A Systematic Review of Applications of Machine Learning Techniques for Wildfire Management Decision Support Invention

Karol Bot and José G. Borges. January 2022

This paper aims to provide an overview of recent applications of machine learning methods for decision support in wildfire management. The focus is on providing a summary of these applications with classification according to case study type, machine learning method, case study location, and performance metrics. This publication highlights that the application of machine learning methods can help to improve support at different stages of fire management.

Dynamic Evaluation of Early Silvicultural Treatments for Wildfire prevention

Míriam Piqué , José Ramón González-Olabarria and Eduard Busquets. May 2022

This publication investigates the effectiveness of precommercial thinning, over time, implemented on Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine) thickets, regarding fuel evolution and potential fire behavior. The study was implemented in 44 plots at different stages of fuel evolution. The results show that precommercial thinning has a positive impact on fire mitigation, but the impact that opening the tree canopy has on ground vegetation development must be considered in order to plan more efficient management strategies.

Climate Teleconnections Modulate Global Burned Area

Adrián Cardil, Marcos, Rodrigues, Mario Tapia, Renaud Barbero,Joaquin Ramírez, Cathelijne R. Stoof, Carlos Alberto Silva, Midhun Mohan, and Sergio de-Miguel. January 2023

Climate teleconnections (CT) remotely influence weather conditions in many regions on Earth, entailing changes in primary drivers of fire activity such as vegetation biomass accumulation and moisture. This publication summarises the CT-fire relationships into a set of six global CT domains that are discussed by continent, considering the underlying mechanisms relating weather patterns and vegetation types with burned areas across the different world’s biomes. Additionally, it highlights the regional CT-fire relationships worldwide, aiming to further support fire management and policy-making.

Optimizing Fuel Treatments Allocation to Protect the Wildland-Urban Interface from Large-Scale Wildfires in Greece

Margarita Bachantourian, Kostas Kalabokidis, Palaiologos Palaiologou, Kyriakos Chaleplis. February 2023

The paper focuses on the critical issue of fuel treatment allocation in Kassandra, located in northern Greece. The objective of the study is to safeguard the wildland-urban interface from the risk of large-scale wildfires. The outcomes of this research have been successfully implemented by the Greek Forest Service to reduce the area burned in the region by future wildfires, while simultaneously moderating fire intensity and spread rates.

A Fire Spread Simulator to Support Tactical Management Decisions for Mediterranean Landscapes

Jose Ramon Gonzalez-Olabarria, Jaime Carrasco, Cristobal Pais, Jordi Garcia-Gonzalo, David Palacios-Meneses, Rodrigo Mahaluf-Recasens, Olena Porkhum and Andres Weintraub. February 2023

This article highlights the importance of fire simulation tools in landscape and forest management. It emphasizes the need to consider fire risk and mitigation goals and the benefits of combining fire simulation with growth and yield simulation for maximizing ecosystem services. The article focuses on the requirements for a fire simulator for tactical forest planning and introduces Cell2Fire_SB, a simulator capable of simulating crown fires. Its goal is to be integrated into a decision support system for solving temporal dynamic tactical forest problems.