Target Area Studies. Volume 1. Combustible Fuel Loads in Nashville, Tennessee

Abstract : Standard land use and census data is used to construct a detailed combustible fuel load map for a typical medium-sized U.S. city (Nashville, Tennessee). Our method recognizes eleven land use categories. Each category is assigned fuel loading values based on analyses of the total burnable fuel mass and areal densities of the buildings and vegetation present. We find that the distribution of fuels is non-uniform and highly dependent on the internal structure of the city. The highest fuel load densities are found in portions of the city occupied by densely-packed multiple-family residential buildings, liquid fuel storage terminals, and in industrial/commercial complexes. Much lower fuel loads are found in outlying suburbs and rural areas. This uneven fuel distribution results in a several-fold difference in the net fuel availability for potential urban targets spaced only a short distance apart. We demonstrate that this may in turn strongly influence the intensity of nuclear burst- generated fires, the amount of smoke emitted, and the altitudes to which the smoke is injected.