Firing Line Research Articles

Large scale semi-automatic detection of forest roads from low density LiDAR data on steep terrain in Northern Spain

Abstract: While forest roads are important to forest managers in terms of facilitating the exploitation of wood and timber, their role is far more multifunctional. They permit access to emergency services in the case of forest fires as well as acting as fire breaks, enhance biodiversity, and provide access to the public to enjoy recreational activities. Detailed maps of forest roads are an essential tool for better and more timely forest management and automatic/semi-automatic tools allow not only the creation of forest road databases, but also enable these to be updated. In Spain, LiDAR data for the entire national territory is freely available, and the capture of higher density data is planned in the next few years. As such, the development of a forest road detection methodology based on LiDAR data would allow maps of all forest roads to be developed and regularly updated. The general objective of this work was to establish a low density LiDAR data-based methodology for the semi-automatic detection of the centerline of forest roads on steep terrain with various types of canopy cover. Intensity and slope images were generated using the currently available LiDAR data of the study area (0.5 points m-2). Two image classification approaches were evaluated: pixel-based and object-oriented classification (OBIA). The LiDAR-derived centerlines obtained with the two approaches were compared with the real centerlines which had previously been digitized in the field. The road width, type of surface and type of vegetation cover were also recorded. The effectiveness of the two approaches was evaluated through three quality indicators: correctness, completeness and quality. In addition, the accuracy of the LiDAR-derived centerlines was also evaluated by combining GIS analysis and statistical methods. The pixel-based approach obtained higher values than OBIA for two of the three quality measures (correctness: 93% compared to 90%; and quality: 60% compared to 56%) as well as in terms of positional accuracy (± 5.5 m vs. ± 6.8 for OBIA). The results obtained in this study demonstrate that producing road maps is among the most valuable and easily attainable products of LiDAR data analysis.

Artificial insemination in Botswana: Challenges and opportunities - A review

Artificial insemination (AI) was introduced in Botswana in 1966 to provide smallholder cattle farmers with access to superior bulls for cross-breeding to improve their herd quality and performance. This review endeavours to highlight farmers’ uptake of AI service, challenges and the opportunities in the use of AI technology in Botswana. The 15 AI centres have been underutilised for the past 11 years while the number of inseminated cows has declined over time. Similarly, conception rates declined as these are a function of inseminated cows. Some major challenges limiting AI utilisation are persistent drought, outbreak of livestock diseases and parasites, climate change, inadequate extension service, high transportation costs, shortage of qualified ranch managers, inadequate transport, inadequate staff accommodation, lack of maintenance of fire breaks and perimeter fence at the AI centres, and trekking cows over very long distances to the AI centres for insemination. The underutilisation of AI centres presents an opportunity for farmers to send their cattle for insemination. In order to optimally use the AI service, extension efforts must be directed towards encouraging more farmers to use the AI centres.

Potential influence of meteorological variables on forest fire risk in Serbia during the period 2000-2017

Abstract To examine potential relationships between meteorological variables and forest fires in Serbia, daily temperature, precipitation, relative humidity and wind speed data for 15 meteorological stations across Serbia were used to construct fire indices. The daily values of the Ångström and Nesterov indices were calculated for the period 2000–2017. A high number of forest fires occurred in 2007 and 2012 in Serbia, during a period of extremely high air temperatures in 2007, followed by the longest heat wave and the worst drought in 2012. In order to identify the ideal weather conditions for fire break outs, different combinations of input variables, e.g., meteorological variables (mean temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, maximum temperature, minimum temperature and wind speed), fire danger indices or a combination of both, for the Belgrade area during the period 1986–2017, were tested. It was found that using relative humidity or precipitation as a predictor only generates a satisfactory model for forecasting of number of forest fires.

