Wildfire Scaling Hypothesis
This page states the central intellectual claim driving the project.
Core hypothesis
Wildfire growth may exhibit reproducible geometric scaling during a distinct expansion regime, rather than behaving as a purely diffusive process or as a front controlled only by local rate-of-spread rules.
The working idea is that:
- wildfire perimeters may grow according to non-diffusive power-law relationships
- boundary geometry may be fractal rather than smooth
- large fires may be better interpreted as rough propagating interfaces in heterogeneous landscapes
Why this is scientifically interesting
If robust, such a scaling relationship would provide a bridge between:
- local fire spread physics
- landscape connectivity
- long-range transport processes such as spotting
- emergent geometric structure visible in satellite observations
That would place wildfire science in conversation with broader theories of:
- interface growth
- percolation
- fractal geometry
- complex spatial systems
What the rest of the theory section does
- On Growth and Form provides the broader intellectual lineage.
- Scaling Regimes in Fire Growth explains when scaling might emerge during a fire lifetime.
- Open Questions turns the hypothesis into a research agenda.