Simulation of fire propagation in homogeneous forests through two-dimensional cellular automata

• Grant number: 15/17325-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2015
• End date: October 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Andriana Susana Lopes de Oliveira Campanharo
• Grantee: Barbara Aires Pereira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IBB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The interest in modeling the forest fire behavior has been the goal of many research groups around the world in the last decades. More specifically, the use of computer simulations has been widely used in the prediction of fire behavior and its spreading in forests under different weather scenarios and under different structural conditions of a forest. In general, a fire spread prediction model takes into account the evolution of the fire over the time as well the wind direction and speed. This research project aims to propose a model of forest fire spread using two-dimensional cellular automata. In the cellular automata simulation technique, the fire spreads over the landscape represented by an equally spaced grid and a set of rules determine the state of each cell. These rules are based on some mathematical models that determine the fire behavior. In order to evaluate the proposed model, we want to estimate the average time of fire propagation under different environmental factors, such as the direction and the wind speed and the intensity of the flame.