USE OF LANDSAT IMAGERY TO MAP SPREAD OF THE INVASIVE ALIEN SPECIES Acacia nilotica IN BALURAN NATIONAL PARK, INDONESIA

In the late 1960s, Acacia nilotica was introduced to Baluran National Park to establish fire breaks which would prevent the spread of fire from Baluran Savanna to the adjacent teak forest. However, A. nilotica has spread rapidly and has threatened the existence of Baluran Savanna as it has caused an ecosystem transition from an open savanna to a closed canopy of A. nilotica in some areas. This study is one of the few that examines A. nilotica invasion in Baluran National Park through remote sensing. Land cover dynamics were quantified using a supervised classification approach on Landsat 7 and 8 multi-spectral images. Results showed that savanna and A. nilotica can be recognized using a composite of bands 6, 5 and 3 of the Landsat 8 image. Across a 14-year period (2000-14), A. nilotica has spread far north and south from its originally introduced location, invading not only savannas but also dry forests in the Baluran National Park. The savanna size has decreased by 1,361 ha, meanwhile the A. nilotica stand has increased by 1,886 ha over this period. Spatial distribution of A. nilotica in Baluran National Park showed a clumped pattern. Acacia nilotica which develops into a homogeneous stand in the north-west and eastern parts of the national park occupied an area of 3,628 ha or about 14.5% of the total area. This study has demonstrated that remote sensing technology can be effectively used to estimate the patterns of distribution and amount of A. nilotica cover change over the whole Baluran National Park. This is one advantage of remote sensing and GIS, as it is difficult and expensive to make such direct assessments using the conventional approach of field survey and vegetation analysis.

The wildfire problem in areas contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster

This paper examines the issue of radionuclide resuspension from wildland fires in areas contaminated by the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion in 1986. This work originated from a scientific exchange among scientists from the USDA Forest Service, Ukraine and Belarus that was organized to assess science and technology gaps related to wildfire risk management. A wildfire risk modeling system was developed to predict likely hotspots for large fires and where wildfire ignitions will most likely result in significant radionuclide (Cesium, 137Cs) resuspension. The system was also designed to examine the effect of fuel breaks in terms of reducing both burn probability and resuspension. Results showed substantial spatial variation in fire likelihood, size, intensity, and potential resuspension within the contaminated areas. The potential for a large wildfire and resuspension was highest in the Belorussian Polesie Reserve, but the likelihood of such an event was higher in the Ukrainian Chernobyl Exclusion Zone due to a higher predicted probability of ignition. Fuel breaks were most effective in terms of reducing potential resuspension when located near areas that had both high ignition probability and high levels of 137Cs contamination. Simulation outputs highlighted how human activities shape the fire regime and likelihood of a large fire in the contaminated areas. We discuss how the results can be used to develop a fire management strategy that integrates ignition prevention, detection, effective suppression response, and fuel breaks. Specifically, the modeling system can now be used to explore a wide range of fire management scenarios for the contaminated areas and contribute to a comprehensive fire management strategy that targets specific drivers of fire by leveraging multiple tools including fire prevention and long-term fuel management. Wildfire-caused emissions of radionuclides in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia are a socio-ecological problem that will require defragmenting existing risk management systems and leveraging multiple short- and long-term mitigation measures.

Effect of the firing position on aiming error and probability of hit

This is an extended abstract of a paper to be published in Defence Technology, 2019. Sources of dispersions that contribute to delivery error and reduce the soldier performance in terms of hit probability are numerous. In order to improve the warfighter performance, the source of the errors contributing to the inaccuracy and dispersion of the weapon systems must be understood. They include ammunition dispersion error, gun dispersion, aerodynamic jump and the aiming error. The aiming error or gun pointing error is defined as the angle between the gun muzzle at the instant the trigger is pulled and the line of fire that corresponds to the intendent aim point. This is a round-to-round error. In weapons systems that include the rifle, the ammunition, a sight and a gunner, the aiming error was shown to be the single most important source of dispersion for the regular infantryman. In other words, for the general purpose rifle weapon system, the weak link is often the human. In order to verify and quantify this assertion, an experimental investigation was carried out to determine the aiming error associated with general purpose rifle fired by infantryman. The aiming error was evaluated for various firing positions and scenarios using infantryman for ranges varying between 100 m and 500 m. The results show that the aiming error is the main contributor to dispersion for the general purpose rifle fired by a non-specialized infantryman. The aiming error induced dispersion for unstressed and rested gunners is shown to be at best equivalent to that of the weapon fired from a bench rest by a marksman.

Mathematical Modeling of Canopy Forest Fire Spread in the Presence of Fire Breaks and Barriers

In this paper, we studied the spreading of canopy forest fires in the presence of fire breaks and barriers consisting of hardwood trees by mathematical modeling. Mathematically, this problem is reduced to solving Reynolds equations for a turbulent flow with allowance for chemical reactions. The control volume method was used to obtain a discrete analogue. Using numerical calculations, we obtained distributions of the fields of velocity, temperature, oxygen concentrations, volatile products of pyrolysis and combustion, and volume fractions of the condensed phase. The modeling allowed obtaining contours of the spread of canopy forest fires that depend on the stock and types of forest combustible materials, moisture content, wind speed and direction, etc. We were also able to determine the dependence of the size of fire breaks and barriers on the above parameters, at which a canopy fire stops spreading.

