The use of fire for controlled burning to meet objectives for silviculture or for ecosystem management carries the risk of liability for smoke. Near-ground smoke can degrade air quality, reduce visibility, aggravate health problems, and create a general nuisance. At night, smoke can locally limit visibility over roadways creating serious hazards to transportation. PB-Piedmont, a numerical model designed to simulate smoke movement at night over irregular terrain similar to that of the Piedmont of the Southeastern United States, is becoming available for use by land managers. PB-Piedmont has the potential to significantly influence management decisions and therefore must be subject to thorough validation. Decisions based on an incompletely validated model can be worse than decisions made with no model at all.
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