Integrated Research To Improve Fire Management Decisionmaking

The emergence of large fires of long duration (also known as siege fires) with their inherently high costs has raised numerous questions about the opportunities for cost containment. Cost reviews from the 2003 fire season have revealed how additional knowledge created through research can lead to better management and lower costs of fire incidents.

The emergence of large fires of long duration (also known as siege fires) with their inherently high costs has raised numerous questions about the opportunities for cost containment. Cost reviews from the 2003 fire season have revealed how additional knowledge created through research can lead to better management and lower costs of fire incidents.

In 2003, over 250 managers, researchers, and other participants gathered for a series of workshops at Oregon State Univ., the Univ. of Arizona, and Colorado State Univ., near the largest wildfires of 2002. These Wildland Fire Workshops were designed to create an atmosphere for quality interactions between managers and researchers and to accomplish the following objectives: (1) create a prioritized list of recommendations for future wildland fire research; (2) identify the characteristics of effective partnerships; (3) identify types of effective information, tools, and processes; and (4) evaluate the workshops as a potential blueprint for similar workshops in other regions. Many common themes emerged. Illustrations.

Wildland fires continue to be a threat to persons and their property in many parts of the world, particularly in areas characterized as having Mediterranean climates, semi-arid climates, or boreal forests. Throughout the United States the policy on fires has been to extinguish all fires as soon as possible, especially those that are anthropogenically caused and/or threaten people and property. This has led to an accumulation of fuels in wildland areas and the alteration of natural fire regimes. The entities responsible for minimizing the impacts of these events are emergency management organizations (EMOs). In order to efficiently and effectively complete their responsibilities, all EMOs employ a variety of information processing technologies, including among others spatial decision support systems or geographic information systems, during the preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation phases of emergency management. However, EMOs continue to be plagued by issues that influence the effectiveness of their response during a fire event. This research explored the informational needs, data availability, communication flows, and decision making workflows informing fire decision support within current EMOs in order to develop tools that can improve decision making during a wildland fire event. By utilizing a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques, this research identified one of the most prevalent needs among EMO personnel, the need to know what impacts a firebreak has upon an active fire front, explored the relationship between firebreaks and wildland fire behavior, and developed and statistically validated a firebreak probability tool that has been integrated as a part of a wildland fire behavior program. The results demonstrate that by taking into account the needs and limitations of decision makers during an event, valuable information can be obtained that in turn can be used to inform the creation of improved spatial decision support systems used to assist decision makers manage wildland fire events.

Wildland fires continue to be a threat to persons and their property in many parts of the world, particularly in areas characterized as having Mediterranean climates, semi-arid climates, or boreal forests. Throughout the United States the policy on fires has been to extinguish all fires as soon as possible, especially those that are anthropogenically caused and/or threaten people and property. This has led to an accumulation of fuels in wildland areas and the alteration of natural fire regimes. The entities responsible for minimizing the impacts of these events are emergency management organizations (EMOs). In order to efficiently and effectively complete their responsibilities, all EMOs employ a variety of information processing technologies, including among others spatial decision support systems or geographic information systems, during the preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation phases of emergency management. However, EMOs continue to be plagued by issues that influence the effectiveness of their response during a fire event. This research explored the informational needs, data availability, communication flows, and decision making workflows informing fire decision support within current EMOs in order to develop tools that can improve decision making during a wildland fire event. By utilizing a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques, this research identified one of the most prevalent needs among EMO personnel, the need to know what impacts a firebreak has upon an active fire front, explored the relationship between firebreaks and wildland fire behavior, and developed and statistically validated a firebreak probability tool that has been integrated as a part of a wildland fire behavior program. The results demonstrate that by taking into account the needs and limitations of decision makers during an event, valuable information can be obtained that in turn can be used to inform the creation of improved spatial decision support systems used to assist decision makers manage wildland fire events.

Although ecosystems, humans, and fire have coexisted for millennia, changes in geology, ecology, hydrology, and climate as well as sociocultural, regulatory, and economic factors have converged to make wildland fire management exceptionally challenging for U.S. federal, state, and local authorities. Given the mounting, unsustainable costs and difficulty translating existing wildland fire science into policy, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a 1-day workshop to focus on how a century of wildland fire research can contribute to improving wildland fire management. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.