An optimization model to prioritize fuel treatments within a landscape fuel break network

Dung Nguyen, Yu Wei, Erin J Belval, Matthew P Thompson, Benjamin M Gannon, Jesse D Young, Christopher D O’Connor and David E Calkin

PLOS ONE, 2024, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-23

Abstract: We present a mixed integer programming model for prioritizing fuel treatments within a landscape fuel break network to maximize protection against wildfires, measured by the total fire size reduction or the sum of Wildland Urban Interface areas avoided from burning. This model uses a large dataset of simulated wildfires in a large landscape to inform fuel break treatment decisions. Its mathematical formulation is concise and computationally efficient, allowing for customization and expansion to address more complex and challenging fuel break management problems in diverse landscapes. We constructed test cases for Southern California of the United States to understand model outcomes across a wide range of fire and fuel management scenarios. Results suggest optimal fuel treatment layouts within the Southern California’s fuel break network responding to various model assumptions, which offer insights for regional fuel break planning. Comparative tests between the proposed optimization model and a rule-based simulation approach indicate that the optimization model can provide significantly better solutions within reasonable solving times, highlighting its potential to support fuel break management and planning decisions.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0313591 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 13591&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0313591

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313591

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().