Automatic smoke detection system with favoriot platform using internet of things (IoT)

<span>The available fire alarm system in the market unable to inform occupant that their house is on fire. The occupant remains unknown especially when they are away from their house. Most of the time, the house or building almost destroyed by fire when firefighter comes to the scene due to late inform to Fire and Rescue Department. To this aim, automatic smoke detection system</span><span lang="EN"> using Internet of Things (IoT) is proposed. The proposed system not only able to monitor the smoke condition of a room but also able to alert user and Fire and Rescue Department when certain level of smoke is detected by a gas sensor via Favoriot platform. Arduino Uno is used in this work to control all the devices and WiFi shield acts as a medium to interconnect devices with the network so that </span><span>the data from the smoke sensor can be read in the Favoriot platform. In this experiment, the condition of room is tested under several burning materials and the smoke levels are recorded. It is found that when the smoke level more than 100 ppm, it may cause to sore eyes, cough and hard breathing that can bring to death. Therefore, the best threshold level of the automatic smoke detection system is at 80 ppm. By using this system, the user able to take preliminary rescue action to save people and prevent fire breaks out</span><span>.</span>

Evaluation of Dump Tank Coolability in PHWRs During Late-Phase Severe Accident

In some of the older design of pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs), such as in Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) and Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS), in case of a severe accident, the debris/corium may cause failure of the dump port of calandria and relocate into the dump tank. The sensible and decay heat of debris/corium makes the heavy water in dump tank to boil off leaving the dry debris in dump tank. The dry debris remelt with time and the molten corium, thus, formed has the potential to breach the dump tank and move into the containment cavity, which is highly undesirable. Hence, as an accident management strategy, water is being flooded outside the dump tank using fire water hook-up lines to remove the heat from corium to cool and stabilize it and terminate the accident progression, similar to in vessel retention. However, the question is “is the molten corium coolable by this technique.” The coolability of the molten corium in dump tank as in the reactor is assessed by conducting experiments in a scaled facility using a simulant material having comparable thermophysical properties with that of corium. Melting of dry debris resting on dump tank bottom marks the beginning of the experimental investigation for present analysis. Decay heat is simulated by a set of immersed heaters inside the melt. Temperature profiles at different locations in dump tank and in the melt pool are obtained as a function of time to demonstrate the coolability with decay heat. Large temperature gradient is observed within the corium, involving high melt center temperature and low tank wall temperature suggesting formation of crust which insulates the dump tank wall from hot corium.

Using Background-Oriented Schlieren to Visualize Convection in a Propagating Wildland Fire

ABSTRACT Heat and mass transfer are important processes associated with wildland fire. Both radiant and convective heat transfer are important processes with convection often being the dominant mechanism. Unlike radiation, there is no direct method of measuring convection. Since convective heat transfer is governed by the fluid flow, understanding the fluid flow provides good understanding on the convective heat transfer. In fluid mechanics, flow visualization is a common methodology used to understand flow characteristics. Schlieren imagery is a common flow visualization technique which captures changes in fluid density such as the ones occur around a fire. Background-Oriented Schlieren (BOS) is a flow visualization technique that uses a background image with various patterns to visualize the density gradient caused by density fluctuations in a fluid. We applied BOS to measure the flow associated with laboratory-scale line fires. The reproducible fires were spreading in pine needle fuel beds in a wind tunnel with and without imposed wind. This initial application of BOS in a fire environment successfully visualized the flow around the flame. The visualized flow underwent a secondary process to produce the velocity field of the flow. Results indicate that even in conditions where the fire is known to be dominated by radiation, wind carried the thermal plume ahead of the flame front and expanded the thermal plume. In contrast, in the no wind condition, the thermal plume remained vertical above the fire. Using the BOS imagery, a new model for estimation of convective heat transfer was introduced. In addition to estimation of the convective heat transfer ahead of the fire, this new model enables visualization of convective motion.

