set
- utf8 UTF8
- Topic category
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- Biota
- Begin date
- 2021-02-24
- End date
- 2023-06-05
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E
W
- Unique resource identifier
- WGS 84
- Distribution format
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Comma-separated values (CSV)
()
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Comma-separated values (CSV)
()
- OnLine resource
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Supporting information
Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset
- OnLine resource
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Download the data
Download a copy of this data
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Other
- dataset
Conformance result
- Date (Publication)
- 2010-12-08
- Statement
- Data were collected by sampling vegetation. The sampler established 20 m transects at sample sites and collected samples between 11:00 and 17:00 local time. For heather, gorse and bracken, stems and either canopy (heather, gorse) or leaves (bracken) were sampled separately, and for all vegetation both live and dead samples were taken. Live moss samples were collected by pinching the top two cm of moss from the soil surface, and litter samples were collected by pinching the top two cm of dead leaf litter from soil surface, at ca. 10 points along the transect. These two fuel types were sampled separately, and if both occurred together the constituents were separated. For the organic layer, defined as the organic material beneath the surface litter and above the mineral soil, the top 5 cm of soil was sampled at four points along the transect. In forested sites, twigs (<5 mm diameter) were collected from fallen branches at ca. 10 points along the transect. Only those which were not in contact with the floor were collected. The same fuel constituents sampled along the transects were combined within aluminium screw-fit tins that were sealed with masking tape. Gravimetric fuel moisture content (FMC) was calculated by weighing the collected samples, drying them for 48 h at 80 °C and then reweighing the dried samples. The FMC is calculated as: (W - D)/(D - T) * 100 where W = wet weight (g), D = dry weight (g) and T = the weight of the sample tin (g).
- File identifier
- 9334118f-3389-4a13-89a1-d75ec6fcc43a XML
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Character set
- ISO/IEC 8859-1 (also known as Latin 1) 8859 Part 1
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Hierarchy level name
- dataset
- Date stamp
- 2025-11-18T09:29:46
- Metadata standard name
- UK GEMINI
- Metadata standard version
- 2.3
Point of contact
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg
,
Lancaster
,
LA1 4AP
,
UK
https://eidc.ac.uk/
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NERC Data Catalogue Service