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A Multidisciplinary Decision Support System for Forest Fire Crisis Management

DSS for forest fire crisis management

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Abstract

A wildland fire is a serious threat for forest ecosystems in Southern Europe affecting severely and irreversibly regions of significant ecological value as well as human communities. To support decision makers during large-scale forest fire incidents, a multidisciplinary system has been developed that provides rational and quantitative information based on the site-specific circumstances and the possible consequences. The system’s architecture consists of several distinct supplementary modules of near real-time satellite monitoring and fire forecast using an integrated framework of satellite Remote Sensing, GIS, and RDBMS technologies equipped with interactive communication capabilities. The system may handle multiple fire ignitions and support decisions regarding dispatching of utilities, equipment, and personnel that would appropriately attack the fire front. The operational system was developed for the region of Penteli Mountain in Attika, Greece, one of the mountain areas in the country most hit by fires. Starting from a real fire incident in August 2000, a scenario is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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Acknowledgments.

The authors thank three anonymous referees for their invaluable comments and suggestions that improved the content, text, and presentation of this manuscript. This work was partly supported by the Greek Ministry of Development, and was accomplished in collaboration with Greek Fire Corps, the Greek Ministry of Forestry and the Greek Civil Protection Agency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Remote Sensing and Image Processing Team Department of Applied Physics, University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis Build. PHYS-V Athens, GR-157 84, Greece

    Iphigenia Keramitsoglou

  2. School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University, Zogratou Campus GR-15780 Athens, Greece

    Chris T. Kiranoudis & Haralambos Sarimvels

  3. Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens Metaxa & Vas. Pavlou Streets Penteli, GR- 15236, Athens, Greece

    Nicolaos Sifakis

Authors
  1. Iphigenia Keramitsoglou
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  2. Chris T. Kiranoudis
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  3. Haralambos Sarimvels
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  4. Nicolaos Sifakis
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Keramitsoglou, I., Kiranoudis, C., Sarimvels, H. et al. A Multidisciplinary Decision Support System for Forest Fire Crisis Management. Environmental Management 33, 212–225 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-003-0092-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-003-0092-4

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