Effects of ambient pressure on smoke movement and temperature distribution in inclined tunnel fires

A series of simulations with regard to inclined road tunnel were conducted to investigate the effect of ambient pressure on smoke movement and temperature distribution. The tunnel slope and ambient pressure were systematically changed. When a fire breaks out in an inclined tunnel, the thermal buoyancy induced by smoke temperature difference will induce an airflow through the tunnel due to the stack effect. The induced longitudinal airflow is a key factor in inclined tunnel fires. Under the combined effect of induced longitudinal airflow and ambient pressure, the smoke movement and temperature distribution pattern are presented firstly. Then the variation of induced longitudinal airflow velocity with tunnel slope and ambient pressure is explained. Finally, taking the tunnel slope, the ambient pressure and the velocity of resulted induced longitudinal airflow into account, a correlation predicting the maximum smoke excess temperature beneath the ceiling is proposed. Moreover, the correlation agrees well with previous experimental results at normal pressure. The results can provide an engineering reference for tunnel structural fire protection, smoke control and safe evacuation in inclined tunnels at different ambient pressures.

Physics-Based Simulation of Heat Load on Structures for Improving Construction Standards for Bushfire Prone Areas

Australian building standard AS 3959 provides mandatory requirements for the construction of buildings in bushfire prone areas in order to improve the resilience of the building to radiant heat, flame contact, burning embers, and a combination of these three bushfire attack forms. The construction requirements are standardised based on the bushfire attack level (BAL). BAL is based on empirical models which account for radiation heat load on structure. The prediction of the heat load on structure is a challenging task due to many influencing factors: weather conditions, moisture content, vegetation types and fuel loads. Moreover, the fire characteristics change dramatically with wind velocity leading to buoyancy or wind dominated fires that have different dominant heat transfer processes driving the propagation of the fire. The AS 3959 standard is developed with respect to a quasi-steady state model for bushfire propagation assuming a long straight line fire. The fundamental assumptions of the standard are not always valid in a bushfire propagation. In this study, physics based large-eddy simulations were conducted to estimate the heat load on a model structure. The simulation results are compared to the AS 3959 model; there is agreement between the model and the simulation, however, due to computational restrictions the simulations were conducted in a much narrower domain. Further simulations were conducted where wind velocity, fuel load, and relative humidity are varied independently and the simulated radiant heat flux upon the structure was found to be significantly greater than predicted by the AS 3959 model. The effect of the mode of fire propagation, either buoyancy-driven or wind dominated fires, is also investigated. For buoyancy dominated fires the radiation heat load on the structure is enhanced compared to the wind dominated fires. Finally, the potential of using physics based simulation to evaluate individual designs is discussed.

ESTIMACIÓN PRÁCTICA DE LA VARIABILIDAD DE LA HUMEDAD DE LOS COMBUSTIBLES BAJO DIFERENTES ECOSISTEMAS FORESTALES


 
 
 Para el uso de sistemas de simulación de comportamiento del fuego es necesario conocer, entre otros factores, el contenido de humedad de los combustibles forestales, ya que este influye en el precalentamiento, la ignición, la velocidad de propagación, la intensidad de la línea de fuego y en la producción de humo. Sin embargo, su cálculo es complicado, porque se deben considerar los cambios en las condiciones ambientales. Lo cual hace difícil su estimación rápida y precisa para fines operativos, o de toma de decisiones en el manejo del fuego. Por lo que el objetivo del presente trabajo fue la generación de modelos prácticos para el cálculo de los contenidos de humedad de combustibles forestales de 1-hora y de 10-horas. Estos basados en variaciones de humedad relativa y temperatura, que se monitorearon al aplicar quemas controladas en cuatro ecosistemas forestales (pino-encino, matorral-pino, pino y pastizal-pino). Los resultados sugieren que la humedad relativa es la variable que mejor estima el contenido de humedad de los combustibles (R2 = 0.955 para combustibles de 1-hora y R2 = 0.965 para combustibles de 10 horas). La información generada es útil para diversos propósitos, como la definición de áreas de riesgo y peligro de incendio, estimaciones del comportamiento del fuego, planeación de la implementación de quemas controladas, etc. Finalmente, se sugiere realizar estudios para evaluar las variaciones temporales del contenido de humedad de combustibles forestales.
 
