A review of operational research studies in forest fire management

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. Martell

This paper is a comprehensive review of operational research studies in forest fire management during the years 1961 through 1981. It includes a brief discussion of fire management decision making, summaries of and comments regarding the practical merits of the work that has been done, and suggestions concerning future efforts in this field.

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Dunn ◽  
David E. Calkin ◽  
Matthew P. Thompson

Wildfire’s economic, ecological and social impacts are on the rise, fostering the realisation that business-as-usual fire management in the United States is not sustainable. Current response strategies may be inefficient and contributing to unnecessary responder exposure to hazardous conditions, but significant knowledge gaps constrain clear and comprehensive descriptions of how changes in response strategies and tactics may improve outcomes. As such, we convened a special session at an international wildfire conference to synthesise ongoing research focused on obtaining a better understanding of wildfire response decisions and actions. This special issue provides a collection of research that builds on those discussions. Four papers focus on strategic planning and decision making, three papers on use and effectiveness of suppression resources and two papers on allocation and movement of suppression resources. Here we summarise some of the key findings from these papers in the context of risk-informed decision making. This collection illustrates the value of a risk management framework for improving wildfire response safety and effectiveness, for enhancing fire management decision making and for ushering in a new fire management paradigm.


1984 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 320-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kourtz

Pressures brought about by severe fire loss, increasing fire control costs, and restricted budgets are causing some Canadian forest fire control agencies to consider new ways to improve efficiency. One attractive alternative, currently being pursued by several provinces, is the restructuring of their three-level, decentralized organizations to a provincial-regional, centralized fire management unit.Under a centralized system relatively few people manage the necessary resources to handle a fire situation for a huge area. To attain this capability, they require the support of a computerized system designed to collect and process information on weather, fire occurence and behaviour, and the status of detection and suppression resources.Such a system has been developed and is undergoing operational trials at the centralized fire centres of both the Société de Conservation de l'Outaouais at Maniwaki. Quebec and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources at Timmins.


2002 ◽  
Vol 37 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 185-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.S Lee ◽  
M.E Alexander ◽  
B.C Hawkes ◽  
T.J Lynham ◽  
B.J Stocks ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 1613-1639
Author(s):  
Oleg Kapliński ◽  
Tatjana Vilutienė

The paper presents an overview of the history and achievements of trans-border cooperation in the Lithuania-Germany-Poland triangle in planning instruments in Construction Management, decision-making theory, application of Operational Research, and Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods in Civil Engineering and sustainable development. The cooperation and results of the Colloquiums with 35 years of tradition, their multidimensional nature is underlined. The research instruments, methods, studied phenomena are reviewed and characteristic applications in engineering and economics are presented. The knowledge and combined efforts of three academic centers have created a synergy which set in motion many original methods and spectacular implementations. The Colloquium calendar and the evolution of organizational forms are presented along with the inclusion of the informal EURO Working Group on Operations Research in Sustainable Development and Civil Engineering.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Clayton ◽  
Melinda R. Mylek ◽  
Jacki Schirmer ◽  
Geoffrey J. Cary ◽  
Stephen R. Dovers

Wildland fire managers make daily decisions about ways to allocate scarce resources to meet policy objectives. Making these decisions has become more challenging as the frequency and size of fires increase, as does associated risk to assets and costs of management. There is growing interest in using economic evaluation to inform resource allocation decisions, but little work has examined the economic evaluation needs of wildland fire managers, their current use of economic information and the factors that aid or hinder use. This study examined these issues through a survey of Australian wildland fire managers in fire management and policy roles. We found that despite strong interest in economic evaluation, managers have limited familiarity with most evaluation methods or use of the information derived. Several actions can improve the use and usefulness of economic evaluation for wildland fire managers: first, building capacity of managers to both commission and use economic information; second, integrating analysis of market and non-market benefits and costs as part of economic evaluation and third, better integrating economic evaluation with the broader context of decision-making processes.


The Operational Research Executive of the N.C.B. was first established with one appointment in 1948 and has steadily grown, both in the size of the group - now over 100 scientists strong - and in the range of the work undertaken. One essential feature of its success is the organization of the group as a federation of small teams, each of which works on a continuing basis with a corresponding management team. Equally important is the formal check-back system which analyses the group’s overall achievements each year. Three major studies are described. The first traces the development of a suite of corporate planning models as part of the work of the team providing aids and advice to planners at headquarters. The second describes an ‘old fashioned’ piece of O.R. - the assessment of the future potentialities of the underground gasification of coal. The third discusses a year’s achievements of the team serving one Goal Board area. It is the N.C.B. experience that a scientific service of this kind, dedicated to the Board’s service, but independent of departmental pressures within it, is an invaluable aid to management decision making.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew P. Thompson ◽  
Francisco Rodríguez y Silva ◽  
David E. Calkin ◽  
Michael S. Hand

Characterising the impacts of wildland fire and fire suppression is critical information for fire management decision-making. Here, we focus on decisions related to the rare larger and longer-duration fire events, where the scope and scale of decision-making can be far broader than initial response efforts, and where determining and demonstrating efficiency of strategies and actions can be particularly troublesome. We organise our review around key decision factors such as context, complexity, alternatives, consequences and uncertainty, and for illustration contrast fire management in Andalusia, Spain, and Montana, USA. Two of the largest knowledge gaps relate to quantifying fire impacts to ecosystem services, and modelling relationships between fire management activities and avoided damages. The relative magnitude of these and other concerns varies with the complexity of the socioecological context in which fire management decisions are made. To conclude our review, we examine topics for future research, including expanded use of the economics toolkit to better characterise the productivity and effectiveness of suppression actions, integration of ecosystem modelling with economic principles, and stronger adoption of risk and decision analysis within fire management decision-making.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tekieli ◽  
Marion Festing ◽  
Xavier Baeten

Abstract. Based on responses from 158 reward managers located at the headquarters or subsidiaries of multinational enterprises, the present study examines the relationship between the centralization of reward management decision making and its perceived effectiveness in multinational enterprises. Our results show that headquarters managers perceive a centralized approach as being more effective, while for subsidiary managers this relationship is moderated by the manager’s role identity. Referring to social identity theory, the present study enriches the standardization versus localization debate through a new perspective focusing on psychological processes, thereby indicating the importance of in-group favoritism in headquarters and the influence of subsidiary managers’ role identities on reward management decision making.


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