A methodology for determining operational priorities for prevention and suppression of wildland fires

Abstract

Traditional uses of the forest (timber, forage) have been giving way to other uses more in demand (recreation, ecosystem services). An observable consequence of this process of forest land use conversion is an increase in more difficult and extreme wildfires. Wildland forest management and protection program budgets are limited, and managers are requesting help in finding ways to objectively assign their limited protection resources based on the intrinsic environmental characteristics of a site and the site’s interrelationship with available firefighting resources and existing infrastructure. A Fire Suppression Priority Index, integrating information on both the potential fire behaviour risk (Potential Fire Behaviour Index) and the fire suppression difficulty (Suppression Difficulty Index), provides managers with fundamental information for strategic planning and development of tactical operations to protect the natural environment. Results in the Córdoba Province, Andalusia’s autonomous region, Spain, showed a statistically significant relationship between wildfire size and all three indices, demonstrating the utility of the methodology to identify and prioritise forest areas for strategic and tactical fire management operations. In addition, the methodology was tested and validated by trained and qualified wildfire management personnel in Chile and Israel, obtaining similar results as in Spain.

The Human and Physical Determinants of Wildfires and Burnt Areas in Israel

“…While wildfires are a natural phenomenon, in Mediterranean regions, almost all wildfires are caused by human activities, either due to negligence or on purpose (Kutiel and Kutiel 1991;Martí-nez et al 2009;San-Miguel-Ayanz et al 2013;Paz et al 2016). Proper management of wildfires relies on our understanding of their spatial and temporal patterns (Rodriguez y Silva et al 2014;Salis et al 2014). However, spatially explicit databases of wildfires are not always available, and often only large wildfires and their causes are registered and analyzed (Levin and Saaroni 1999;Kasischke and Turetsky 2006).…”

Application of Wildfire Risk Assessment Results to Wildfire Response Planning in the Southern Sierra Nevada, California, USA

“…While here we took preexisting POD boundaries as fixed, future research could examine patterns and characteristics of POD features and evaluate alternative spatial POD designs. Lastly, in addition to risk metrics POD attributes could be characterized with indices of suppression difficulty or resistance to control (e.g., [34]). …”

Quantitative analysis of forest fire extinction efficiency

“…In terms of productivity, this seeks to analyze the various levels or elasticity of demand in production (linear meters) associated with percentage changes in supply factors (inputs which in this case are fire control equipment). This analysis is extremely useful for regulating the cost-damage ratio with economic efficiency (Pedernera & Julio, 1999;Molina-Martínez et al, 2011;Rodríguez y Silva et al, 2014). However, as described by Prestemon et al, (2008), this model has the disadvantage of high variability of input factors and as a consequence, has difficulty in establishing a production efficiency range.…”

“…Normally, in Mediterranean climate ecosystems and under extreme meteorological conditions where there is a constant wind presence and slope effect, the rate of spread grows geometrically throughout fire duration (Andrews, 1986;Andrews & Queen, 2001;Alexandrian et al, 1999), which is why the attack time for the first arrival of firefighting methods, is of extreme importance (Rodríguez y Silva, 1999;Andrews et al, 2003;Castillo et al, 2013). This rate of progression has been studied from the perspective of potential damage caused by fire advance, such as reported by Rodríguez y Silva et al, (2014) when determining combat operations priority phases according to duration, among other indicators. However, there are not 2 tillo (1998), and used in repeated scientific studies (Pedernera & Julio, 1999;Castillo et al, 2014) which confirm the reliability of its calculation.…”