 

The ecological uncertainty of wildfire fuel breaks: examples from the sagebrush steppe

Fuel breaks are increasingly being implemented at broad scales (100s to 10,000s of square kilometers) in fire‐prone landscapes globally, yet there is little scientific information available regarding their ecological effects (eg habitat fragmentation). Fuel breaks are designed to reduce flammable vegetation (ie fuels), increase the safety and effectiveness of fire‐suppression operations, and ultimately decrease the extent of wildfire spread. In sagebrush (Artemisia spp) ecosystems of the western US, installation of extensive linear fuel breaks is also intended to protect habitat, especially for the greater sage‐grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a species that is sensitive to habitat fragmentation. We examine this apparent contradiction in the Great Basin region, where invasive annual grasses have increased wildfire activity and threaten sagebrush ecosystems. Given uncertain outcomes, we examine how implementation of fuel breaks might (1) directly alter ecosystems, (2) create edges and edge effects, (3) serve as vectors for wildlife movement and plant invasions, (4) fragment otherwise contiguous sagebrush landscapes, and (5) benefit from scientific investigation intended to disentangle their ecological costs and benefits.

English

Bush fires are increasingly becoming a threat to Guinean ecosystems and their understanding is a big challenge to scientists and environmental managers. Using the FARSITE model (Fire Area Simulator), this paper presents the prediction of the spread and characteristics of bush fires in the savannahs of North-eastern Guinea, specifically in Malea/Siguiri prefecture. Inputs, vegetation and topography dataset from satellite imagery (30 m resolution, Landsat and SRTM respectively) as well as in-situ meteorological data (wind, temperature and humidity) were used. These data obtained from the boundaries of the area of study were prepared using Geographic Information System (GIS). The burning time and the ignition points were fixed while admitting 3 scenarios: spread of fire in a plain without wind; spread on hills without wind effect and spread with wind effect. The results show that, in these savannahs, the intensity of the fire lines can reach 4133,3 KW/m under the effect of winds. Without winds, a decrease of 69% over plains and 68% over hills is noted. The amount of heat released could go up to 38000 KJ/m2 with the wind effect. While, without the wind effect a decrease of 10 and 9% over the plains and hills is observed respectively. Eventually, the speed of propagation reaches 8 m/min (0.5 km/h), but without the wind, it would decrease up to 73  and 61% over plains and hills, respectively. This study could be improved to serve as a decision support tool for the management of ecosystems North-eastern Guinea.   Key words: Fire area, prediction modeling, simulator, ecosystem managers, Guinea.

Simulations of a turbulent line fire with a steady flamelet combustion model coupled with models for non-local and local gas radiation effects

The general objective of this study is to develop accurate combustion and radiation models for large eddy simulations (LES) of well-controlled laboratory-scale turbulent fires. The combustion model features a library of flamelet solutions corresponding to steady, laminar, strained diffusion flames. The radiation model features a classical description of non-local radiation phenomena through the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE). Different treatments of coupled combustion and radiation effects at flamelet scale are considered: a treatment in which local radiation phenomena are neglected inside the flamelet solver; and a treatment in which these phenomena are included inside the flamelet solver and also subgrid-scale turbulence-radiation interactions are included in the RTE solver. This modeling framework is incorporated into the LES solver FireFOAM, developed by FM Global. It is evaluated in simulations of a buoyancy-driven, methane-air, turbulent diffusion flame experimentally characterized by measurements of local temperatures and global flame emissive power. Comparisons between simulated and measured temperatures show significant discrepancies that may be explained by overestimated values of the width of the presumed probability density function representing subgrid-scale variations of mixture fraction. Similar comparisons for the global radiative loss fraction show good agreement provided that local radiation phenomena and turbulence-radiation interactions are included in the model.

