An integrated decision support system for improving wildfire suppression management

Abstract

Wildfires are expected to increase in number, extent, and severity due to climate change.Hence, it is ever more important to integrate technological developments and scientific knowledgeinto fire management aiming at protecting lives, infrastructure, and the environment. In this paper,a decision support system (DSS) adapted to the Portuguese context and based on multi-sensortechnologies and geographic information system (GIS) functionalities is proposed to leverage opera-tional data, enabling faster and more informed decisions to reduce the impact of wildfires. Here wepresent a flexible and reconfigurable DSS composed of three components: an ArcGIS online featureservice that provides operational data and enables a collaborative environment of users that shareoperational data in near real-time; a mobile client application to interact with the system, enablingthe use of GIS technology and visualization dashboards; and a multi-sensor device that collectsfield data providing value to external services. The design and validation of this system benefittedfrom the feedback of wildfire management specialists and a partnership with an end-user in themunicipality of Mação that also helped establish the system requirements. The validation resultsdemonstrated that a robust system was achieved with fully interoperable components that fulfill thedefined system requirements.