On the parametric uncertainty quantification of the Rothermel's rate of spread model

•A parametric uncertainty quantification of the Rothermel's fire model is reported.•The NISP method is compared with four other stochastic methodologies.•Several random variables are considered for two different scenarios.•A sensitivity analysis study is made through the PC stochastic coefficients.•The parametric variability influence is quantified into the final solution. Parametric uncertainty quantification of the Rothermel's fire spread model is presented using the Polynomial Chaos expansion method under a Non-Intrusive Spectral Projection (NISP) approach. Several Rothermel's model input parameters have been considered random with an associated prescribed probability density function. Two different vegetation fire scenarios are considered and NISP method results and performance are compared with four other stochastic methodologies: Sensitivity Derivative Enhance Sampling; two Monte Carlo techniques; and Global Sensitivity Analysis. The stochastic analysis includes a sensitivity analysis study to quantify the direct influence of each random parameter on the solution. The NISP approach achieved performance three orders of magnitude faster than the traditional Monte Carlo method. The NISP capability to perform uncertainty quantification associated with fast convergence makes it well suited to be applied for stochastic prediction of fire spread.