First steps towards a dynamical model for forest fire behaviour in Argentinian landscapes

We developed a Reaction Diffusion Convection (RDC) model for forest fire propagation coupled to a visualization platform with several functionalities requested by local firefighters. The dynamical model aims to understand the key mechanisms driving fire propagation in the Patagonian region. We’ll show in this work the first tests considering artificial landscapes. Synthetic maps were created and used to test our RDC model, analysing step by step the effect of every landscape characteristic on fire propagation. Simulation results were in agreement with the expected fire behavior in the presence of heterogeneous vegetation, wind and slope gradients. The simulator, developed in CUDA C/OpenGL, integrates several layers including topography, weather, and fuel data. It allows to visualize the fire propagation and also to interact with the user in simulation time. The Fire Weather Index (FWI), extensively used in Argentina to support operative preventive measures for forest fires management, was also coupled to our visualization platform. This additional functionality allows the user to visualize on the landscape the fire risks, that are closely related to FWI, for Northwest Patagonian forests in Argentina. Real land coverage, topography and weather maps were used in order to calculate FWI and fire risk. Those maps were used to feed our simulator to show, in a friendly visual way, the fire risk under different possible scenarios.