Review of state-of-the-art decision support systems (DSSs) for prevention and suppression of forest fires

Abstract

Forest ecosystems are our priceless natural resource and are a key component of the global carbon budget. Forest fires can be a hazard to the viability and sustainable management of forests with consequences for natural and cultural environments, economies, and the life quality of local and regional populations. Thus, the selection of strategies to manage forest fires, while considering both functional and economic efficiency, is of primary importance. The use of decision support systems (DSSs) by managers of forest fires has rapidly increased. This has strengthened capacity to prevent and suppress forest fires while protecting human lives and property. DSSs are a tool that can benefit incident management and decision making and policy, especially for emergencies such as natural disasters. In this study we reviewed state-of-the-art DSSs that use: database management systems and mathematical/ economic algorithms for spatial optimization of firefighting forces; forest fire simulators and satellite technology for immediate detection and prediction of evolution of forest fires; GIS platforms that incorporate several tools to manipulate, process and analyze geographic data and develop strategic and operational plans.

Spatial Prediction of Wildfire Susceptibility Using Field Survey GPS Data and Machine Learning Approaches

“…Monitoring forest ecosystems is a critical component of many governmental land management agencies [1,2]. Since forest ecosystems contain about 66% of the total terrestrial carbon, they are a significant component of the global carbon budget [3]. Forests are a vital component to maintaining an environmental balance and regulating the carbon cycle [4,5].…”

Development of a decision support system at the stages of pre‐design studies and design of irrigation systems based on IDEFo functional modelling methodology*

“…In this aspect, agriculture is no exception (Borozenets and Tsysar, 2013; Udias et al, 2018). Thus, information and communication technologies have found application, in particular, in the field of agriculture (Chimonyo et al 2016; Graetskaya et al 2018), ecology (Pulsani, 2017; Anandhi et al 2018; Kazak and Świaçder, 2018), forestry management (Khanina et al 2009; Sakellariou et al, 2017; Kašpar et al, 2018; Kazak et al 2018) and water resources (Pulido‐Velazquez et al, 2016; Cavazza et al, 2018; Neilsen et al, 2018). For example, the Agrophysical Research Institute has been conducting studies on development of the theoretical and methodological foundations for constructing a ‘single computerized technological space in the field of agronomy’ for many years, and there is experience in the creation and operation of various agrotechnological solutions with help of DSS (Yakushev, 2007).…”

Remotely Sensed Data Fusion for Spatiotemporal Geostatistical Analysis of Forest Fire Hazard

“…Forest fires constitute a natural phenomenon and potentially a natural hazard which might have severe implications on natural and anthropogenic ecosystems [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Inter-annual fire statistics may provide a clear enough picture of fire regimes.…”