Abstract
Supporting wildfire management activities is frequently identified as a benefit of forest roads. As such, there is a growing body of research into forest road planning, construction, and maintenance to improve fire surveillance, prevention, access, and control operations. Of interest here is how road networks directly support fire control operations, and how managers incorporate that information into pre-season assessment and planning. In this communication we briefly review and illustrate how forest roads relate to recent advances in operationally focused wildfire decision support. We focus on two interrelated products used on the National Forest System and adjacent lands throughout the western USA: potential wildland fire operational delineations (PODs) and potential control locations (PCLs). We use real-world examples from the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest in Colorado, USA to contextualize these concepts and illustrate how fire analytics and local fire managers both identified roads as primary control features. Specifically, distance to road was identified as the most important predictor variable in the PCL boosted regression model, and 82% of manager-identified POD boundaries aligned with roads. Lastly, we discuss recommendations for future research, emphasizing roles for enhanced decision support and empirical analysis.
Highlights
Roads strongly influence both forest fire activity and control tactics
Forest roads are associated with spatial patterns of ignitions and fire perimeters, function as fuelbreaks and firebreaks, and can support safer and more effective wildfire management [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Factors influencing the utility of forest roads in control operations include topographic position, adjacent vegetation, width and design standard, and maintenance condition
Summary
Roads strongly influence both forest fire activity and control tactics. Forest roads are associated with spatial patterns of ignitions and fire perimeters, function as fuelbreaks and firebreaks, and can support safer and more effective wildfire management [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. We modeled PCLs, a raster depiction of wildfire control probability, using the frameWe modeled PCLs, a raster depiction of wildfire control probability, using the framework work described by O’Connor et al [39] for a broader area of central Colorado within and described by O’Connor et al [39] for a broader area of central Colorado within and adjacent adjacent to the Arapaho-Roosevelt and Pike-San Isabel National Forests (Figure 3). This to the Arapaho-Roosevelt and Pike-San Isabel National Forests (Figure 3) This technique technique relates observations of fire control and lack of fire control from historical fire relates observations of fire control and lack of fire control from historical fire perimeters to perimeters to landscape predictor variables with Boosted [46]. Panel (a) indicates locations the otherofpanels on the landscape depictsand a bar chart with relative of influence of final predictor variables in the boosted regression tree model.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
