Project Significance

Forest fires in the past have proven to cause major geographical and ecological damage to the nearby areas and wildlife, and most recently this damage has been historical. From 2004-2007, more acres of land were affected by wildfires than any other recorded year in history. This increased land damage in turn has dire effects on the ecological system and human life in the region. More research is needed in the area of preventing and controlling the damage done by these fires, and this project is aimed at providing such helpful research.

The results of this project have been useful in creating a better understanding on the spread of forest fires and how the fire spread can be efficiently contained. We are currently in the process of providing our results to national parks to determine just how much our software can help prevent and control the spread of these fires.

Geographical and Ecological Significance

• The ability to simulate a fire burning in any geographical region
• Determines the most efficient firebreak location to spare as much of a location as possible, in turn sparing the organisms in that region

Computational Science Significance

• Deployment of high performance computing to form data warehouse
• Achieves first real spatially oriented control problems for wildfire

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