Proposal Description

Wildland fires are a challenge in Canada, as in many parts of the world. The Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System is the principal fire intelligence system for all forest fire management agencies in Canada, with components first developed in the 1920s. The system, which includes the Fire Weather Index System, is used by fire managers to assess the risk posed by fires and to decide on what resources to deploy and where. University researchers and government researchers and operational personnel have collaborated on many aspects of wildfire management. This session provides new research results on time series modelling of the fire weather index (Han) and on time series clustering for intermediate-term fire activity forecasting (Snyman). Collaborative efforts between researchers at Canada’s most northerly university, Yukon University, and Yukon Wildland Fire Management (papers by Semple and Johnson) will discuss a new model and give a unique perspective from a northern region. The model being developed is for a computational model to assess the risk of forest fires to communities and assets in the Yukon and other parts of Canada. The session should further knowledge on an extremely important current issue and provide opportunities for collaboration.