Why Cell2Fire is required?

There has been a rapid increase in wildfires over the last few decades. As global warming has affected temperatures, precipitation levels, soil moisture through out the globe we have seen a rapid rise in both the number of and areas burned by wild fires.

Countries such as United States, Canada, Chile, Portugal and Australia have lost critical infrastructure, homes and livelihood for millions of people. Despite a lot of efforts, wildfire still remains a complex problem to simulate.

However from our studies we have narrowed down to two of the most important characteristics of wildfire- a. Rate of Spread. b. Intensity of Spread. both of these are influenced by fuel type, fuel moisture, time of the year, and topographical variables for specified fuel cells.

Previous Models

i.Canadian Forest Fire behavior prediction system (FBP) : It includes empirical fire spread rate model that can be used to predict the rate of spread and intensity of wildfire based on weather, fuel moisture, time of the year etc..

ii.Spatial fire growth model like PROMETHEUS : It is a vector based fire growth simulation model that is based on an adaptation of Huygen’s principal of wave propagation. Meaning that the propagation of the fire front is modelled in a fashion similar to a wave, shifting and moving forward continuously in space and time.

iii.FARSITE : It is based on United States Forest Service’s BEHAVE fire behavior prediction system as well as Huygen’s vector based model.

The two models that best simulate historical fires were FARSITE in the US and PROMETHEUS in Canada.