The Global Fire Atlas of individual fire size, duration, speed and direction

Abstract. Natural and human-ignited fires affect all major biomes, altering ecosystem structure, biogeochemical cycles and atmospheric composition. Satellite observations provide global data on spatiotemporal patterns of biomass burning and evidence for the rapid changes in global fire activity in response to land management and climate. Satellite imagery also provides detailed information on the daily or sub-daily position of fires that can be used to understand the dynamics of individual fires. The Global Fire Atlas is a new global dataset that tracks the dynamics of individual fires to determine the timing and location of ignitions, fire size and duration, and daily expansion, fire line length, speed, and direction of spread. Here, we present the underlying methodology and Global Fire Atlas results for 2003–2016 derived from daily moderate-resolution (500 m) Collection 6 MCD64A1 burned-area data. The algorithm identified 13.3 million individual fires over the study period, and estimated fire perimeters were in good agreement with independent data for the continental United States. A small number of large fires dominated sparsely populated arid and boreal ecosystems, while burned area in agricultural and other human-dominated landscapes was driven by high ignition densities that resulted in numerous smaller fires. Long-duration fires in boreal regions and natural landscapes in the humid tropics suggest that fire season length exerts a strong control on fire size and total burned area in these areas. In arid ecosystems with low fuel densities, high fire spread rates resulted in large, short-duration fires that quickly consumed available fuels. Importantly, multiday fires contributed the majority of burned area in all biomass burning regions. A first analysis of the largest, longest and fastest fires that occurred around the world revealed coherent regional patterns of extreme fires driven by large-scale climate forcing. Global Fire Atlas data are publicly available through http://www.globalfiredata.org (last access: 9 August 2018) and https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1642, and individual fire information and summary data products provide new information for benchmarking fire models within ecosystem and Earth system models, understanding vegetation–fire feedbacks, improving global emissions estimates, and characterizing the changing role of fire in the Earth system.

Biodegradable polyester thin films and coatings in the line of fire: the time of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)?

From sustainability standpoint, bio-based resins are of crucial importance nowadays rather than fossil-based resins, but the former suffers from low flame retardancy. Bio-based thin films and coatings are in their early stage of development; hence, a long way must be paved to make them resistant against flame/fire. Polylactic acid (PLA)-based biocompatible (timesand some biodegradable) coatings have been in the core of attention, but even among available works one can rarely find a comprehensive report on flame retardancy of PLA thin films and coatings. Attention should also be paid to the fact that first-generation biodegradable polyesters, PLAs, are not fully biodegradable. Moreover, synthesis of PLAs is hooked on crop consumption. On the other hand, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) with more or less similar structure, but different physical properties due to their lower glass transition temperature compared with PLAs, are known as the second-generation of bio-polyester. Overall, we highlight here that PHAs might be a better candidate for thin film manufacturing thanks to their synthesis by microorganism as well as significant variability of their microstructure that provides a wide range of properties, and notably their full biodegradability compared with PLAs. Though mass production of PHAs is not cost-effective these days and their market just entered into the growth phase, we suggest study on flame retardancy of PHA-based resins, thin films, and coatings for near future. This short communication deals with the current status and future ahead of PHA-based flame retardant thin films and coatings.

Designing Operationally Relevant Daily Large Fire Containment Strategies Using Risk Assessment Results

In this study, we aim to advance the optimization of daily large fire containment strategies for ground-based suppression resources by leveraging fire risk assessment results commonly used by fire managers in the western USA. We begin from an existing decision framework that spatially overlays fire risk assessment results with pre-identified potential wildland fire operational delineations (PODs), and then clusters PODs into a response POD (rPOD) using a mixed integer program (MIP) model to minimize expected loss. We improve and expand upon this decision framework through enhanced fire modeling integration and refined analysis of probabilistic and time-sensitive information. Specifically, we expand the set of data inputs to include raster layers of simulated burn probability, flame length probability, fire arrival time, and expected net value change, all calculated using a common set of stochastic weather forecasts and landscape data. Furthermore, we develop a secondary optimization model that, for a given optimal rPOD, dictates the timing of fire line construction activities to ensure completion of containment line prior to fire arrival along specific rPOD edges. The set of management decisions considered includes assignment of PODs to be included in the rPOD, assignment of suppression resources to protect susceptible structures within the rPOD, and assignment of suppression resources to construct fire lines, on specific days, along the perimeter of the rPOD. We explore how fire manager risk preferences regarding firefighter safety affect optimal rPOD characteristics, and use a simple decision tree to display multiple solutions and support rapid assessment of alternatives. We base our test cases on the FSPro simulation of the 2017 Sliderock Fire that burned on the Lolo National Forest in Montana, USA. The overarching goal of this research is to generate operationally relevant decision support that can best balance the benefits and losses from wildfire and the cost from responding to wildfire.

Journalism under fire

An analysis of the duress that was brought to bear on the press in northeastern Mexico during the so-called “War on Drugs,” based on the experience of ten journalists displaced between 2010 and 2015. The text reveals warring armed groups’ fight to control media editorial lines, in addition to messengers’ vulnerable position in the line of fire due to a lack of security protocols their employers might develop, as well as existing connections between public officials and organized crime. In a context where journalists’ murders and disappearances are left unpunished, organizational initiatives designed to compensate for this high professional vulnerability are emerging.